AN EXPERT on Clydebank’s shipbuilding heritage has released a new book 'Ships for All Nations’.

Ian Johnston has produced a fine collection of information and images providing a comphrehensive history of John Brown and Company in Clydebank from 1847 to 1971.

Brought up in a shipbuilding family, Ian has had a lifelong interest in the industry.

His other works include Clydebank Battlecruisers and a Shipyard at War, both based on his extensive collection of John Brown and Company.

He told the Post: “The Clydebank shipyard built some of the most famous vessels in maritime history — great transatlantic liners like Lusitania, Queen Mary and QE2, and ironic warships like the battlecruiser Hood, and Britain’s last battleship, HMS Vanguard.

“Starting life as J&G Thomson in 1847, the business acquired its more famous persona when taken over by the Sheffield-based steelmaker John Brown and Co, which enhanced the yard’s existing reputation for turning out first-class ships, both naval and mercantile.

“This book charts the fortunes of the company in terms of its business development, its management and personnel, as well as the great variety of ships it built during the century and a quarter of its existence. It also tells a wider story of the rise to world domination of the British shipbuilding industry and its eventual decline and collapse in the post-war decades, as reflected in the experience of John Brown.” The book is a redeveloped version of a similar one he produced in 2000 — with more photographs. In total, it has 400 images in its 384 pages, and comes in hardback.

The Glasgow author often makes the headlines of newspapers and associations related to shipbuilding due to his extensive knowledge on the history of shipbuilding.

Ships For All Nations (hardcover) is available via www.amazon.co.uk priced at £40.