River Clyde Photography: Gloria

Wednesday 13 July 2011

Gloria

The Gloria is the official flagship and sail-training ship of the Colombian Navy, and her home port is Cartagena.
Purpose-built in 1968 as a sail-training ship in the Celeya shipyard in Spain, the Gloria is over 56 meters (257ft) long - one of the biggest tall ships still afloat. She is steel-hulled, but there is plenty of polished wood and brass and her four masts and 23 sails give her an appearance of being even older than she is (every step on the ship has the name Gloria embedded in the solid brass escutcheon scuff-plates). Her figurehead, coated in glittering gold-leaf, is called Maria Salud, reputedly after the sculptor's daughter.

1 comment:

Mighty Meadow said...: The Gloria was the highlight of the Tall Ships at Greenock for me. Very well captured in these great photos.; 13 July 2011 at 23:28

River Clyde Photography

Over half of Scotland’s population lives within a short distance of the River Clyde, from its humble beginnings in South Lanarkshire where it is created by two streams the Patrail Water and the Daer Water, the two streams meet at Watermeetings where the River Clyde starts.

It’s not long before it reaches picturesque Lanark and its famous waterfalls. It eventually finds its way to Glasgow who’s citizens in the 18^th century narrowed and deepened and ultimately industrialised the river making it one of the most famous shipbuilding rivers in the world, Glasgow did indeed make the Clyde and of course the Clyde made Glasgow, at its peak the Clyde shipyards built a fifth of the worlds ships.

During the 2^nd world war Winston Churchill said that “Liverpool and Glasgow were the lungs in which the country breathed through”. Ship building along with heavy industry is all but dead on the Clyde, the majority of our industrial heritage was swept away in the 70s and 80s leaving few traces of the rivers famous past.

Leaving Glasgow, the Clyde broadens as you pass the towns of Dumbarton, Port Glasgow and Greenock, who all played a part in making the Clyde famous through shipbuilding.

At the Tail of the Bank the river broadens once more and becomes the firth with its many sea lochs coastal towns and villages.

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