The Paddle Steamer Preservation Society - Scottish Branch

A Victorian Waverley

2012-02-09T22:33:00.003Z

The following video was recorded in June 2006 during Ilfracombe Victorian Week which takes place each year to celebrate lfracombe's bygone days. Visitors and locals will take part by dressing up in victorian costumes and parade at many venues throughout the week including of course Waverley. This particular video was recorded by Jon Davies, brother of Captain Luke Davies who was in command on the occasion when this video was taken. Jon has captured the atmosphere of the event and his video is well worth a look.

Paul Semple

Civic Reception

2011-12-17T23:25:00.000Z

On Wednesday 13th December a Civic Reception was held in Glasgow City Chambers by the Lord Provost to recognise the importance of PS Waverley to Glasgow. Officers from PS Waverley & HMS Defender along with Directors from Waverley Excursions & Waverley Steam Navigation Company attended the reception. HMS Defender is one of the six Type 45 destroyers built on the Clyde and is officially affiliated with PS Waverley. Others present at the reception included politicians, major Waverley supporters and personnel from the tourism and heritage sectors. Below are some photos taken by Neil Warbrick.

The Lord Provost of Glasgow, Bob Winter and Chairman of WSN, Nick James.

Waverley's officers who attended the Civic Reception. Left to right, Chief Officer David Howie, Chief Engineer James Jardine, Senior Master Andy O'Brian, Chief Engineer Ken Henderson, Purser Simon Morgan & 2nd Mate John Simm.

Waverley's officers with officers from HMS Defender.

Paul Semple

Festive Cruise

2011-12-05T00:37:00.001Z

Once again the Scottish Branch of the Paddle Steamer Preservation Society is organising a festive cruise on M.V. Cruiser from Greenock to Loch Goil with a call at Blairmore. There is also the option of enjoying a buffet lunch on board. The cruise is on Tuesday 27th December. M.V. Cruiser is scheduled to depart from Victoria Harbour, Greenock at 11a.m. and should return by about 3.30pm. Tickets are still available and the form for booking tickets can be downloaded by clicking the image below.

The Scottish Branch looks forward to welcoming you aboard for what is usually a very enjoyable and sociable event.

Scottish Branch Committee.

Winter Volunteers

2011-11-26T20:34:00.000Z

Once again Waverley Excursions are asking for volunteers to assist with the winter overhaul work which is on-going on Waverley at her berth at the Science Centre in Glasgow.

Volunteers are asked to contact Waverley Excursions either by calling 0845 130 4647 or by e-mailing Waverley's chief engineer Ken Henderson at ken@waverleyexcursions.co.uk for more information. In particular volunteers who are skilled, trade or ex trade are required to assist on board weekdays 8am until 4pm. Saturday winter work parties will get underway in January.

Scottish Branch Committee

Captain Clark Represents the Merchant Navy at the RBL Festival of Remembrance

2011-11-12T18:07:00.001Z

Waverley Excursions Master, Captain Ian Clark (Lt Cmr Clark RNR) will represent the Merchant Navy at the annual Royal British Legion Festival of Remembrance in the Royal Albert Hall this evening.

The Festival of Remembrance will be televised on BBC1 / BBC1HD at 21:15

Generous Donation to Waverley Appeal Secures 2012 Sailings

2011-11-12T17:58:00.003Z

Mrs Chris Weir of Largs, Ayrshire, who had a major win on the Euromillions lottery in July 2011 with her husband Colin, has made a donation to the current Waverley appeal which will secure the paddler's return to service in 2012, the bicentenery of the PS Comet, the first Clyde steamer and the first commecial steamship in Europe. The Scottish Branch of the PSPS would like to express our sincere thanks to Mr & Mrs Weir for their generosity. It is also a good opportunity to thank all others, individuals and organisations, that have supported the Appeal.

Report on BBC Scotland online

National AGM

2011-11-06T14:22:00.000Z

The Twenty-fourth Annual General Meeting of the PaddleSteamer Preservation Society will be held on board P.S. Maid of the Loch mooredat Balloch Pier on Saturday 19^th November at 2 p.m.

The Scottish Branch has arranged an optional lunch aboardthe Maid prior to the meeting. The flyer for this was posted out with theAutumn issue of Paddle Wheels. There are still a few places left so if anyonewould still like to attend the lunch please use the flyer to book tickets. Byclicking the image below a copy of the flyer can be downloaded.

In addition the steam engine will be operating in theBalloch winch house from 11 a.m. and this is well worth a visit. Following themeeting there will be a short audio visual presentation (time permitting) andall events should be finished by approximately 4 p.m.

The Scottish Branch and the Loch Lomond Steamship Companylook forward to welcoming everyone to Balloch.

Scottish Branch Committee

2011 Season Finale

2011-10-19T12:33:00.001+01:00

After completion of her Thames season it was the early hoursof Monday 10^th October when Waverley made her way down the Thames Estuaryto begin her journey home. Her journey to Weymouth provided lively conditions andat a reduced speed, due to sea conditions, it took until the Tuesday morning toreach Weymouth. She refuelled at Weymouth and lay alongside for most of the daywaiting for the conditions to ease. After departing Weymouth Waverley sailed directlyto Glasgow arriving early afternoon on Thursday 13^th allowing hercrew some rest before undertaking the final sailings on the Clyde for 2011.

Heading up river early afteroon on Thursday 13th October.
(Photo by Dr Joe McKendrick)

On Friday 14^th an evening charter had been arrangedand this provided well over 700 passengers for a cruise down the Clyde turningat the Tail of the Bank. On Saturday the steamer sailed to the head of LochLong to Arrochar where she turned off the former Admiralty pier before headingback Blairmore. On Saturday the weather was not so kind but over 500 werecarried despite the wet conditions.

The following video was taken as the ship departed from Helensburghfor the last time in 2011. Note Captain Clark waving from the bridge!

http://youtu.be/LTXg1ydN9H4

Sunday promised to be the best day of the weekend weather wise and after the overnight rain cleared the day promised to be a success.

Sunday 16th just before boarding.
(Gary Stevenson)

By the time boarding had started at 9.30am a queue hadformed along the Quay. Shortly after 10am Waverley was turned with the help ofthe tug and proceeded “doon the watter” with over 500 onboard including manysupporters who had travelled far and wide to be there for what was a day toremember.

Greenock provided a further 200 passengers which on departurefrom the Custom House meant that over 700 were aboard. The following link showsa video taken of both arrivals and departures from Greenock on Sunday.

http://vimeo.com/30668562

As suspected by the time Waverley reached Largs a good crowdwere waiting, unfortunately not all would be lucky enough to get aboard.

The queue at Largs as Waverley berthed, down the pier and onto the street!
(Gary Stevenson)

Those with pre-booked tickets were allowed to board leavingjust 20 further spaces for non-ticket holders. With an apology and thanks tothose unable to sail Waverley departed Largs with 860 passengers, the limit ofher class IV passenger certificate.

On passage to Rothesay two sea-king helicopters flewoverhead.

On passage to Rothesay.
(Gary Stevenson)

Waverleyarrived at Tighnabruaich at just before 3pm, the scheduled departure time! HoweverCaptain Clark altered the departure time to 3.30pm to give the full 30 minutesashore. At 3.30pm prompt she departed with three long blasts on the whistle andso the homeward journey had begun.

At Tighnabruaich.
(Charles McCrossan)

Bythe time she reached Greenock day light was failing and on departure fromGreenock Waverley’s speed was increased until she was flat out. By Dumbartonshe was at full speed and with the engine running at 58rpm she certainly waskeen to get home for a well earned winter rest. Unusually the tug was waitingto allow her to be turned before berthing port side to the Quay for winterlay-up. As the gangways were put out the passengers provided an applause inrecognition of the efforts of the crew. Indeed two of the final passengers toleave had only stepped aboard Waverley for the first time on the Sunday morningand it was them who were the last to say thanks to the crew for a great day outadding that they would definitely return.

So as thoughts turn to the winter months ahead, the winter maintenanceand the sheer hard work required to keep our paddler in pristine operationalcondition sincere thanks are due to all those for whom this has been a testingseason. The ship’s crew, the office staff and the directors of both WaverleyExcursions & Waverley Steam Navigational Company as well as the many volunteersthey all deserve a massive thank you, not forgetting the passengers for it isthem that also guarantee that the ship keeps sailing.

The Waverley appeal remains open and further funds willstill be needed to ensure that Waverley operates a 2012 season so if you candonate please do so, full details on the website at www.waverleyexcursions.co.uk

Final fan boards. Timetable sugguestions!
(Charles McCrossan)

Paul Semple

Waverley on Primetime Slot

2011-09-02T01:09:00.001+01:00

On Monday 29th August, during her final Clyde sailing of the main summer season, Waverley carried a BBC film crew and presenter from The One Show. On Wednesday 31st she was given a slot on The One Show. The full program is now available to view on BBC iplayer. Click the link below to take you to the full programme. The section on Waverley is 10 minutes into the show. Normally The One Show is watched by over 5 million viewers, which is about the same number of passengers that have sailed on her during her preservation years!

http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b0144tp1/The_One_Show_31_08_2011/

P Semple

Waverley wins 65th IMechE Engineering Heritage Award

2011-08-14T09:10:00.005+01:00

Professor Pollock, President Elect of the IMechE presents the plaque to Chief Engineer Ken Henderson aboard Waverley.
(Photo: Neil Warbrick)

On Sunday 14th August 2011, paddle steamer Waverley, in her 65th year as a Clyde excursion steamer, was presented with the 65th IMechE Engineering Heritage Award by Professor Isobel Pollock, President Elect of the Institution of Mechanical Engineers.

The Engineering Heritage Award was established in 1984 to celebrate excellence in mechanical engineering. The unique strengths of the Award enable both the Institution and the mechanical engineering profession to benefit through increasing public awareness of engineering, past and present.

The Award recognises artefacts, locations, collections and landmarks of significant mechanical engineering importance, many of which have been previously recognised under the Engineering Heritage Hallmark Scheme.

