Online historic talk – Alexander Nicoll Black & Forth Shipbuilding

Join Susan Mills for a historic talk on Alexander Nicoll Black and the Forth Shipbuilding & Engineering Company Ltd. Susan was Clackmannanshire Council’s Museum and Heritage Officer from 1999 to 2017, a Director of Clackmannanshire Heritage Trust and a Trustee of Dollar Museum.

The Forth Shipbuilding & Engineering Company Ltd was established in 1916 and incorporated three existing shipyards – Kelliebank, Forth (formerly Jeffrey’s Yard) and Forthbank. The company built many vessels during the First World War, a record not only for Alloa but for the east of Scotland. It had only fifty employees in 1916, but by 1918 700 people, including fifty women, worked there. The company changed its name in 1921 and had gone into voluntary liquidation by the end of 1927, with all three yards closing shortly afterwards.

The Works Manager for much of this time was Alexander Nicoll Black, who was born in 1888 in Newcastle upon Tyne. He had trained as an engineer and draughtsman and he moved to Alloa in 1916. His younger brother David worked for the company as well. Alexander Black returned with his family to the North East of England in 1923, but while he was in Alloa he was a highly respected and energetic member of staff who kept a meticulous notebook of launching details, plans and ledgers for each of the shipyards, recording full specifications for every ship built in them. This illustrated talk will tell the story of Alexander Black and the shipbuilding company for whom he worked and which made an important contribution to the war effort.