It seems fitting to include a ship that is still in service. The Woolraad Woltemade was built by Henry Robb’s and at her launch, was one of the most powerful tug boats in the world. Robb’s shipyard shut in 1981, ending centuries of shipbuilding in Leith.

The Fingal was built in Glasgow and served a long career in the service of the Northern Lighthouse Board where she supplied Scotland’s distant and isolated lighthouses, often in horrendous conditions. She has now been converted into an incredible luxury hotel moored in Leith.

Possibly the most famous ship in the world during her 44 year career as the Royal Family’s globetrotting vessel, Britannia was decommissioned in 1997 and is now moored in Leith where almost 400,000 people visit her each year.

Henry Robb’s shipyard built many naval vessels during WWII including this small frigate that initially served to protect Atlantic convoys, before being given to the Free French forces who renamed her La Decouverte. She took part in the Normandy invasion of June 1944 in support of the Canadian 3rd Battalion on Juno Beach.

Lochee was a small cargo vessel built in Leith by Henry Robb’s. It demonstrates just what a varied life a vessel could have. Damaged by a mine in the river Mersey in 1940, she then saw service in the Great Lakes in North America. In 1963 she was sold to Greek owners, before becoming stranded in the Red Sea after an engine breakdown and sank on her moorings in the Suez in 1979.

Henry Robb was perhaps the most significant of the Leith shipbuilders and they built S.S.Gothland in 1932 to trade between Leith and Hamburg. When WWII came, it was commissioned as a rescue vessel. Her ensign now hangs in South Leith Parish Church.

Rumage & Ferguson was a Leith shipbuilder known for producing luxury yachts. The Naz Perwer was built for Egyptian Prince Youssouf Kamal of Egypt who founded the School of Fine Arts in Cairo - so he liked pretty things.

The London & Edinburgh Shipping Co was founded by Leith and Edinburgh merchants in 1809 to service trade between Scotland and England’s capitals, which was previously diverted via Berwick Upon Tweed. They began with smacks, but upgraded to steam ships like the Meteor. The company lasted until 1959.

Sailing vessels like smacks and clippers still competed with steam on cargo and passenger routes late into the 19th Century. The Leith built Matchless traded between Leith and Lerwick until 1882.

The 19th century also heralded the age of steam, and this new technology was soon embraced by the shipbuilding firms of Leith. The Sirius was built in 1837 by Robert Menzies & Sons and became the first steamship to cross the Atlantic.

From the early 19th century, several passenger lines emerged to ferry travellers between Edinburgh and London. The Lord Melville was a ‘smack’, built for The Old London and Leith Shipping Co by Alexander Sime & Co. The journey would have been cramped and incredibly unpleasant, but much faster than travelling across land until the arrival of trains.

Whaling became a major industry in Scotland from the 18th century and The Trial was the first ship sent to Greenland by The Edinburgh Whale Fishing Company in 1750.

The Salisbury was the British Naval vessel upon which James Lind, a doctor from Edinburgh, undertook the world’s first clinical trial. He grouped 12 sailors into pairs and gave each of them a separate diet and observed that those who consumed citrus fruits avoided catching the dreaded scurvy.

Leith was Scotland’s major port for importation of wine and spirits from the continent and several Scots merchants established themselves in Bordeaux, ferrying their wine back on vessels like Jean of Leith.

One of four ships (along with The Endeavour, The St Andrew and The Unicorn) which departed from Leith for Panama as part of the disastrous attempt by Scotland to establish a colony in Central America. The Darien Scheme almost bankrupted the country and ultimately led to the Act of Union with England in 1707.

Prisoners from Scotland were often sentenced to ‘transportation’ to the colonies, and ships from Leith regularly sailed with such unhappy cargoes in horrendous conditions. The ill-named Good Intent made annual trips to Barbados and Virginia for this purpose.

The Job became the first recorded ship from Leith to sail to the Americas, and returned to Leith from Virginia in 1667 with a cargo of 20,500lbs of leaf tobacco: an indication that life was becoming more luxurious up the road in Edinburgh.

Privateers were essentially state-sponsored pirates, attacking French or Flemish ships to disrupt their trade at a time when England and Scotland were at peace. Many were based at Leith at this time and The Lamb was one of the first to receive a privateer licence from the Admiral of Scotland.

The Great Michael was commissioned by King James IV of Scotland as part of his policy of building a great Scottish navy. When built, she was the largest ship afloat: 240 feet long, 36 feet wide and with a crew of 300. Its construction ‘wasted all the woods of Fife’.

This famous ship belonged to King James III, but was captained by Sir Andrew Wood, the Scottish ‘Nelson’ of his time, born and bred in Leith. He was one Scotland’s most daring seafarers and served to help James III in his fight against his son James IV.