UPPER Clyde Shipbuilders had been in the headlines for months. It had gone into liquidation in mid-June, 1971, after John Davies, the Conservatives’ Trade and Industry Secretary, stuck to his previous warning that he had no intention of giving it any further public money. The unions, Opposition MPs and public opinion were outraged. The provost of Clydebank, home of the John Brown yard, said the British Government was trying to do to the town what the Germans had failed to do during the war. Shipyard workers began a work-in as plans were put in place for a reconstruction of UCS.

Ships continued to be turned out by the consortium, such as Tacoma City, a 26,000-ton bulk carrier that was launched in a low-key fashion from the UCS Govan yard on November 5. Among those watching, said the Glasgow Herald, was Kenneth Douglas, the former UCS boss who was now with a new company, Govan Shipbuilders, which was expected to take over UCS assets by the start of the year. A US-Belgian company, Brakesea, was reported to be interested in buying John Brown’s in order to build natural-gas carriers.

As for Tacoma City itself, the Scottish Built Ships website lists its subsequent names – Bougainville, Rosebud, Rosaleen M, Petalouda and Macforce – and records that it was broken up in 1998, at Gadani Beach, in Pakistan.