By the 1850s, it was owned by Swan and Co, and in 1857, the very first of the legendary Clyde Puffers, which plied their trade up and down the west coast of Scotland and were made famous by Neil Munro's Para Handy books, was built here.
In the 1940s, landing craft for the D-Day Normandy Landings were built here. The boat yard finaly closed in the 1960s.