To qualify for an Award, the artefact/location/collection/landmark submitted for consideration must demonstrate at least one of the following criteria:

A unique feature eg first of a kind, oldest in existence or only surviving example
Industrial innovation
A facet of mechanical engineering, or associated with a person or event, which has made a significant contribution to society and/or mechanical engineering

Details of the award to Waverley can be read in full on the IMechE website at:

http://www.imeche.org/news/archives/11-08-12/World_s_last_seagoing_paddle_steamer_wins_top_engineering_award.aspx

Other projects that have received the IMechE Engineering Heritage Award are described in the following online / download PDF booklet

Recognising Engineering Excellence: Past, Present and Future

Press Reports

Herald Report

Evening Times Report

Stuart Cameron

DS Unterwalden-Back in Service

2011-08-06T01:43:00.018+01:00

Approaching Vitznau on Swiss National Day (1st August 2011)

The Lake Lucerne paddle steamer Unterwalden returned toservice in May this year after an overhaul lasting over 30 months andcosting more than 10 million Swiss francs (£8 million).

Unterwalden was built by the renowned Swiss company EscherWyss and entered service on 18^th May 1902. Since then she has had 4general overhauls, including a period from 1978 to 1985 when she was out ofservice. Substantial rebuilding in 1961 allowed her to sail under the then newAcheregg motorway bridge. Her appearance after that overhaul was less inkeeping with her original build and this recent overhaul has ensured that shelooks more like she appeared in 1902 while incorporating the latest technology. The masts, funnel and wheelhouse canstill be lowered to allow her to reach Alpnachstad, she is the only paddlerable to do this. The outside steering stand and tent structure on the upperforedeck have been remodelled and the Stubli has been created once again underthe wheelhouse. The restoration of the First Class saloon is of the highest standardcomplete with hand-painted ceiling decorations.

This year during the peak season Unterwalden is on the 1045 departurefrom Lucerne to Alpnachstad, she is then on the 1400 Lucerne to Kussnacht andalso the 1545 Lucerne to Stansstad. This gives her a slightly different rosterfrom that which she operated prior to her recent overhaul. She is also beingused on the sunset cruises (the 1912 to Vitznau) on a Tuesday and Wednesdaythrough July and August. Previously these cruises had been operated by Uriduring the peak season. It is thought from next year the daily sunset cruisewill be operated by a paddle steamer everyday in the peak season. I cancertainly recommend any sailing on Lake Lucerne by a paddler but dining in theFirst Class saloon aboard Unterwalden while experiencing a sunset is a memorywhich will last a lifetime.

The following pictures should give some idea of the standardof the work which has been carried out on Unterwalden and her current appearance. Reference can be made to the blog given onthis site dated 29^th December 2010.

One of the orginal boiler plates

Steam Engine

Upper Foredeck

Stubli

Upper deck looking aft

First Class Saloon looking forward
(Note the wood carving and ceiling)

Note the attention to detail in the wood carving, chairs and ceiling in the First Class Saloon

Lower deck looking forward

Pursers' Office

On route to Brunnen for the fireworks to mark Swiss National Day

Paul Semple

Chairman's Blog No 15 - An Opportunity to Say A Heartfelt Thanks.

2011-07-27T11:55:00.001+01:00

Scottish Branch Hospitality Event - Waverley - Sunday 7th August

I think it is fair to say that all parties are not joking when they say that this season is "Make or Break" for Waverley and Balmoral - but when looking from the outside in it is not immediately apparent how much volunteer work goes on behind the scenes by PSPS members (and non-members as well of course!) to keep our ships sailing - through thick and thin. Just being able to sail on the ships during the season is reward enough for our willing band of volunteers but it is nice to be able to offer our thanks in a small way when we can.
The Scottish Branch will be holding their annual Hospitality Event on board ps Waverley as she sails to Tarbert, Loch Fyne on the above date. This event is our way of saying thanks to our ever loyal members for their ongoing support of Waverley and the PSPS in general.
Arrangements have still to be finalised but we hope to include a Welcome presentation by our Branch Chairman (me!) in the ship's Lower Bar followed by a few words from Waverley Excursions Director and Volunteer Liason James McMillan, after which an AV presentation will be shown whilst members relax and chat over a cup of complimentary tea or coffee. Events in the lower bar will be followed by visits to the Engine Room and Bridge.
Whilst there is no charge for the actual Branch event you must purchase a cruise ticket from either the Waverley Excursions Website, by phoning 0845 130 4647 or from the Ship's Purser on the day.

Proceedings should begin just after Waverley has sailed from Rothesay and will come to a close to allow members to view the approach to Tarbert so if you want to come along make sure you join the ship at or before Rothesay -the timetable can be found here

This event is restricted to members only but if you want to join you can do so by following the link to the application form on the left hand column of the blog or you can join on board at the ship's shop. Why not join on the day and come and meet us?

Fancy it ? See you on Sunday 7th August then!!!

Gavin Stewart
Scottish Branch Chairman

Tarbert Take 2

2011-07-14T01:04:00.003+01:00

With the weather being so good on Wednesday 13th July many passengers took advantage of it and joined Waverley for her 2nd visit this year to Tarbert (Loch Fyne). Those who did venture aboard were lucky enough to experience Waverley in all that she offers. The weather was perfect, the scenery stunning and the steamer provided the best way to appreciate it all. I thought a few more pictures of the paddler in such surroundings may be welcomed.

After a slightly delayed start the steamer left Largs with well over 500 aboard, deck space in the sun was at a premium. Once again a good number joined her at Tighnabruaich owing to the two coach loads waiting as she arrived. A good number of passengers took advantage of time ashore at Tarbert.

Tarbert marina in the afternoon sun

Arriving back at Tarbert

Berthing at Tarbert pier

On completion of the cruise and with all passengers landed at Largs Waverley was soon off to Greenock for her overnight berth before undertaking a private charter on Thursday 14th July.

Paul Semple

A Clyde Paddler & Two Traditional Clyde Piers

2011-07-08T00:33:00.000+01:00

On 6^th July Waverley completed her first revisedWednesday run, the previous Wednesday was altered to a round Bute cruise aftera delayed start. This was Waverley’s first call at Tarbert without the need forassistance from a small boat owing to the fact the pier has been in need of structuralwork for a few years. Over the past few months both Tighnabruaich and Tarbertpiers have had works completed to ensure that Waverley can continue to usethem. We owe a great deal to the individuals who have worked hard to ensure thatthese traditional Clyde piers remain open. Indeed the best way we can repaytheir efforts is to use these piers as much as possible.

Waverley’s schedule on a Wednesday this year takes her fromLargs to Rothesay then through the narrows calling at Tighnabruaich before sheenters Loch Fyne and on to Tarbert. A change also introduced this year is thatthe steamer then heads back down Loch Fyne to give splendid views of the NorthArran coast and Lochranza.

As Waverley made her way towards the narrows she passed thesailing vessel Lord Nelson, pictured below.

Arriving at Tarbert for the first time in 2011

Tarbert for me is a must at least once a year on Waverley.It brings back memories of the first time I ventured on Waverley without adultsupervision. The weather on Wednesday was similar to that day back in 1993, whichI can still recall so vividly, with some patchy rain to begin but brighteningup as the day went on. The pictures which follow show Waverley leaving andreturning to Tarbert pier from her afternoon cruise. I would encourage all totake a trip on what is my personal favourite Clyde cruise. If you are not ableto do mid-week sailings remember she is scheduled to call at Tarbert on Sunday7^th August, which is also the Scottish Branch hospitality day.

Full speed astern

Arriving back at Tarbert

Arriving back at Tighnabruaich
(Now complete with rubber fendering)

Paul Semple

Ayrshire Summer Sunshine

2011-07-06T01:28:00.001+01:00

The following pictures were taken on Sunday 3^rdJuly. Waverley arrived at Ayr shortly after 2.40pm before heading south to callat Girvan for the first time this season. With over 500 passengers she thenmade for Ailsa Craig, otherwise known as “paddy’s milestone”. As the steamersailed round the island a large number of birds were in flight, indeed morethan I have ever seen before. Some puffins were also spotted on the north sideof the Island.

Due to her second call at Ayr coinciding with low waterCaptain O’Brian took the precaution of using one of the rescue boats to takethe lines ashore. Recent soundings in the harbour suggest that there is now insufficientwater for the steamer to run astern up the river at low tide while attemptingto berth at the Compass Pier. In allSunday was a perfect day to appreciate all that Waverley offers, indeed whatother vessel could you sail on to experience the Firth of Clyde at its very best?In other words folks get aboard and support Waverley as often as you can inthis crucial year.

Waverley entering Ayr Harbour

Just about to make the turn to Port to enter the North Harbour

Canting before running astern up the River Ayr

Leaving Girvan

Paul Semple

Midsummer Evening Cruise 2011

2011-06-05T23:10:00.000+01:00

Scottish Branch Evening Charter

Tuesday 21st June

The annual Evening Charter of Paddle Steamer Waverley by the Scottish Branch of the PSPS takes place on Tuesday 21^st June. Waverley is scheduled to depart Greenock Custom House Quay at 7p.m., Helensburgh at 7.25p.m. and Blairmore at 8.10p.m. We are hoping for good weather to allow for the full splendour of the sea lochs to be enjoyed by those lucky enough to be onboard.

The success of the evening depends on passengers and in particular it is hoped that as many members as possible will be on board. Tickets are still available at the discounted rate, so book now either from the Waverley Excursions web site, www.waverleyexcursions.co.uk or via the booking hotline on 0845 130 4647. Alternatively tickets can be ordered by post, just download the booking form by clicking the image below. Full price tickets can be bought onboard Waverley during the cruise subject to space being available.

Scottish Branch Committee

Waverley - 23rd August 1954

2011-05-30T15:02:00.000+01:00

Another short piece from Robin Copland.

On the 23^rd of August 1954, I had yet to reach my first birthday, so I am fairly certain that standing on my own two feet was not yet one of my major strengths. The power of speech still eluded me, though doubtless I exercised my vocal chords when stressed or needing fed. Food would probably still be limited to milk and perhaps the odd solid. Perambulation would be by pram and my mother and father probably still thought of me as the apple of their collective eyes.

