Spencer, Stanley Sir RA
Shipbuilding on the Clyde: The Riggers
1941-1944
painting
© crown

The picture shows the rigger's loft at Lithgow's yard where ships' cables and tarpaulins were prepared. 'Riggers' was begun in Autumn 1941 but not finished until June 1944. Spencer completed the work in his lodgings at Port Glasgow. Spencer wrote his experiences of the rigger's loft in his diary: 'I was as disinclined to disturb the atmosphere as I would a religious service, even more so as in the religious service it is prescribed that you should not do so whereas here there seemed something in the very work itself that made me feel for the respect and peace.' (Tate Gallery Archive 733.3.34)

image: A representation of a rigging loft, which was where all the ropes and canvases used in shipbuilding were prepared. From left to right; men and women working on (rolling, hand stitching and machine stitching) large tarpaulins; a group of men coiling and tying ropes to required lengths; five men engaged in hand-splicing rope, using long needles and a vice; a man coiling a long rope; a man wearing a heavy jute apron making a loop end; a man wearing a heavy jute apron splicing a rope held by a vice.

IWM Reference: IWM ART LD 4284

Artist's Biographical Information