The Tall Ships Races 2025 anchor into Aberdeen's proud shipbuilding past

This weekend, around 2,000 sailing crew on ships from South America, the Middle East and Europe will guide their vessels into safe harbour after racing from Dunkirk to Aberdeen, where innovative Tall Ship designs were forged and taken to the world.

More than 3000 ships were built in Aberdeen from the early 1800s and the 1990s, with the city’s shipbuilding past now slipping away in a city that went from seapower to the power of oil and gas.

As the sails and rigs come into view from the quayside, it is hoped The Tall Ships Races Aberdeen 2025 will reconnect the North East with its proud shipbuilding history, which was forged by companies such as Aberdeen Line, set up in 1825, and Alexander Hall and Sons.

David Hendry is the lead historian for the Aberdeen Line 200, an organisation which is highlighting the work of the influential company in its bicentennial year.

Mr Hendry said: “The whole ship building era in Aberdeen has slipped into distant memory for many people.

“The last ship was built in the city in the early 1990s - 30 odd years ago - so these people are getting older and the memory of it is disappearing.

“Since shipbuilding, the city has been hugely focussed on oil and gas. The harbour is very much a working harbour and it is not somewhere you go unless you have a direct relationship with it - it is fenced off, it is secure, so for a lot of people that relationship is diminished.

“The Tall Ships is an opportunity in a sense to break down the fences and reconnect the harbour with the majority of the population of Aberdeen and Aberdeenshire.”

Of the 3,000 ships built in Aberdeen, around a tenth of them were large ocean going Clippers.

One of the leading figures of the industry was George Thompson Junior, a former Lord Provost and MP, who founded the Aberdeen Line. Within 10 years, he had a fleet of a dozen ships built in the city with trade and passenger routes opened up with Australia and China as a result.

In the 1840s, Aberdeen changed the way that ships were designed to circumnavigate the taxation of such vessels with the Aberdeen Bow created at Alexander Hall and Co, which cut the volume of a ship that could be liable for duties.

Mr Hendry said: “As ever, people tried to reduce the amount of taxation that they paid.

“The Aberdeen Bow was one of the consequences of that and introduced the sharp, pointy bow that you see on the Clippers.

“As it turned out, this design was very efficient in cutting through water and allowing the ships to go faster.

“A lot of the ships coming into the harbour for the Tall Ships will have this sharp, pointy bow and in a sense they are coming back to Aberdeen to pay homage to that design.

“That particular design of course evolved over time but its starting point was in this city.”

The Clipper ship era was at its height during the 1850s and 1860s and one of the most formidable ships to come out of Aberdeen was the Thermopylae, built in 1868 by Walter Hood & Co.

The Thermopylae was launched at a time of increased competition from steam powered ships. In response, the Clipper owners went on to design even bigger and faster ships with a new composite design combining an iron frame with timber planking.

More efficient sails and rigs were built and much was removed from the deck area, such as cabins, which could disrupt airflow.

“These Clippers had the best crews, the best captains with and were the most well paid in the industry, “Mr Hendry said.

The Thermopylae gained fame for its speed and reliability in the 19th century, particularly in the wool trade to Australia and the tea races from China.

Mr Hendry added: “Thermopylae was particularly suited to the tea trade, putting in excellent performances even in the lightest of winds.”

In 1872, she raced her great rival, the Dumbarton-built Cutty Sark, from Shanghai back to London, taking 115 days and beating her competitor by seven days after the Cutty Sark lost her rudder at sea.

In the Thermopylae’s 11 tea passages over the years, the Clipper completed the journey from China to London in an average of 106.7 days.

Meanwhile, The Cutty Sark averaged a journey time of 117 days over eight China homeward voyages.

“The main purpose of these ships was the transportation of tea. These ships were built to make money, so how do you do that? You move high value goods at the highest volume and as fast as possible.”

Mr Hendry, who is also the chairperson for the Dundee Heritage Trust, which runs theThe RRS Discovery, the the oldest surviving three-masted wooden ship built in the United Kingdom, said the history of Aberdeen’s shipbuilding industry could inspired the city as it faces new challenges as the oil and gas transitions to its end game.

He added: “Aberdeen is facing a time of challenge. If you look at the city’s history, over the past 200 years it has faced challenges and met them.

“It is not just about looking at ships as a piece of nostalgia, but as an inspiration as how our ancestors faced these sea changes.”

The Tall Ships Races Aberdeen 2025 is the centrepiece of a four-day festival held in the city between Friday and Tuesday, July 22.

The ships will arriva after a competitive voyage from Dunkirk and will depart for Kristiansand in Norway, departing in a Parade of Sail on Tuesday.

Before then, a Crew Parade will march from Union Terrace along Schoolhill to Regent Quay, with nearly 2,000 sailors taking part.

More than 200 local young people will be part of the parade after taking to the high seas on one of the Tall Ships racing between either France and Scotland or Scotland and Norway.

On Monday, the Red Arrows will perform a flypast in a 22-minute display just off the Aberdeen shoreline, which is best viewed from the Beach Esplanade.

During the weekend, the quayside will host performances from local artists, ship bands, sea shanties and street performers.

The Quayside Concerts will bring ticketed shows from Deacon Blue, Ministry of Sound Classical and Kaiser Chiefs to an old freight yard on the harbourside.