Of PS Waverley, I knew precisely and exactly nothing, but I have in front of me form E.R.O. 13826 – and please don’t ask; suffice it to say that it involves Ebay and a wife who wonders just which planet it is that I am from – the daily report of traffic carried on that good ship on that, for all I know, fine day. And it makes interesting reading for a number of reasons, not the least of which is the route that she took. Why don’t you come with me, whilst I explain all...

Craigendoran knew not of its fate twenty years down the line. It remained a busy pierhead despite the takeover of the north bank fleet some six years previously by the “auld enemy”, those nice folk from Gourock. Stubbornly, the crews of PS Waverley and PS Jeanie Deans stuck to their traditions. Their erstwhile Craigendoran consort, DEPV Talisman had defected to the Caley stronghold that was the Millport station but at least she had seen off PS Marchioness of Lorne, already withdrawn and sitting idly in the Albert Harbour awaiting her fate – as it turned out, an appointment with the breakers torch in Port Glasgow the following year.

Waverley sat at the pier, steam wisping from her funnel and her paddles turning ever-so-gently as she was coaxed into life. Her paddleboxes remained black and, though her funnels were painted in the buff and black of the Caledonian Steam Packet Company Limited, the line on them both told of a different heritage. She was in the prime of her young life at this point in her career – barely six years after her launch. Her older sister, Jeanie Deans lay parallel to her on the pier. Both their angled bows had gently kissed the sand under their keels as the tide went out from the notoriously shallow pier. Later on, both the deeper-drafted Duchesses made calls at the pier, but one imagines that everyone on board was on high alert as the approach was made! The last thing that anyone wanted as the famed turbines visited the north bank terminal was the ultimate embarrassment of being stuck fast to the seabed!

Life, in the form of a steam-hauled train puffed into the adjoining station; the odd car pulled up and was parked adjacent to the station entrance – nothing fancy in those days, mind you, nothing fancy at all. An old Austin Seven perhaps, or maybe the still relatively new Morris Minor – the German invasion was still far into the future. In any case and one-by-one, sixty one hardy souls boarded Waverley that morning – sixty-one hardy souls and five goats! History does not tell us where the goats were headed, nor indeed where they were stored on board, but I imagine that they would have been tethered to a rail somewhere on board and that a sign would have been hastily erected – something to the effect that there were goats on board and to avoid wherever they were for fear of a kicking!

At ten o’clock, she beat across the estuary to Gourock where five of her number disembarked (the goats, I wonder?) and where 288 passengers joined. Presumably, this being still the relatively early fifties, the bulk of those had travelled by train from points east. She sailed across to Dunoon where 212 passengers joined but where 94 left the ship. I presume that a goodly number of these had travelled either via Craigendoran or, more likely via Gourock and were using Waverley as a ferry service and nothing more. In any case, she travelled next to Innellan, where 44 joined and 10 disembarked; at this stage, there were 496 people on board ship as she went round Toward Point and into Rothesay Bay. At Rothesay 77 joined the ship and 118 left to enjoy the splendours of the Winter Gardens or the Old Pavilion. She sailed from there through the Kyles of Bute to Tighnabruaich for a quick stop to let 9 off and take 22 on.

And now it gets interesting because our ship carries on through the Kyles of Bute, passing to the west of the Wee Cumbrae and on down to Brodick, there to pick up a solitary passenger and let 158 off. Round the point she sailed to Lamlash next to drop off 41 passengers – doubtless they all went to the Aldersyde hotel just along from the pier, there to imbibe the odd pint or two or foaming ale. She was not finished yet though, for her next and final stop was Whiting Bay where the remaining 244 passengers disembarked for a short stay ashore.

What happened next was also interesting, for the 244 who had left at Whiting Bay became 265 for the first leg of the return trip. I can only imagine that a goodly few had disembarked at Brodick and Lamlash, travelled by road to Whiting Bay and rejoined the ship there. Maybe some did the same in reverse – in other words, disembarked at Whiting Bay, then made their way north to Brodick or Lamlash. For 65 joined at Lamlash and 135 joined the ship at Brodick, though 3 left at that point.

So where does that leave us? Well 442 passengers were disembarked at the three Arran ports and, when she left Brodick on her return trip around the east coast of Bute (and therefore not calling at Tighnabruaich), she had 445 passengers on board. I do not have a 1954 timetable to hand, but I assume that there was a connecting service from Rothesay to Tighnabruaich to allow the nine passengers who embarked there the chance to get back home; I also assume that the 22 who disembarked in the Kyles of Bute resort would have used TS Queen Mary II perhaps – or even St Columba, I suppose, to return whence they came.

When she came alongside Rothesay, there were 177 passengers waiting to board and 75 to clear, so for her trip from Rothesay to Innellan, she was again at her busiest – carrying 544 people. At Dunoon, 141 joined her and 211 left; at Gourock, 301 left and 15 joined her, so for her final leg to Craigendoran, she still had a relatively healthy 171 passengers on board.

She was never near her capacity throughout the day, to be fair, but pause and reflect on this for a moment. Waverley was but one of a large number of Clyde River Steamers, visiting different parts of the estuary. What is more, you could plan to stay on one ship, or you could devise all kinds of weird and wonderful combinations of ships as they – and you – danced your way around the firth. Even relatively remote outposts like Tighnabruaich received regular steamer visits each day. The major resorts like Dunoon and Rothesay had multi-berth piers, but more importantly, they were still needed. Often there would be two or sometimes three steamers tied up, but straining to get on their way again. The great difference between then and now was the sheer number of inter-resort sailings available to the travelling public of the time. Not many people had access to cars and most folk were still reliant on public transport.

There is one more thing of interest to note. On the return journey from Arran, there were three barrows of general freight and – one dinghy. I ask you – one dinghy!

Robin Copland

Ken Angell - An Obituary

2011-05-22T15:58:00.001+01:00

Words & Photos by Stuart Mears

Writing anobituary for a friend and former work-mate is never easy. Having to writeobituaries for two is particularly sad,yet having scarcely finished John Lees’ obituary I learned that Ken Angell hadalso passed away. Ach.

Although Iwas only signed on ship’s articles at the same time as Ken for three summerholiday spells whilst I was at school and intermittently when I was Balmoral’smotorman in 1988, again, like John, Ken proved to be a very big part of mybrief seagoing career.

When I wasfirst around Waverley in the late 70’s and early 80’s, Waverley’s engineering team were exclusivelyScottish, but with the arrival of Prince Ivanhoe, came an influx of Welshengineering expertise. Sadly the Prince Ivanhoe venture did not last as long asanyone of us would have liked but a positive of that was that we ended up withKen on Waverley, and I’ve always thought that Firth of Clyde Steam PacketCompany Limited’s loss was very much our gain, so to speak.

As withJohn Lees, since hearing of his passing, I have found myself smiling a lot asI’ve been remembering Ken and again, that is surely a measure of the man.

Some randommemories. In no particular order:

Anyone whoknew Ken must surely remember his infectious laughter which seemed to be almostpermanently about to break out. But as well as his undoubted ability tobrighten the place up, he was never slow to let you know if things were not upto his expectations and for a young aspiring engineer this was an invaluablementorship. I well remember being on a particularly intense run ashore to theOff the Record bar in Glasgow and it’s fair to say that as an 18yr old I wasstill exploring the boundaries as to what counted as sensible drinking! Thenext morning I was paying the price for such overindulgence and was coiling theshore power cable with scarcely concealed nausea. I’ll never forget Ken comingdown the alleyway and letting me know exactlyhow stupid I’d been. At the time I probably just had a bit of a huff but as theyear’s have passed, I’ve come to realise that in this instance and many others,he was really just looking out for me in his own inimitable way.

It was Kenwho gave me my first task as a member of the engineering department. On abright sunny morning in Glasgow I was sent with Ken for some job oranother on the steering engine. We got as far as the hatch on the poop deckwhen Ken turned to me and in very solemntones announced, “Right, I have an important job for you, young ‘un. Get itright, and we’ll be fine. Get it wrong band you’ll have a bloody miserablesummer holiday job. Listen carefully. I want you to make me a cup of coffee.However, I want one heaped tablespoonful of coffee in it. Not a tea spoonful,a table spoonful. Think you can mangethat? Good-oh, off you trot.” I was convinced it was a wind-up but I did as Iwas told and low and behold it was actually what he wanted. This turned out tobe no emergency hangover recovery cuppa. It was just how Ken liked his coffee.I can’t have made too bad a job of it because over the ensuing seasons on both Waverley and Balmoral, it’s safe to say Imade Ken quite a few!

When I hadbeen on Balmoral as motorman in ’88 for a few weeks, Ken came aboard to visitduring the overlap of a couple of days when Waverley and Balmoral were both on the Bristol Channel at the same time. He tracked medown in the Steering Flat and asked how things were going. When Idiplomatically replied that I was learning more about painting than marineengineering, he said he’d have a quiet word with the Chief. That same day andfor the rest of the season I was suddenly driving the starboard main engine atjust about every pier! Again, he was really just looking out for me in his owninimitable way.

Ken was aman for whom all apart from the bottom two stud fasteners on his boiler suitseemed purely for decoration rather than function, but given the elevatedtemperatures in both Waverley and Balmoral machinery spaces, Ireckon he was smarter than all the rest of us!

When I was working in Waverley’sengine room, duringschool summer holidays, one of my dailytasks was to polish the brasses, including the large copper funnel that sitsout on one of the walkways that extends over the main engine, and it’s smallerbrass companion. I used to fetch those in from their allotted positions andbuff them up from the comfort of the engine room tool chest. Never being one tolet the opportunity for a bit of fun pass by, Ken soon had us playing thembugle style, usually on an early morning run down from Glasgow. A favourite was “When the saintsgo marching in” complete with harmony parts, with me holding down themelody….sort of, and Kenny heading off on some freeform jazz improvisation.

