Faslane #2 - Military Port No. 1

Photo credit Wikipedia

In 1940, the Port of London was being pounded by the Luftwaffe during the Blitz. The port which handled almost half of Britain's trade was soon down to only 25% of its operating capacity. Slightly less vulnerable ports on the west coast (Liverpool, Glasgow) managed to relieve some of the pressure but we'd be horribly vulnerable if they came under the same sort of attack as London. 

At the height of the Blitz in September 1940, an operation described as the partial removal of the Port of London to the Clyde was mounted: the so called 'Clyde Anchorages Emergency Port' involved 500 dockers and their families being sent north along with cranes, trucks and 300 barges (which due to the risks of moving them by sea had to be sent by road!) to unload cargo ships anchored off Gourock. But as useful as this was (read more about it here), what was also urgently required was more wharfage for ships to get alongside; new ports, in other words.

Ships Lying in the Clyde Anchorage Emergency Port by A J W Burgess - picture credit Art.Salon

An added problem was increased shipment of military material for which commercial ports were not ideally suited. The solution devised, therefore, was the construction of two new military ports to allow the existing ports to concentrate on commercial traffic. A committee was appointed to look for suitable sites on the west coast of Scotland ticking the following boxes: separate sites from existing ports (due to the difficulties of integrating military and civilian labour, apparently, rather than spreading eggs amongst different baskets); deep water for the largest of ocean going ships and offshore anchorage for ditto awaiting berths; railway access was a given but 'special regard' was also to be had to road access - an interesting reflection of how, in the 1940s, road transport was on the point of overtaking rail in importance. There also needed to be space for extensive railway sidings and marshalling yards; and finally, a place where all that could be achieved in the shortest possible time. Two sites were eventually chosen: Cairnryan near Stranraer on Loch Ryan and Faslane Bay on the Gareloch. 

Ordnance Survey 6 inch map, 1860

Being now so completely overwhelmed by the naval base, it's hard to imagine what Faslane Bay must have looked like in its 'virgin' state before the War. Here's an account of it in the 1890s from a book called Annals of Garelochside by W. C. Maughan (here). In the course of a walk down the east side of the loch from Garelochhead:-

Faslane Bay is soon reached, and here the sides of the loch are well wooded, with grassy slopes leading up to the heather hills above, and handsome villas are seen gleaming amidst their surrounding plantations. Faslane House is a little way back from the middle of the bay, the former residence of the MacAulays [of Ardencaple] … . A good way down from the house, near the shore, there stands the old oak tree, under whose boughs, according to tradition, the crowing of a cock presaged the death of a MacAulay. The name of the spot Cnoch-na-Cullah, or "Knoll of the Cock" seems appropriate to the legend. An irregular pile Faslane [House] is, the front having been built 1863, the portion behind about 1745, and a still older small structure in the rear. There is a rolling stream, with many a dark eddying pool, and foaming cascade, which runs past the house into the peaceful bay. In former years the Colquhouns of Luss lived at Faslane, for a short time in summer, as a sort of marine residence, occupying the older part of the mansion. … Crossing the burn at the back of Faslane House, the old burying place, round the picturesque ruins of the ancient chapel, is seen on the slope of the field, a sequestered and beautiful spot, with oak and ash trees throwing their shade over the mouldering walls, all mantled with wallflower and creepers, and the upper end of the enclosure is rank with long grass. An ash tree of some size has long grown within the crumbling walls, and spread its great boughs over the ruins, while the roofless structure offers free entrance to wintry gales and summer zephyrs alike, with rushing wailing sound.

Returning to Faslane Bay, the house known as Belmore appears in the midst of a flourishing plantation, near the road. ... [It] was acquired in 1856 by Mr, M'Donald, who remodelled the mansion, giving it the handsome appearance which it now has. In those days the loch side presented a wild scene of nature — whins, sloes, wild roses, and the indigenous copse woods and shrubs of the district, abounded on the hillside, with a few older trees and belts of plantations on the farms.

Looking north towards Faslane Bay. This spot is covered by the south end of the naval base today

Further north almost at the head of the bay. This is all now covered by the naval base. Photo by kind permission of Graeme Lappin

North end of Faslane Bay in 1894 at the north end of what's now the naval base. These houses are all gone. Image courtesy of University of St Andrews Libraries and Museums

Faslane Farmhouse just visible through the trees in 1894. At first sight, it appears to be roofless but I don't think it is. Image courtesy of University of St Andrews Libraries and Museums Another picture of the house here

Into this rural idyll, the Second World War and its demand for military ports interrupted very rudely indeed. None of the sites the committee had surveyed ticked all the boxes and compromises had had to be made. Faslane was lacking in flat ground for the railway sidings and marshalling yards so when work began in December 1940 this had to be created by levelling the hillside behind the bay and dumping the excavated material in the sea to reclaim land - thus was Faslane Farmhouse swept away.

You can read detailed accounts of the technical engineering aspects of the construction of the military ports here and here (scroll to page 14) but here are some of the highlights of Faslane or 'Military Port No. 1' as it became known. 

