Clyde Room
The River Clyde is immensely important in the history of shipbuilding, naval architecture and marine engineering.
Tens of thousands of Glaswegians were involved in building ships ranging from small cargo steamers and ferries to great liners such as the Queen Mary, the Queen Elizabeth and the QE2.
The first commercial steamship sailed down the Clyde in 1812.
At the height of the shipbuilding era, towards the end of the19th century, Clyde shipyards were producing almost a third of all the ships built in the world. The term ‘Clydebuilt’ was synonymous with quality.
The Clyde Room is a stunning collection of some 250 models of ships built on the banks of the Clyde, from Govan to Dumbarton, Port Glasgow and Greenock.
The ill-fated Athenia was built by Fairfield Shipbuilding and Engineering, Glasgow, and launched in 1922. It was the first ship to be sunk by the Germans in WWII.
HMS Hood, last of the great battle cruisers, was built for the Royal Navy at John Brown & Co in Clydebank. This vessel too met a sad fate: it was attacked in the Denmark Strait and sunk by the German warship Bismarck.
The much-loved Waverly was built in Glasgow in 1947. The last sea-going paddle steamer in the world, it continues to provide holiday treats for Glaswegians.
Most of the Museum’s models were made to scale by shipbuilders to illustrate their work to clients, but the Clyde Room also has a display of exquisite models made in British prisons by French prisoners during the Napoleonic Wars.