He coulddeliver a bollocking and a compliment in the same sentence! When Waverley was undergoing her wheel transplantin the early 90’s I was down in Avonmouth for the start up and run to the drydock. Unknown to me Ken had been summonsed from Balmoral to help the new chiefwith the intricacies of the Waverley’s machinery. When he arrived on theengine room platform and spied me there his outburst to me in front ofeverybody was along the lines of “oh for *&#! Sake, if you’d let on YOUwere here I could have told them to get lost, you could have shown them the ropes(!) and I’d have had another couple of hours in me bed”! In amongst theexpletives and moaning about getting dragged out of his bed there was actuallya back handed compliment that he thought the ship would have been in safeenough hands with just me there. To be honest I think it was just a bit offlattery but I walked a bit taller that day nevertheless.

One weekwhen we were stormbound in Swansea on Balmoral, Ken and I were taskedwith re-jointing one of the cylinder heads on the port engine. Things had not,to be fair, got off to a great start as , whilst we started on the cylinderhead, Iain Mac and Thundermop, the other motorman were working beneath and hadremoved the crankcase door. These two were obviously not used to working as ateam….ahem. As the increasingly irate exchanges wafted up to us astride thecylinder head Ken and I became increasingly helpless as we tried to contain ourmirth in silence. However, once Thundermop actually dropped a bit of engine onIain’s head I’m (slightly) ashamed to say we fell about laughing

By thisstage in the proceedings we were actually at the point of getting the head offthe engine casing by a well established though rather novel means. Thisinvolved backing off the cylinder head nuts by about an 1/8^th of aninch then starting the engine…..sort of. The trick was just to put the startingair on the engine, not go for full blown ignition. The blast of air would jackup the cylinder head till it hit the nuts that had been slackened. This wasthen repeated until the head was easy to remove by chainblock. At this point ayoung steward stuck his head into the engine room to see what was going on. Hewas obviously and understandably bored stiff, on a wet day in Swansea on an almost deserted ship and we weresubjected to an endless stream of questions about what we were doing and why. Now,call it coincidence but Ken seemed to have become a bit over enthusiastic and,as well as slackening the nuts off a wee bit more than the regulation 1/8^thof an inch, also came within an ace of actually starting the engine! Theresultant explosion of sparks, flames and smoke, had the steward departing up thealleyway never to be seen again for the rest of the day!

Priceless.

Just LikeKen.

Ken in Balmoral's Engine Room

Stuart Mears

It Doesn't Get Much Better Than This!

2011-05-02T19:59:00.001+01:00

Sunday May 1st will go into the diary as one of the best days I have ever had on Waverley ever!
The forecast strong winds did not appear to have materialised as we boarded Waverley amidst glorious sunshine at Oban's North Pier.
Today's cruise would take us to the Isle of Coll passing the Treshnish Isles en-route. An hour's time ashore could be had if you didn't fancy the afternoon cruise on offer. After a pleasant sail we arrived at Coll ahead of time - so much so that those going ashore had additional half hour!
On reboarding we headed for Tobermorey via the Sound of Mull arriving back at North Pier a full 25mins early. Couple that with a hebridean sunset and you have a great day to remember!
Gavin Stewart

Waverley on STV News

2011-04-24T02:42:00.000+01:00

On Friday evening (22nd April) the STV News reported the following:

"The operators of the Waverley have warned that high fuel prices, combined with a drop in passenger numbers following a string of washout summers, could force the end of a decades-old tradition".

To read more and watch the report click the following link:

http://news.stv.tv/scotland/west-central/244802-waverley-steamer-launches-appeal-as-costs-rise/

Paul Semple

A Wee Taste of Rum

2011-04-23T20:45:00.001+01:00

Easter Saturday saw the world's only sea going paddle steamer boarding passengers for a trip to the Isle of Rum via Tobermorey. After a night of strong winds and heavy rain showers the morning was grey and overcast as Waverley backed away from Oban North Pier but by the time she had tied up at Tobermorey pier the sun had forced it's way through although the temperature was still on the chilly side.
As the ship rounded Ardnamurchan her movement became more pronounced which remained the case until she approached the anchorage not far from the ferry slip. After a short wait for the tender Uillin of Staffa to come alongside the process of ferrying passengers ashore began. Time ashore was limited due to there being one tender but sufficient for a quick stroll and some photos. In what seemed like no time everyone was safely back on board and Waverley weighed anchor and set sail for Tobermorey, eventually arriving back at Oban North Pier at approximately 2130.

Gavin Stewart

A Great Day Out!

2011-04-23T10:24:00.001+01:00

,Good Friday saw Waverley embark on her annual programme of sailings amidst the scenery of the Western Isles of Scotland.
After a delayed start at Glasgow the ship made calls at Greenock & Campbeltown before heading round the Mull of Kintyre after which she altered course for Colonsay via The Sound of Islay.
Shortly after a call was put out for a doctor as someone had taken ill. Scottish Branch assistant secretary Shelagh Holt attended with another gent
A little while later, having taken advantage of the 5 knot tide (the ship was achieving 19 knots over the ground) a Royal Navy Sea King appeared overhead and deposited a paramedic onto Waverley's after deck. At this point the sea king then left the scene to refuel while Waverley continued to Colonsay. On arrival at the pier the patient and paramedic disembarked to await the return of the sea king.
Waverley set sail almost immediately for Oban. So what time do you think she arrived at Oban's North Pier?
2115 - only 45mins later than timetabled! A great effort given the challenging day. Hats off to Captain O'Brian and his crew.

Gavin Stewart

Western Isles-A Personal View

2011-04-05T01:07:00.001+01:00

With Waverley due to depart Glasgow in a matter of days for her annual visit to the Western Isles I feel it appropriate to be reminded of the magic of sailing such waters aboard a Paddle Steamer.

Waverley may have made her first visit to the Western Isles in 1981 but for me my first visit was in 1997 when she visited in late June/early July, due to her early Bristol Channel visit to celebrate the building and sailing of the replica Matthew. Since then I have been back a number of times, some as crew others as a passenger and again this year I plan to return.

A favourite memory of sailing these waters has to be the 2002 visit to Iona on what can only be described as one of those Waverley days that keeps you coming back for more. On that Bank Holiday Monday I can still recall the atmosphere on board as Waverley rolled her way gently back home to Oban with a very pleased cargo of passengers. Throughout the day the weather had been perfect, Waverley looked splendid as she approached Oban bay having sailed from Fort William. The journey out was filled with a sense of so much to come. As the paddler approached the Sacred Isle passengers busied themselves trying to work out how disembarkation would follow. For me I prefer to be last off and then last back on. Last aboard has somewhat more appeal to me in that by being last back you somehow get longer ashore, but by the pursers calculations we all get “the same time ashore”.

Arriving into Oban having sailed from Fort William, 2002.

Anchored off in the Sound of Iona, May 2002.

As Waverley made for home that day the atmosphere on deck grew more relaxed, indeed on those special days I find there is a collective understanding for how special Waverley is. She represents a way of life that has passed; she is a travelling time capsule that somehow has remained true to her former identity. For me she represents so much that has gone before: a window to the past that somehow through it all has survived. She is a credit to those who have stood by her; she is truly the last of her kind.

A further memory I have of Waverley in the Western Isles is from 1997 when I was asked by a certain purser to accompany 95 passengers from the pier at Fort William to the station to pay the railway fares for the Jacobite steam train to Mallaig. I asked the purser the question “Is there enough time?” to which the answer came “ask if they will let you on as well”. In the end I only had to buy one ticket but that ticket came to over £1600! On that occasion Captain Steve Michel took Waverley further up Loch Eil after departing Fort William before she headed back to Oban allowing her and the steam train to exchange whistles. It was another one of those Waverley occasions.

To those of you who have sailed the western Isles on Waverley before I encourage you to do so again, to those who have never sailed these waters I urge you to do so. This is the first time in a few years that Waverley has offered two consecutive weekends of sailings in the Western Isles, it is therefore vital that she carries as many passengers as possible.

With fuel costs rising rapidly Waverley needs as much support now as she did in the early years of preservation. In operating “the world’s last sea-going paddle steamer” we preserve a national treasure, a link with the past, a living museum and a triumph to the determination of the few. This year as in the past please support her as much as you can.

Tobermory, 2005.

Arriving back at Armadale, 2010.

Armadale again showing off the quality of paint work, perfect paddle box!

Paul Semple

"Big John" - My Obituary to John Lees by Jim Harrison

2011-03-17T12:16:00.000Z

The following are my thoughts on "Big John", as I knew him and I would like them to be posted as my personal obituary to John.

"Big John" in 1986 (Jim Harrison)

I was very sorry to hear of the death of John Lees, one of the Waverleys formidable characters, the world will be a lesser place for John not being in it.

I remember John starting with WSN Co at the old Anderson Quay terminal in 1975 as part of a job creation scheme at that time. I grew up with John at my side and watching my every move - there was always the water and oil don't mix thing there, but that banter was part of the great Waverley aura, which gave the ship its character, but in turn, it was the people characters that made the ship. I sometimes felt that this man was there to make my life a misery, but I quickly realized that John was a mentor and taut me and many other young people that came through the Waverley, valuable lessons about being better persons, and how to work hard and get on with the job and life in general.

Many people never saw the true john Lees, they only saw the grumpy cigar smoking facade that so often was present on the engine room platform. I was privileged to have been on the receiving end of John's true personality. A kind and generous person, as was Sandra, they were both true people with a fantastic warmth. Tania, my wife,and I, were taken in by John & Sandra, when we had no place to live in 1985, and given a roof over our heads, we will always be for ever in their debt for that generosity, and their warmth. But over the years I somehow felt that I earned John's respect as a person,and as a sailor, possibly because of my voyages on "Westward Ho", but John gave me and many other youngsters a leg up on the journey through adolescence and on into adulthood.

I for one feel that the world has lost one of my Waverley mentor's that shaped my future. The world has lost one of life's true characters that you only come across once in a lifetime.

I too, like Stuart Mears, will be regailing my memories of "Big John" in the days and weeks to come, and once again john will no doubt put me through a mirriard of emotions, but mostly I'm sure I will be smiling and laughing.

The phrase that will stay with me for the rest of my days is "aye there's a good time coming son", as John would say to me on several occasions on our many pas sings during our days during the long winter months and during those long summer days at sea. And yes there is a good time comin.

