[BITList] Fwd: LiveLeak.com - I'm not convinced that was assuccessful a ship launch as they thought it was

[HUGH]

So, Mike -  what was wrong with it, apart from the capsize?

My great great grandmother's husband (he wasn't my gg grandfather) drowned
when the collier Daphne capsized on launch from Stephens Linthouse yard in
Govan, in 1883.

I was watching the launch of a tug from Ferguson's in Port Glasgow, c1960,
from the shelter of a sister tug on the adjacent ways.  All went well until
she was released, when the ways settled a couple of inches with much smoke
and noise. A wee red leader was touching up a bare hull area left behind
when a wooden prop was removed - he departed like lightning. I can still see
his brush attached by the film of red lead and not yet fallen. I was only a
micro second behind him.  The Kort Nozzle kept her from further movement
downward.

And the Scottish Hawk I seem to recall it was whose launch we witnessed from
the Greenock Dockyard around 1955.

We had a grandstand view from Kincaid's DO.  She went down in fine style
then a strong gust caught her and she demolished a light beacon that has
never been replaced.  She had a go at a tug, almost setting it over, before
proceeding up river on her own and grounding on the sandbank opposite
Langbank with my Dad and others aboard.

Hugh.