Once a ship had been built and launched she then had to be out-fitted, and then complete sea trials
before being handed over to her new owners, who would look to have that ship at sea, as long as possible to pay for her build costs and of course to make the company good profits.

To this end one company may have had no requirement for a particular ship after a time and would then sell her on just like any other disposable commodity.
Hence a ship may have had a few owners and would go through many changes and names during what was hoped for a long and successful working life.

The next ship on the stocks at the Leith Shipyards of Robb Caledon (Henry Robb) was an order from the local Leith shipping Company of George Gibson Ltd, one of the many shipping companies based in Leith at the time, it's just a pity that more of the local shipping companies did not order ships from the shipyard just across the road so to speak.

This was a very welcome order just the same and it was for a ship to carry Liquid Gas, so she was of a pretty special design and construction to take into account her intended cargo.

Seem to remember that she had 3 huge gas tanks fitted into her hull and those were made by a specialised outside contractor and arrived at the shipyard to be fitted into the hull as she was being built.

She was named as all the Gibson ships were, after names and characters in the Robert Louise Stevenson novels and this one happened to be a castle which featured in the novel Walter Scott by the author, as Borthwick was a castle in the Scottish Borders not far from Edinburgh, where Mary Queen of Scots hid out in while being persuade by her cousin the English Queen of the time Elisabeth 1st of England.

So this is where she got her name from and no she was not named after the shipwright (Stevie) of the same second name as he always maintained, forever mumping his gums about the fact that we were building a ship named after him. (Sorry Steve)

 She operated and was owned by George Gibson Tankers from her launch till she was sold in 1991 and she operated in the Unigas Consortium.

She was then sold on to Peruvian owners to continue plying her trade with cargo's of Butadiene in South American waters until being sold for scrap in 2010 and being run onto the beach along with so many other ships to be broken up at Alang in 2020

Seen here July 2007 off Rosario, Rio Parana, Argentina. At anchor for one month due to severe main engine damage and waiting for spares. (in a picture first seen on the shipsnostalgia website by Dar) 

We try here to give as full an account of her history as time and research permits, if you know of missing info or you have any photographs of her, then please get in touch and we shall update her story as we go along.