Two Centuries of Shipbuilding by the Scotts at Greenock

Epigraph

“Take it all in all, a ship of the line is the most honourable thing that man, as a gregarious animal, has ever produced.... Into that he has put as much of his human patience, common sense, forethought, experimental philosophy, self-control, habits of order and obedience, thoroughly wrought hand-work, defiance of brute elements, careless courage, careful patriotism, and calm expectation of the judgment of God, as can well be put into a space of 300 feet long by 80 feet broad.”—Ruskin.