The Erskine Bridge is something of a landmark in the valley of the Clyde. Once upon a time, long before its construction, the river used to be teeming with all manner of water craft. Indeed, further along towards the city, there used to be so many ships and boats on the river that it was often difficult to see the water. Naturally, the pollution was atrocious, and sightlines limited. Not so, in the early part of the 21st century. Here, I have collated a few photos of ships passing under the Erskine Bridge over the past few years since I started noticing them from my perch up here in the Kilpatrick Braes. I have seen dredgers, cargo ships, tankers, fishers, leisure boats and tugs, and a flotilla of yachts coming up river for the Commonwealth Games (as well as the odd nugget on a jet ski). Though the traffic is a lot thinner than yesteryear, the ships still come from all over, and it's quite amazing to check up on them and their routes (see Live Ships Map, https://www.marinetraffic.com/en/).
The title to this post refers to an old Glaswegian phrase "D'you think ah came up the Clyde in a banana boat?!" This has various interpretations (mostly with racist overtones), but the most believable in my opinion is that Fyffes used to export bananas from Jamaica to Glasgow, and when the bananas arrived they were green, (ripe bananas leaving the West Indies would have gone off by the time it
reached Scotland). The phrase refers then not to the poor galley hands and sailors (who were probably also green after a long crossing), but to the banana itself, the phrase being akin to "Do you think I am as green as I
am cabbage looking?"
No racism, but maybe banana-ism.
There's something remarkable about seeing ships this size stroll into Glasgow along the Clyde. Like watching birds, watching ships gives us an inkling of a larger more expansive world. Naturally, birds are a whole lot more in keeping with a healthy earth (ships have caused some of the most appalling ecological disasters in history), but that doesn't mean I can't watch them and wonder.
The Kilpatrick Braes (near the top of the Loch Humphrey Path), from where all of these photos were taken, is an excellent perch from where you can inhale the movements of the estuary.
thanks for that, was really wondering about the expression i use it in class a lot ,i teach english in spain, and suddenly wondered if i was spouting racist tropes. also lovely to see the river, my old school was v close to the bridge
ReplyDeleteThe reason for the saying is the invented shortage of bananas created by the UK government at the outbreak of war. There was no shortage, they secretly embargoes the import of bananas early in the ‘phoney war’ to telegraph to public that war was real and sacrifices will need to be made. People accepted the shortage as fact. The dockers would most likely have heard rumours that the lack of bananas was contrived, hence the idea of false tales or gullibility being linked to Clyde banana boats.
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