David MacGregor Collection

David MacGregor (1925 – 2003) was a maritime historian and researcher who published several books on deep-sea sailing ships and tea clippers. He dedicated his life to gathering details of 19th-century sailing vessels and researching their design and construction. He spent uncountable hours tracing ship plans in the archive of the National Maritime Museum or taking measurements off ship models in the Science Museum. He also ranged further afield and was able to find material in some of the working shipyards (notably Alexander Stephens & Sons on the Clyde), and from James Henderson who drew the plans of the clippers built at Aberdeen.

Known for his meticulous preparation of drawings and obsession with getting details right, MacGregor was recognised for his research which managed to capture details of vessels that would otherwise have been lost after the closure of most major shipyards in the 1970s. He created a business selling ship plans to model builders and his collection of ca. 7,000 plans has been preserved and digitised. More details on plans and how to acquire copies can be found by clicking the link at the bottom of this page.

The David MacGregor collection further contains a vast research archive with details of thousands of vessels, around 30,000 historic photographs and photographic postcards, maritime photograph albums, original logs and account books, ship models, maritime art, newspaper cuttings covering maritime topics, and an archive of correspondence with researchers, academics, historians, and mariners from around the world.

The David MacGregor Library at the Brunel Institute was founded with MacGregor’s collection of ca. 6,000 maritime books and periodicals. The museum has since expanded the library collection, but its strength remains the high quality of publications on shipbuilding and ship design in the 19th century.