Just to the north of the James Watt Dock lies a small area of windswept land that once was home to the Garvel shipyard of George Brown.

Due to its exposed location the yard was frequently referred to as 'Siberia', but over the years it built a fair selection of coasters, tugs, dredgers and other small vessels until going into liquidation in 1983.

At that time, the buoy tender Wilton was under construction for the Tees & Hartlepool Port Authority and it had to be completed by them as her builder's plaque still testifies.

The Wilton remains in service and Captain Murray Paterson, whose photographs appear in our Clyde Shipping Gazette, recently took the accompanying pictures of the vessel at her base on the River Tees at Middlesbrough, top, and her builders plaque, pictured below right.

On 11 December 1982, Jack Brown, managing directer of George Brown (Marine) Ltd, announced that the yard was in an 'irretrievable situation', after a few days earlier having failed to win an order that possibly could have saved the business.

As a consequence, the yard was being wound down and more than 80 people were likely to lose their jobs if the company could not be sold as a going concern.

It was also announced that George Brown had entered a short-term legal agreement with the Tees & Hartlepool Port Authority which gave the latter control of the yard to complete the Wilton.

The vessel was launched on 16 December 1982 but it was a sombre occasion. The Telegraph headline read: Coldest day for 'Siberia'.

George Brown had been connected with the Garvel yard since 1901 and one of its products played a significant role in an incident during the Second World War.

The vessel was HMS Aubretia, a Flower class corvette launched from the Garvel yard in 1940.

In May 1941, she was escorting a convoy near Greenland which came under German U-boat attack. The Aubretia spied a U-boat periscope and dropped depth charges.

She was part of a further attack with other Navy vessels and the submarine was forced to surface.

The submarine was found to be carrying an Enigma message scrambling machine and codes.

These were retrieved and this enabled the Allies to decipher messages sent by the Germans.

On 24 February 1983, bidders from throughout the UK attended an auction at the Garvel yard.

In access of 400 lots were for sale, ranging from heavy engineering equipment to office furniture.

Poignantly, a last-minute addition was a company time-clock machine which had punched its final card in the closing days of the previous year.