Greenock's Heritage: the old and the renovated

Stuart Cameron, on March 22, 2009, said:

One of the Clyde's 6 Giant Cantilever cranes - only 4 still survive. The first one (at Beardmore's naval dockyard at Dalmuir further up the Clyde) was built in 1906 by the German Benrather company via its Glasgow based subsidiary, the Parkhead Electric Hoist and Crane Company. Three more Giant Cantilevers were built by the famous structural engineers Sir William Arrol & Co, based at the Dalmarnock Ironworks in Glasgow - they were located at shipbuilders John Brown (Clydebank), Fairfield's (Govan) and the North British Diesel Engine Works (Whiteinch), all on the upper Clyde. This crane was built by Arrol for the Greenock Harbour Trust. The final crane was built by the Carlisle-based firm Cowans Sheldon at Stobcross Quay in Glasgow. The Dalmuir crane was demolished in 1972 and the Fairfield Crane was scrapped in 2007. None of the 4 remaining giant cantilevers on the Clyde are operational. Only about 60 of these giant cranes were ever built worldwide, Arrol's of Glasgow built the majority - in 2009 only about 12-14 remain