Jim Harrison

Tylorstown

March 2011

About Jim Harrison:-

"I became involved with Waverley in 1977 and worked on the ship through to 1989, working on Waverley & Balmoral starting off as a galley boy and then moving on to the deck as AB and taking command of "Westward HO" for the 80's - I finished with Waverley in late 1989.
I spent much of my adolescent years working on the ship and being influenced by such characters as David Neill, John Lees, Kenny Blacklock, Steve Michelle, and Ken Angell to name but a few.
So Waverley is very much ingrained in my make up and John helped shape my future, and I still look back on my "Waverley Years" with great fondness.
I hope that this gives you some of my background.
I feel that I, along with many of the above people did the groundwork for those now taking the Waverley & Balmoral into the 21st century."

Swanage Pier - HELP!!

2011-03-03T15:35:00.000Z

Not strictly Scottish related but important to the continued operation of Waverley on the South Coast. Swanage Pier requires extensive works to remain operable. Our colleagues in the Wessex Branch have posted on their blog here. Please donate if you can.

Thanks

Gavin Stewart
Scottish Branch Chairman

John Lees - An Obituary

2011-01-28T08:19:00.001Z

It was with great sadness that I learned this week that John Lees, Waverley’s’ Donkeyman of many years, passed away last week. John’s part in the story of the Waverley’s preservation era could fill a Dinosaur Down Below type book all by itself and I was lucky enough to work on the engine room when he was there.

He was a very big part of my early days on the ship. It would be fair to say that for me, gaining his approval on the ship, along with that of Ken Blacklock, as a “junior apprentice stoker’s mate 3^rd class”, was always the absolute pinnacle of achievement.

Whilst his public face on the ship was that of a gruff, no nonsense individual who did not suffer fools or nutters gladly, any one who knew him at all well very quickly came to realise that this was a fairly thin veneer indeed.

In writing this, if I were to try and come up with one word to some up John, it would be “kind”. Of course, I’m sure he would be horrified at such a dent in his image, but he always looked after us well, and if you put in the hours and the effort in the engine room then you got the nod of approval…quietly.

His knowledge of the workings of Waverley’s machinery was far greater than he would ever let on, but on many occasions, when it was all going wrong I’ve seen the engineer of the watch turn wide eyed with barely concealed panic to John and he would point them to some valve, or pipe or pump that would make everything ok. He was also perfectly adept at driving the three-legger, but only if he absolutely had too!

Despite the sadness since hearing of his passing, I have found myself smiling a lot in the last couple of days as I’ve been remembering John and surely that is a measure of the man.

Some random memories:

On my first ever summer holiday spell of working in the engine room as I didn’t have any suitable gear with me on the first day such a boiler suit or safety boots, I went along only as a passenger. Word had obviously got around the ship as to my impending change of career. Most of my contemporaries seemed a bit in awe that I was going to give it a go in the engine room. However when I wandered up the port alleyway, John Lees and Kenny Angell wasted no time in hurling encouragement/intimidation/abuse in my direction. John exclaimed that must surely be off my head and Kenny just roared with laughter at my discomfort to the extent that he had to hang on to the golden levers to stop himself falling over.

John took great delight at blowing a good lungful of thick cigar smoke through the fan engine, in order to add a certain…something….to the air supply into the boiler room, to the outrage of the poor fireman down below.

He had an ability to stand at the step onto the engine room platform and chat to someone beside him in the alleyway but seemingly never take his eyes off “The Job”, talking to you, over his shoulder, so to speak.

John would grab a quick breath of fresh air at the sponson door outside the souvenir shop, cigar firmly in position where, just by coincidence you understand, he could spend a wee bit of time chatting to his wife Sandra who was in the shop. If John was our mentor, Sandra was frequently our agony aunt. I only recently learned of her passing and I will miss her too. They were a formidable team.

I remember him single handedly carrying a full size bottle of oxygen from the gas axe set from the main deck, up to the paddle box steps, at speed, to assist in the treatment of a passenger took gravely ill as we made our way up the Kyles of Bute one Saturday.

I rose to the dizzy heights of second engineer at one point for a week , and on my first day, the chief, Andy Steele handed over the watch to me and set off down the alleyway. From behind me came a deadpan voice, “Can ah get you a coffee then……..chief?” I turned to find John making his usual offer to the officer of the watch (me!) and Wee Davie beside him was scarcely able to contain his mirth that I was sailing as second! It did seem completely surreal having sailed with these two characters so often, with me being “the boy”.

“Aye, thanks John, that’d be great.” I replied hoping that I had given the right response.

“Right then.” was all he said as he headed off for the mess room. But as he passed me on the control platform I got a wink. What relief! I was accepted, on some level at least. All this was okay somehow! Mind you I also got the feeling that with that wink he was also saying “Okay, but any airs and graces and you’re for it!”

I won’t say anything like “Finished With Engines” as he never let on that he had much time for all of that. Though “Finished with Engineers” would probably have got a laugh out of him!

John, you will be sadly missed; The Waveley has been and always will be a much poorer place without you.

"Smile John!! - Ah am smilin........."

Stuart Mears

Chairman's Blog No 14 - Winter is Upon Us! (in more ways than one)

2011-01-07T16:48:00.003Z

On behalf of the Scottish Branch Commitee may I wish you all a Happy New Year! Lets hope that season 2011 is a good one.

Well winter is once again upon us - what do you mean I hear you cry - its been here for weeks!! The deep freeze set in earlier than last year with temperatures in Glasgow and the West of Scotland plummeting to below -10degC. The photos below show our paddler shivering at her snowy Glasgow Science Centre berth.

Another winter is also upon us - volunteer winter work parties commence on both Waverley and Balmoral on Saturday 15th January. This year - as with every year since the ships entered preserved operation - voluntary input vital to their ongoing operation. Remember formal skills are not required - just enthusiasm!

If you are interested in attending work parties on Waverley then just turn up at the ship from 10am onwards on the 15th and ask for the person in charge. The only restriction is that you must be over 18 years of age.You will be required to give the ship's engineer contact details for H&S purposes and if you have safety shoes and a boiler suit that you dont mind using then please bring them along. You'll be pleased to hear that the ship is heated throughout the winter but additional layers of clothing may be an idea in case you are given an outdoor job.

Car parking is via the Glasgow Science Centre car park - tokens are available from the ship's engineer to allow you exit the car park. Waverley is located adjacent to the Science Centre tower (her berth is sometimes also referred to as Pacific Quay)

There are no catering facilities available on board during the winter but the microwave in the crew mess is available as is on tap hot water, tea & coffee. The only toilets operational are the crew toilets but not to worry you will be shown the ropes on arrival!!

The main thing is to enjoy yourself - theres a good bunch of up to twenty people attend over the winter so you'll be made very welcome - that coupled with the fact that you can take satisfaction from the knowledge that you contributed to the ship's operation in 2011 make volunteer work parties a must.

Go to the Waverley Excursions Website for a blog entry about work parties.

Balmoral work parties take place in Bristol - see http://www.pswaverley.org/ for further details.

I'll sign off for now - leaving you with the forementioned snowy pictures!!

Gavin Stewart

Scottish Branch Chairman

Photo Copyright Joe McKendrick

Unterwalden Rebuild

2010-12-29T03:46:00.000Z

As mentioned in the current winter issue of Paddle Wheels MPV Vevey has been withdrawn from service on Lake Geneva which leaves 5 operational paddle steamers on Lake Geneva. In 2011 there will once again be 5 operational paddle steamers on Lake Lucerne when Unterwalden re-enters service in the spring. Unterwalden last sailed in 2008 before entering a rebuild which has allowed her original boilers to be replaced in addition to restoring her external appearance more in keeping with the other paddlers of the fleet.

Of the 5 paddle steamers in the lake Lucerne fleet Unterwalden has had the most varied history. She was launched on 12^th November 1901 and entered service on the 18^th May 1902, she is the second oldest of the steamship fleet. It was in 1920 that she was fitted with a wheelhouse to protect the captains and helmsmen from the elements having had an open bridge when first built. On 30^th October 1923 while sailing through thick fog in darkness she ran aground at Beckenried suffering considerable damage. She also sustained damage in February 1956 when she crashed into the lake wall at Kehrsiten Dorf.

By 1960 her boilers required attention and were re-tubed this also providing the opportunity to remodel the ship to allow her to pass under the new Acheregg Bridge. The masts, funnel and wheelhouse were replaced allowing the masts to fold with the funnel and wheelhouse being able to be lowered as required. The rear upper deck was given an aluminium roof in place of the former canvas one. By the mid 1970’s her condition was giving cause for concern with plans made for her withdrawal from service to form an exhibit at the Swiss Transport Museum. In 1976 a newly built motor vessel was named Unterwalden and the paddle steamer Unterwalden made her last trip on the 22^nd September 1977. After a few years of laying in a poor condition a major rebuild began in 1982 lasting till 1985 when she was relaunched and the new motor vessel was renamed Europa.

By 2007 it was becoming clear that her original boilers had reached the end of their working lives and would have to be replaced. The current rebuild has replaced the two original boilers with one larger boiler. It has also allowed much of the superstructure and interiors to be restored to as much like their original pre-1961 state, as far as possible, while still allowing her to sail under the Acheregg Bridge. The funnel, wheelhouse and masts will still be able to be lowered but the appearance of the funnel in particular will be more like the other members of the steamer fleet.

There will be a special parade of all 5 paddle steamers to mark the re-entry into service of Unterwalden on Saturday 14^th May with a provisional departure time of 11:30 returning to Lucerne at 15:30.

The following pictures show Unterwalden prior to her rebuild. I have included a few interior pictures to allow some comparison to be made after she re-enters service. The first class saloon should be impressive as the neo-rococo carving is also being restored in addition to the parquet flooring.

Dressed overall during the 2008 steamer parade to celebrate 80 years of Stadt Luzern.

This shot shows the 1961 fitted wheelhouse and funnel. (April 2008)

At Alpnachstad in August 2004, note that one of the masts is left down for the return sailing.

The first class saloon looking forward.

First class saloon looking aft.

Looking forward into the second class saloon from the engine. As part of the rebuild a retractable bulkhead will be installed to once again separate the saloon from the engine area.

The upper deck dining area as it was in 2008.