It was built by a squad of about 2,000 soldiers of the Royal Engineers working 24/7 and housed at the nearby Shandon Hydro Hotel, not just in the hotel itself but also in Nissen Huts in its grounds: when the port first started to be used in May 1942 (although it wasn't yet complete at that time), the onsite labour force grew to 4,000 necessitating additional camps.

1852 Admiralty Chart - National Libraries of Scotland

Although the Gare Loch is deep, it's relatively shallow at its entrance between Rhu Point and Rosneath so it was dredged to 30 feet deep over a width of 400 feet: the dredged material was also used for the land reclamation to create the railway sidings. On that subject, the West Highland Railway to Fort William passed Faslane Bay but at about 200 feet above sea level so a branch line was built from a point about 2.75 miles south to descend gently to the port. 

In connection with laying the branch line, a gnarled old tree near the shore had to be removed. The Commanding Officer of the works was approached by an elderly farmer who warned him that local tradition had it that felling the tree would presage three deaths - I wonder if this was a variant on the legend narrated in Annals of Garelochside quoted above that a cock crowing under a certain old oak tree by the shore of Faslane Bay presaged the death of a MacAulay? Anyhow, the tree was felled and the CO recorded that an officer on the work mysteriously died shortly thereafter. So did his replacement. The next replacement was spared by being sent to the work at Cairnryan, however - and none of these people was called MacAulay!

Incidentally, the first officer who died allegedly due to felling that tree was Sir Keith Nuttall of the engineering firm which still exists today called BAM Nuttall. And while we're on household names involved in the military port at Faslane, it was designed by Sir William Halcrow of the firm of consulting engineers latterly known as Halcrow Group.

In the course of driving piles for the wharves, one pile encountered an obstruction under the seabed. Investigation revealed this to be the wreck of a sailing ship called the Falcon carrying coal from Glasgow which had gone on fire at this spot in 1876. The wreck had to be dug out but the coal salvaged was able to be used to power the shunting locomotives at the port.

When it was completed in December 1942, two years after work started, Military Port No. 1, boasted a wharf with six berths with 30 feet depth at low tide for ocean going ships of up to 500 feet long. North of that was a shallower (9 feet) wharf for lighters loading ships at anchor in the bay. Both wharves were equipped with cranes, mostly brought (by road dismantled) from other ports put out of action by the enemy. Some came from the Port of London and Southampton Docks, the latter of which had been closed and was being decommissioned to deny it to the Germans in the event of the anticipated invasion: its cranes were on the point of being destroyed when it was realised they could be used at the military ports. 

There were also two 'M.T. Ferry Berths'. M.T. in this context stands for Mechanical Transport and seems to have been the military term for anything with an internal combustion engine: I think the expression was coined when this was a relative novelty compared with the hitherto normal modes of transport, namely, steam and horse. All we're told about these berths is that 'M.T.' could be taken from them on pontoons to the side of a ship for loading. Taking lorries to Allied invasions overseas was very much something envisaged for the military ports so maybe these 'M.T. Ferry Berths' were to allow them to be loaded without getting in the way of the railway wagons etc. on the wharves themselves. Finally, there was a berth for a 150 ton floating crane which had, despite the risks, been towed round from Southampton. And although the gnarled oak tree and Faslane House didn't survive the construction of the military port, the house called Belmore mentioned in the quote from Annals of Garelochside did -  it was the CO's HQ during construction and then became the port offices once it was in commission.

Looking south along the deep water wharf: photo credit Media Storehouse

You can see the 'before and after' of Military Port No. 1 at Faslane using the National Libraries of Scotland's Geo-referenced Map Viewer. Use the "Change transparency of overlay" slider at bottom left (highlighted in red on the image below) to reveal the Ordnance Survey 6 inch map of the bay before the military port was built. Then go to the 'Background map' dialogue box at the top (ditto), select 'ESRI/OSM/LIDAR' in the top dropdown menu and select 'ESRI World Imagery' (or Google Satellite) in the lower one and you can reveal what it looks like today with the naval base there now.

In use, the military ports - which were operated as well as constructed by the military - proved invaluable in the dispatch of material for the invasion of North Africa in October 1942 (even though they hadn't been fully completed by then) and then the D-Day Landings in June 1944. The ports also assisted the latter indirectly in that skills acquired in their construction were transferred to the conception of the portable Mulberry Harbours (the CO at the construction of Faslane, Brigadier Sir Bruce White, was instrumental in their design) and the recovery of French ports destroyed by the retreating Germans. 

Britain itself not being a theatre of war during WW2 after the threat of invasion in 1940 had receded, it was really for the export of military materials in connection with operations such as the invasions of Africa and Europe, rather than imports, that the military ports were conceived. This was reflected in elements of the design: for example the branch line down to Faslane was at a slightly steeper gradient than was normal, it being assumed that trains climbing it would normally be hauling empty wagons. 

It's important to understand as well that the military ports weren't naval bases as Faslane is today. That said, they were occasionally visited by Royal Ships, for example the battleship HMS Malaya took advantage of the 150 ton floating crane to have her 90 ton guns changed.

And it's a signal fact that neither of the military ports was ever attacked by the Luftwaffe. Obviously, the secret of their construction never got out and back to Berlin!

The lighterage wharf looking north: photo credit Media Storehouse