Page 44 - John Francis Ryan

The port of Greenock suffered badly during the Second World War and its anchorage at the Tail of
the Bank became the base for the British Navy’s Home Fleet as well as the main assembly point
for Atlantic convoys. The Tail of the Bank (in the picture below) is the name given to the
anchorage in the upper Firth of Clyde immediately North West of Greenock. This area of the Firth
gets its name from the deep water immediately to the west of the sandbar which marks the
entrance to the Estuary of the River Clyde. At its entrance the Firth is some 26 miles wide, its
upper reaches include an area where it is joined by Loch Long and the Gare Loch.