An early season shot from 2008, note the snow on Pilatus.

Paul Semple

Inglis Shipyard becomes the Riverside Museum

2010-12-19T21:16:00.002Z

As 2010 enters its final fortnight we reflect that next year will see the opening of the new £80m Riverside Museum (of Transport and maritime heritage) on Pointhouse Quay at the confluence of the Rivers Clyde and Kelvin. The titanium and glass clad museum building occupies the site of a famous Glasgow shipyard, the Pointhouse yard, opened in 1863 by the brothers Anthony and John Inglis, who had peviously built marine engines and other engineering products at their works in Warroch Street, off Anderston Quay. Inglis shipyard at Pointhouse was in production for almost exactly a century,during which time the firm produced about 500 ships of a range in size and type that would, undoubtedly, surprise the huge number of international tourists that will visit the Riverside Museum in the next few years. They were, of course, well known as builders of paddle steamers including Waverley and Maid of the Loch, two of the few remaining Clyde-built ships of this type. However, Inglis paddle steamers could be found much further afield than the home market - they featured in the fleets of the Bay Steamers company of Melbourne, South Australia, the earltest Yangtse-river steamers of Swire's China Navigation Company and, prominently, in the fleets of Nicolas Mihanovich and the Entre Rios Railway companies on the River Plate between Buenos Aires and Montevideo and further into the interior of the South American continent. The Mihanovich paddlers were significantly larger than their Clyde counterparts and the Entre Rios ships were built as train ferries rather than passenger boats.

Other passenger ships produced by Inglis included around 50 small ocean going liners for the British India Steam Navigation Company, founded by Campbeltown-born Sir William MacKinnon, the largest shipping company in the world for a period prior to its merger with the Peninsula & Oriental Steam Navigation Company (P&O). Inglis first contribution to the Royal Navy was the destroyer HMS Fury in 1912 and, thereafter, they built numerous corvettes, frigates and patrol boats at Pointhouse. Arguably the most surprising of Inglis' contribution to the total of 26,000 plus ships built on Clydeside was their two Royal Yachts, the Safa-el-Bahr for the Kedive of Egypt and HMY Alexandra for the British Admiralty during the reign of HM King Edward VII. She finished her career as the coastal steamer Prins Olav on the famous Hurtigruten service in Norway. Ingis produced two ships in 1947 (any many unnamed barges), one being the vessel that has become well known as the world's last seagoing paddle steamer since 1971 and the other being the largest ship ever built in the Pointhouse shipyard, under subcontract from the Scotts Shipbuilding & Engineering Company of Greenock, the China Navigation Company's Soochow.

The picture above depicts Inglis' shipyard from the bridge over the River Kelvin in 1946. Nearest the camera is the Clyde paddle steamer Jeanie Deans (originally built at Fairfields on the opposite bank of the Clyde in Govan in 1931) undergoing a significant rebuild after over six years service in the Royal Navy as HMS Jeanie Deans during WW2. The vessel immediately astern of her and the vessel under construction in the yard are two of the four tankers, Empire Tedport, Empire Tedship, Empire Tedmuir and Empire Tedrita, built by Inglis in 1946-47. Finally, still in her austere wartime livery is the paddler HMS Aristocrat, then recently arrived after demob from the Royal Navy and ready to be converted back into her civilian role as the Clyde-based paddler Talisman. She was an Inglis product in 1935 when she broke new ground as the Clyde's first and, as it turned out, only diesel electric paddle vessel.

The high cranes in the background are those at the Govan shipyard of the huge Harland & Wolff shipbuilding group, of which the Inglis company had been a subsidiary since 1917. Although best known for their base at Queens Island in Belfast, from the 1920s to the 1960s Harland & Wolff's presence on the Clyde was almost as large as that on the Lagan. It Included 6 shipyards, the Finnieston (Steam) Engine Works at Anderston Quay, the Scotstoun (Diesel) Engine Works and the huge Clyde Foundry, one of the largest in Europe, in Helen Street Govan, which produced massive castings such as engine cylinder blocks, stern posts and rudder horns, etc.

Stuart Cameron

End of an Old Season - Beginnings of the New Season!

2010-12-04T00:26:00.001Z

The last passengers of the season stream off Waverley at Glasgow Science Centre as the 2010 season came to an end on Sunday 17th October.
Great to see the "early buds" of the new season in 2011 already peeping through the WEL website - click on the moving banner above for further details.
12 days in the Western Isles makes a welcome return in 2011 - and hopefully all this horrible snow will be away by then!!

Charles McCrossan

Down to See the Engines

2010-11-28T19:50:00.009Z

I reckon this Waverley video dates from circa 1990. It has been split into 5 parts for loading up to YouTube. Links to all five parts are given below although you can also navigate between them if you go onto the YouTube site. Its amazing to think that 2 decades have passed since this film was made so there are a number of well known faces (then) including Captain Jimmy Addison, engineers George Beveridge, Jimmy Graham . Also brief shots of former donkeyman John Lees, 'Wee Davie' Muir, deckie the late Donald (Angus) McKinnon, 'new' purser Jim McFadzean and Ken Henderson, in apprenticeship days, who subsequently became Chief Engineer. Most of the film is set in the engineroom (as the title would suggest, or perhaps it wouldn't if you know the 'lore' behind that expression) but there is some nice, if brief, on deck shots at the start. For some of us 1990 seems relatively recent in the Waverley story - until we realise its now 20 years ago. So its a bit of a nostalgia trip for us oldies but, even if you've only come to know Waverley in relatively recent times, I hope that you will find something of interest in this fine film and historical record. Sadly, I don't know who made the film but all credit is due to them. So, 'Cedarcam', many thanks for these wonderful memories

Part 1

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9Lho3CsT5aY&feature=related

Part 2

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a_Hjt6w0RPQ&feature=related

Part 3

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dhBdUuOPlvQ&feature=related

Part 4

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4agBZ2hN2Bc&feature=related

and Part 5

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yq7sEceM6Ec&feature=related

Additionally, and especially for the Branch Chairman, in Part 4 there is a close up of the port-side steam-engine driven Howden FD fan. which resided on the platform at main deck level at the forward end of the engineroom. Originally, the ship was fitted with a double-ended Scotch Boiler, built by the enginebuilder, Rankin & Blackmore, at their Eagle Foundry in Baker Street, Greenock. The boiler had six furnaces (3 at each end) originally each being fitted with firebars in a grate for coal firing. The boiler draught (air flow) containing the oxygen for oxidation (burning) of the carbon and hydrogen in the coal was maintained by creating a relatively steady pressure differential between the boileroom and the flue exit at the top of the funnesl both of which were for creation of boiler draught in those days (the separation of Waverley's funnels are typical of that required for the ubiquitous Scotch boiler). As a safety measure, to reduce the chance of blow-back of combustion products from the furnaces, the area around the boiler firing positions was maintained at a pressure higher than the ambient air pressure. Effectively there was a sealed chamber around the lower half and the twin steam engined forced draught (FD) fans blew air from the engineroom into boilerroom through two openings in the bulkhead that separates the two compartments. To prevent dipping the pressure in the boilerroom stokehold twin-door air locks were needed for access and egress of the boilerroom. The systems was well known as 'Forced Draught on a Closed Stokehold'. One of the pioneers of this innovative improvement in the firing performance of boilers was the Glasgow engineer James Howden who was working in the industry from the 1850s onwards. Originally building marine engines and boilers to supply the large and rapidly expanding Clyde shipbuilding industry, Howden was a very original-thinking innovative engineer, proposing several improvements that fate has subsequently credited to others. The Howden company established a large manufacturing works in Scotland Street, Glasgow, adjacent to the site subsequently occupied by Charles Rennie Mackintosh's renowned Scotland Street School (now the Glasgow Museum of Education.

Former Howden Design Offices and Manufacturing Works

8-18 Scotland Street, Glasgow.

This part of the works still exists but it has been under threat of demolition for redevelopment recently, The Scottish Industrial Heritage Trust has an alternative plan to save the premises and develop it as a working Museum dedicated to industrial heritage

While maintaining a general engineering facility Howden's specialised in air (and gas) moving equipment (fans, blowers and compressors) and associated airheaters, which play a crucial role in optimising the efficiency of steam-based utility systems. In this work Howden's formed a strong and long lasting association with the innovative Swedish engineer Ljungstrom. Over the years Howden's have absorbed many of their competitors, one notable example being the famous Sirrocco Works of Belfast-based fanmaker Samuel Davidson & Co where Howden fans are now built. On closurre of the Scotland Street works Howden moved their base to Old Renfrew Road in Refrew, close to the Braehead shopping complex. It was in these Renfrew Works that Howden built the large tunnelling machines for the Channel Tunnel project.

The starboard side Howden fan was removed from Waverley when the Scotch Boiler was removed from the vessel in March 1981. The new Babcock Steambloc boiler that replaced it had twin furnaces fitted with oil burners, supplied by combustion specialists Saake, that had their own integral FD fans. However the port-side Howden fan was retained to assist in maintaining adequate ventilation of the boilerroom, The fan was removed during the second reboilering in 2000.

A Howden development for the Scotch boiler but, unlike the one that used to be on Waverley, it has an air jacket to improve the overall efficiency of the unit and a superheater / desuperheater for control of final steam temperature. The unit is also a single ended Scotch boiler like those on SS Shieldhall

Stuart Cameron

MV Balmoral - People's Millions Grant 2010 UPDATE.

2010-11-26T10:26:00.000Z

It gives me great pleasure to inform you all that Balmoral was successful and has won the £50,000 grant towards the refurbishment of her Britannia Lounge.

Congratulations to all involved!!!

Gavin Stewart
Scottish Branch Chairman

Waverley Summer 2010

2010-11-19T08:23:00.004Z

Gerry Ward's video of Waverley during Summer 2010. Great shots pity the weather was not more 'summery'

MV Balmoral Short-listed for 2010 People'sMillions Grant - Please Vote & Support

2010-11-17T09:12:00.004Z

MV Balmoral, the Glasgow-owned, Bristol-based historic excursion vessel has been short-listed for a £50,000 grant from the 2010 ITV Peoples Millions competition. If successful the grant will be used to assist refurbishing the vessel's Britannia Lounge (named after the Clyde-built P&A Campbell paddle steamer Britannia), the main passenger lounge located on the main deck, forward.

