FEW photographs better illustrate how Greenock’s waterfront started to change in the second half of the last century than the one featured today.

Older readers brought up in the town may recognise the view but for the benefit of others it is of the Albert Harbour which was to be filled in for the construction of the container terminal, now known as Greenock Ocean Terminal.

Aside from including vessels of the former Caledonian Steam Packet Company tied up for winter, the picture is of considerable significance to our industrial heritage.

Taken in February 1958, it shows the last cargo of bagged raw sugar to be discharged at Greenock.

Former Telegraph colleague Robin Wilson has carried out considerable research into the local sugar industry and the ships connected with the trade.

He told me the vessel being unloaded at the harbour’s deepwater berth was the Yugoslavian-registered Bosna which arrived from Mauritius.

It was believed, Robin added, that the last cargo of bagged raw sugar was also the largest ever brought to Greenock.

The two lorries being loaded with the bags were operated by Greenock haulage contractors McIntyre Ltd. Donald McIntyre started carrying raw sugar from the docks to the refineries by horse and cart.

Later taken over by Tate & Lyle, McIntyre’s became better known locally for its garage which sold Vauxhall cars and Bedford commercial vehicles. Its Port Glasgow Road premises now house an Arnold Clark dealership which continues the McIntyre link by selling Vauxhalls.

Returning to the photograph, why this was the last bagged cargo was due to the opening of a bulk handling facility at the James Watt Dock, where bags had also been previously discharged.

Manual discharging involved the bags being lowered by slings onto the quay then trundled to the weighers and checkers before being loaded onto lorries.

The late Provost Jimmy Boyd, who worked at the Westburn refinery, gave talks on the industry to a wide variety of groups over the years, mentioning that the change resulted in 50 female employees of Boag’s, the bag makers, losing their jobs.

They had been solely involved in cleaning the bags for re-use.

In June 1992, the Fidelity was the last vessel to discharge bulk sugar at the James Watt Dock.

Thereafter, cargoes were unloaded at the Ocean Terminal where a new storage facility was built.

The closure of Walkers in 1979 left the Westburn as Greenock’s only refinery.

Tate & Lyle shut the Westburn in August 1997, thus ending an industry which brought prosperity to Greenock and employed many generations of workers.

Two months earlier the Carola 1 was the last sugar ship to call at Greenock.

Those who witnessed her leaving did so with a heavy heart.