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I was educated in Newcastle-Upon-Tyne, at the local Uni. Graduated in '95 as a Naval Architect. Back then, Swan Hunters shipyard were still making some Navy vessels.
Twenty-one years down the line, British shipbuilding is a mere shadow of what they and all other national yards used to be in the middle of the last century.
Would I love to see a large, modern commercial ship being designed and constructed in Wales, England or Scotland nowadays? Absolutely yes. Is it practically and for the short coming time-frame this realistically possible? No.
Would I mind if tomorrow British Shipbuilders attempted the start of a revival with a first venture in (say) India? No. It could well be that in 20-30 years from now the cream of shipbuilding is back to the industrial European (or British, if you prefer) north.
Nobody can dispute the quality of craftsmanship and works produced on anything relating to steel that used to come out of Sheffield. But the industry changed. The sons and grandsons of those tremendously skilled British honemeisters who were at W&B are now perhaps working in finance or I.T.
Now an entrepreneur comes and says "Hold on, let's take a look on how we can revive the brand with full respect toward its history, and do that as good as we can. Perhaps manufacturing in the RSA is the first step. Who knows what the next step would be..."
This is how I look at it. Mike is straight and open about the venture, and at the end of the day time will tell if the whole idea was successfully viable from a number of different perspectives.
Twenty-one years down the line, British shipbuilding is a mere shadow of what they and all other national yards used to be in the middle of the last century.
Would I love to see a large, modern commercial ship being designed and constructed in Wales, England or Scotland nowadays? Absolutely yes. Is it practically and for the short coming time-frame this realistically possible? No.
Would I mind if tomorrow British Shipbuilders attempted the start of a revival with a first venture in (say) India? No. It could well be that in 20-30 years from now the cream of shipbuilding is back to the industrial European (or British, if you prefer) north.
Nobody can dispute the quality of craftsmanship and works produced on anything relating to steel that used to come out of Sheffield. But the industry changed. The sons and grandsons of those tremendously skilled British honemeisters who were at W&B are now perhaps working in finance or I.T.
Now an entrepreneur comes and says "Hold on, let's take a look on how we can revive the brand with full respect toward its history, and do that as good as we can. Perhaps manufacturing in the RSA is the first step. Who knows what the next step would be..."
This is how I look at it. Mike is straight and open about the venture, and at the end of the day time will tell if the whole idea was successfully viable from a number of different perspectives.