Balmoral is owned by the Waverley Steam Navigation Company Ltd of 36 Lancefield Quay, Glasgow, which is a charity registered in Scotland. In today's economic climate it is essential that the company pursues every possible source of revenue to maintain Balmoral in an operational condition. Please support Balmoral's bid

To recieve the grant Balmoral must win the online / telephone vote on 24th November.

If you want to support Balmoral's bid for this grant further details can be obtained at

Support Balmoral's People's Millions Bid

Waverley and Queen Victoria

2010-11-08T15:15:00.007Z

Excellent Gerry Ward video of Waverley escorting the Queen Victoria on the Cunarder's first Visit to Clydeside in July 2010. The Queen Victoria's arrival on the Clyde kindled memories of a story related to the first Cunard Queen, the Clydebank-built Queen Mary. Prior to her all of Cunard's transatlantic liners had borne names ending with the letters 'ia' e.g. Britannia, Caledonia, Lusitania, etc. It is believed that they had selected the name 'Victoria' for John Brown's yard number 534 and asked HM King George V permission to name the vessel after 'the greatest Queen that England had ever known' (not actually using the name 'Victoria' in their request. It is related that the King's reply was along the lines of 'My wife will be delighted' and the Cunard directors felt obliged to accept the result of their ambiguity The story has never been fully validated and it has been doubted by commentators. After the building of the first Queen Elizabeth, Cunard returned to their original 'ia' style of nomenclature with the Caronia of 1947 and the Saxonia quartette in the 1950s. However, they have not used for over half a century

See Gerry's other excellent pictures and videos at

Gerry Ward's ' River Clyde Photography'

Stuart Cameron

Waverley on YouTube - old and new

2010-11-07T23:47:00.005Z

There is now a large number of videos of Waverley on the internet video website YouTube. Some depict the ship in her pre-rebuild days and a few of these are digitised versions of old cine film from pre-camcorder days. At the other end of the scale are amazing quality material produced by the latest HD camcorders. A simple search using 'Waverley' in the YouTube search engine will produce a lot of viewing material. It is worth while checking the maximum available quality as the default reproduction will generally be quite low definition (360p). Selecting the HD formats (720p or 1080p) is definitely worthwhile, especially if you are viewing it on a large LCD or Plasma screen.

Links to a couple of examples of the material available are given below. First up is an example of an older film from the early 1990s (I think). It is at least part of a professional TV film from something called 'Coast -TV' and shows Waverley on the Largs to Rothesay section of a midweek sailing (probably a Tuesday sailing to Tarbert). The film quality is not particularly good as it has probably been digitised from a VCR magnetic tape but it has some good nostalgia value for those that knew the ship at that time. For instance, the film, which lasts for just over 7 minutes, has brief views of a couple of long term supporters; the late Mr Dunlop Walker of Largs (with whom I had many a technical discussion on boilers, believe it or not as Dunlop was a boiler surveyor by profession),, (at 3:10 to 3:14 on the film) and a young Mr Niall Rolland doing sterling work selling copies of that much sought after, and sadly missed, publication, the Waverley Times, whilst the vessel is alongside the old No 3 Berth at Rothesay pier (at 6:26 to 6:29).

The second example is one of the latest additions, a state-of-the-art 1080p HD film of Waverley on Southampton Water in September 2009 and is a good example of the high quality now available

Stuart Cameron

Diesel Electric Paddler

2010-11-02T02:05:00.002Z

This YouTube video is a tribute to the diesel electric paddle vessel Vevey which 'retired' on 30 September 2010 after 103 years service on Lake Leman, joining DEPV Italie and DEPV Helvetie in the laid up fleet at their owner's shipyard in Lausanne, Switzerland.

The three diesel electric paddlers were all originally built as steamers but were re-engined in the 1950s-1960s. Another former steamer, converted to diesel electric propulsion during that period, the Montreux of 1904, returned to steam with the fitting of a brand new bridge-controlled steam engine in 2000. Plans to return the other paddlers to steam have never materialised. Hopefully some means of returning Vevey and her diesel electric fleetmates to service will be forthcoming in the not too distant future.

Although there are many video films of Swiss lake paddle steamers (and their engines in operation) on YouTube, this is the only one I've seen showing a diesel electric engineroom - not as dramatic as a steam engine but still very interesting.

Second video shows some of the farewell events that occured during her last weekend in service

Note the 'Au Revoir ?' pennant flying from her mainmast

Stuart Cameron

Skibladner - the World's Oldest Operational Paddle Steamer

2010-11-01T01:45:00.000Z

Some good videos (especially the first one) of the world's oldest operational paddle steamer, the Skibladner (built 1856) on Lake Mjosa in Norway

[youtube][http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DpkRskry_Ps/youtube]

Chairman's Blog No 14 - Branch Festive Lunch Cruise 2010.

2010-10-29T12:07:00.000+01:00

Yes folks it getting towards that time of year again - you know - the one where we all eat and drink far too much, watch the Wizard of Oz and The Great Escape for the zillionth time on Christmas Day and then eat Turkey for the next month!!

Well how about getting away from all that for the day with the Scottish Branch Festive Cruise?

On Monday 27th December the Branch have once again chartered Clyde Marine Motoring's mv Cruiser for our popular festive cruise into Loch Goil via Blairmore for a short stopover while the caterers setup a delicious buffet lunch for passengers to enjoy amidst some of the Clyde's most beautiful scenery.

We have been blessed with excellent weather in recent years so heres hoping for a repeat performance in 2010!

Cruiser will leave from Greenock's Victoria Harbour at 11am - returning at 3.30pm.

The Buffet Lunch is optional but is highly recommended!!

Click on the booking form below and select "Print" then fill it out as required.

The form also contains further details of the day.

See you on board!!

Click on Image then Print

Gavin Stewart

Swiss Steamer Rudder Riders

2010-10-25T01:48:00.002+01:00

Re following link - officially its not alllowed but its been going on since my first paddle steamer trip in Switzerland in 1975 and probably much longer. Youths of the lakes, especially Lake Leman, surf on top of the large rudders of the lake steamers until distance from shore or a swift turn of the helm 'encourages' them to depart. Some even hold onto the support spars under the sponsons aft of the paddles and eventually let go when the vessel gets underway - getting washed out of the paddlebox at high velocity. On one occasion a lad's swimming shorts got washed out before he did - he had to swim very fast to retreive them and save his modesty!

Although I was still a teenager in 1975, and was in a group of teenage lads camping in Switzerland, I can't remember any of us wanting to have a go at this!

Crazy Boat Surfers
(Sorry, cannot get YouTube embeds to work here0

Au Revoir 'Jimmy Tickets'

2010-10-18T23:47:00.011+01:00

Jim the Purser, on the paddlebox of his beloved Waverley, at the Isle of Tiree

(picture by Helen Strachan)

Waverley's final sailing of the 2010 season on Sunday 17th October brought the retiral of one of her longest serving crew members, Chief Purser Jim MacFadzean, after 23 summer seasons 'Just Behind the Funnels' of the World's Last Sea-going Paddle Steamer. Undoubtedly, he is the longest serving purser of Waverley's 63 years and few, if any, pursers can have been associated so closely with the operation of one vessel for such a prolonged period in the entire 198 year history of the Clyde Steamers.

Although he had often been on the paddler as a passenger prior to joining the crew, when he was appointed Purser in May 1988 it was his first professional association of any kind with the sea and ships, a fact that is hard to believe nearly quarter of a century later. Coming from an Ayrshire farming family, Jim had been closely associated with that vocation in his native Ayrshire, in other parts of the UK and in North America. It was in the latter period that he caught the bug for his round-the-world wanderings which he has often pursued during his 'winter leave' from Waverley. While the ship has been in hibernation back on a cold and frosty Clydesside, Jim has has undertaken safaris in Africa, visits to the Orient and even some seaborne adventures on definitely larger, arguably more luxurious (well for Jim anyway!), rarely more famous and never more historic vessels than the World's Last Seagoing Paddle Steamer!

I well remember his first weekend as Purser, out of Oban in the spring of 1988 and it was something of a baptism of fire. After a 'single 'in service training day by the late Mr David Duncanson, then General Manag'er of Waverley Excursions, it was over to Jim - since then he has really made the job his own. His prediction on that first day that it would be a 'fill in' job for a couple of seasons before returning to farm management proved to be somewhat inaccurate. As the 'public face' of Waverley he is unrivalled. Thousands upon thousands of people know the purser of Waverley and not just from Clydeside or the ships other operational areas around the UK - he has been recognised as such during his winter wanderings in distant shores as far flung as Cape Town, South Africa and Hong Kong.

During the 2010 season Jim has received kindly given gifts, thanks and good wishes from people and Branches of the PSPS around the UK - a mark the genuine affection which so many people around the country (and even further afield) have for him due to his tremendous contribution to the preservation of Waverley and due to his genuine care for his passengers and fellow crew members, his friendship and good humour.

During Waverley's penultimate sailing of 2010 Jim was joined by several of his former assistant pursers from the last 23 years for an unique 'Pursors Collection' picture on the paddle box steps.

Jim and his Assistant Pursers
(Back Row l to r: Simon Morgan, Paul Semple, Jim, David Edwards and Tony Gamblin
Front Row: Campbell Watt, Gary Stevenson and Scott Adams)
(Photo by Dr Joe McKendrick)

On the ship's last call of the year at Blairmore, at a short ceremony on the pier, Captain Alistair McLundie, Chairman of the Friends of Blairmore Pier Trust, presented Jim with an honorary membership of the Trust and a wonderful retirement cake. A short video of the ceremony can be seen at

http://ardentinny.org/2010/10/16/blairmore-pier-presentation-to-retiring-waverley-purser/

Captain McLundie of the Blairmore Pier Trust making the presentation to Jim

(Photo by Dr Joe McKendrick)

The Certificate and Cake presented to Jim by the Blairmore Pier Trust
(Photo by Dr Joe McKendrick)

During the last sailing of Waverley's 2010 Season, signal flags spelling out Jim's initials 'J M C F' were flown from the paddlers foremast in his honour.

Signal flags J M C F for Jim's last day as purser

(Photo by Dr Joe McKendrick)

While the vessel was sailing Round Bute, at a special ceremony Jim was thanked on behalf passengers, crew, PSPS and Waverley Excursions. Speaking from the perspective of a passenger, PSPS member and Scottish Branch committee member Paul Semple described Jim as the best 'people person' he knew, a comment that drew applause from the audience, a quality that was obviously a mainstay of Jim's long successful 'Pursership'. Paul presented Jim with a large cheque being the aggregate sum of donations contributed by regular passengers of the Waverley. In his alternative role as a crew member, Paul thanked Jim for the wise counsel and advice that was freely available to fellow crew members of all deparments and ranks. PSPS Scottish Branch Chairman Gavin Stewart presented Jim with an engraved decanter (and some 'stuff' to put in it) as a mark of the thanks of his 'home' branch and Waverley Excursions Ltd Chairman Graeme Hogg thanked Jim for all his efforts on behalf of the Company. (subsequently WEL hosted a retirement dinner for Jim , attended by many of his colleagues, past and present, in the Crowne Plaza Hotel at Sobcross Quay, Glasgow on 18th October). Finally Jim cut a tremendous, large retirement cake - thanks to Catering Manager Craig Peacock and the catering department for that)

Jim's Retirement Cake

(Picture by Andy Gilmour)

On the return sailing Jim sported an unique version of Waverley's world famous wooly hats. The special hat, produced personally by Waverley's Chief Hat-knitter Jenny Longhurst, bore the appropriate legend 'Dun Pursering'. As Waverley returned to her home base at the old No 81 berth at Plantation Quay, Glasgow and her giant paddlewheels beat their last beats of 2010, Jim 'signed off' with his final announcement over the 'Tannoy', thanking everyone for their gifts, kind comments and good wishes and for making his final day so memorable.

Au Revoir Mr Purser. Thanks for giving us so many wonderful days out around the beautiful British coastline. Please don't be a stranger in future; come back to see us often but, most of all, have a very long, healthy and happy retirement.

'Jimmy Tickets' looking back on a long and illustrious career

on the World's Last Seagoing Paddle Steamer

(Picture by Tom Dunlop)

Stuart Cameron
on behalf of Scottish Branch Committee

Dr James Moore

2010-10-17T02:39:00.004+01:00

On this day, Waverley's last sailing day of the 2010 season, it is with deep regret that we have to record the passing of one of her greatest supporters during the 35 years that she has been under operational preservation. PSPS member Dr James Moore answered the call during the early days of the paddler's operation by Waverley Excursions and took on the significant task of distribution timetables, leaflets and publicity thoughout the Ayrshire coast and its hinterlands. His wife Mona also played a big part in this all important work. During the 1980s and 1990s Dr Moore served as the Chairman of Waverley Excursions Limited, the paddler's operating company, for a period of well over a decade. We will never know how he managed to fit in all of these tasks in parallel with his professional commitments as a surgeon in Ayr but we will be eternally thankful that his dedication to Waverley was so strong during that crucial period of her preservation. James and Mona continued to support the cause right into the current sailing season and it was good to see both of them on the upper deck of Waverley, enjoying the sunshine as the paddler cruised round Ailsa Craig from Ayr, on the final day of her main Clyde season at the end of August. Following his retirement a number of years ago he embarked on a project that had interested him over a prolonged period, researching and ultimately producing a fine little book on the history of the Port of Ayr.

To Dr Moore's widow Mona and the family we wish to record our sincere thanks for all of the hard work that he performed on a completely voluntary basis over the last 3 decades and offer our condolances on your sad loss - he will be long remembered by his many friends on the Waverley.

During her final sailings of 2010, 16th and 17th October, the Red Ensign at Waverley's stern will be flying at half mast as a mark of respect for her great friend and supporter Dr James Moore.

(Photo: Tom Dunlop)

Stuart Cameron
Scottish Branch Committee

Waverley says Bon Voyage to new Cunarder.

2010-10-13T16:12:00.000+01:00

On Tuesday 12th October Waverley undertook a sell out cruise to view and escort newly delivered Cunard cruise ship Queen Elizabeth leaving Southampton on her Maiden Voyage.

This is the second cunarder Waverley has escorted in 2010, the first being QE's Vista class sister Queen Victoria when she visited Greenock in July.

Photos can be found here & here.

The Clyde sees visits from two of the Cunard fleet in Sept 2011 with Queen Elizabeth visiting as part of her round UK tour and flagship Queen Mary 2 as part of her round UK tour (in the opposite direction to QE) - this will be QM2's second visit to Greenock.

Chairman's Blog No13 - ps Lincoln Castle Update.

2010-10-13T10:55:00.001+01:00

As you may recall the PSPS were offered the former Humber Car / Passenger paddler Lincoln Castle earlier this year. For very real reasons the society council made the difficult decision not to take on the ageing vessel due to the level of work required to make her a viable entity for ongoing preservation whilst not posing a risk to Waverley, Kingswear Castle and Balmoral.

It transpired at the time the PSPS council were making the decision another potential buyer had appeared and all (we thought) was well. HOWEVER this was a false dawn and despite the forming of a preservation group the owner of the vessel took matters into his own hands and demolition of the 1940 Inglis built vessel started.

I recently received an email from Chris Woolley containing the following link which takes up the story and has photos of the vessel in the stages of demolition.

ps Lincoln Castle update.

It is my personal opinion that any potential preservation candidate should of course be considered but in these difficult economic times the financial implications not only of the project but the effect on existing interests must always take precedence. The society's volunteers have helped it keep it's vessels in service through good and bad. Taking on Lincoln Castle would have been a paddler too far.

Thanks to Chris for sending the update link.

Gavin Stewart
Scottish Branch Chairman

La Suisse 2009

2010-10-08T00:03:00.000+01:00

After looking at the video clips suggested by Stuart I thought I could share some pictures taken of La Suisse when I visited Lake Geneva in 2009.

Arriving Montreux

The standards of the recent rebuild are very high and I was particularly impressed by the main dining saloon. I tend to take a number of interior photos as they help to give an impression of what it is like to sail aboard a certain vessel. The following pictures give some indication of the high standard of finish which was achieved in the rebuild of La Suisse.

The main first class dining saloon in neo-classic "Louis XVI" style

The staircase from the main deck to the upper first class deck. Note the "glass" deck aft of the engine.
This is also a feature on the other recently rebuilt Lake Geneva paddle Savoie.

The upper deck dining area during a busy lunch time service

Upper deck looking forward

The Sulzer engine

Departing Lausanne-Ouchy

Paul Semple

Rebuilding La Suisse

2010-10-06T23:52:00.011+01:00

Some interesting short High Definition videos of the recent circa £12m (if I remember correctly) rebuild and re-entry to service of the Lake Leman (Lake of Geneva) paddle steamer and flagship La Suisse, which has been celebrating her 100th year on the lake in 2010.

The videos appear on YouTube and, as I could not get the embed codes to work here, I've just posted a normal links. For best viewing quality click through to the YouTube site, select the highest definition version and full screen viewing on the bar below the video window. Some of the 720p HD versions are biggish files, so they might take a while to load on first viewing depending on the speed of your internet connection (may be impractical if you are on a dial-up connection but you can select lower res versions) - but they are definitely worth waiting for.

First up video shows La Suisse entering the covered drydock at her owners' (Compagnie Generale di Navigatione sur la Lac Leman) shipyard at Ouchy in the city of Laussane on the north (Swiss) shore of the lake at the start of the rebuild on 1st October 2007. The rebuild lasted until spring 2009 so La Suisse did not sail at all in 2008. She is a big paddler in Swiss terms (slightly longer than Waverley) so she has to be 'shoe-horned' into the drydock. Her masts are removed as is the top of her funnel as she proceeds into the dock. This video is not HD - max res is 360p

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-fldk1BSSA0

Jump forward to 6th April 2009 with underwater hull work complete there are two videos of her re-emerging from the dock, still with loads of work to do at the steamer lay up berths. In the first video the wee tug take a while to build up some momentum. PS Savoie also undergoing pre-season preparation work (max res 720p HD)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zqtPtxFg980

and, with views of four of the other CGN paddlers, including the now redundant DPV Italie lying, forlornly, at the outer quay wall. DPV Vevey was withdrawn from service in Sept 2010 and, with plans to re-convert them to steam effectively gone, the future of the three diesel engined paddlers on this lake does not look great at present

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mI7hQYRB6CM&NR=1

The next two videos, from 17th April 2009, show La Suisse heading out of the yard for the first trial of her rebuilt 99 year old compound steam engine , originally built by the famous firm of Sulzer Brothers of Winterthur. Sulzer built quite a number of paddle steamers for the Swiss lakes commencing with the Schwyz and Victoria in 1870 for Lake Lucerne. Recently it has emerged that they apparently sub-contracted at least part of these vessels (possibly the design and the hulls) as the records of the famous Clyde shipbuilder Barclay Curle & Co show paddle steamers of these names being supplied to Sulzer Brothers in that year.
In the first video engine entablatures still in undercoat paint colour. With her windows blanked and deck fittings still missing it is obvious that there is still a lot of fitting out work to be done (720p HD)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7tpPn6QPWEs&NR=1

and

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eIL3I2Tdkoo&feature=related

Next one seems to be from a TV news programme talking to people involved in the rebuild - some of you may recognise Didier Zuchuat from his visits to Waverley some years back. (afraid my French isn't up to providing a complete interpretation!) Sometimes an advert plays at the start but it doen't last long - some nice views of the wonderfully restored 'Belle Epoque' interiors

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AQgDZ-uytgE&feature=related

Next, the big day arrives, 16th May 2009, and the magnificently rebuilt 99 year old paddle steamer La Suisse goes away astern from the passenger berth at Ouchy with her steam whistle blowing, balloons rising and her special decorations giving new meaning to the terms 'flagship' and 'dressed overall'. Good for another century. There is even the sound of a few Alphorns near the end

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OYkXi9Rq060

Next a high res video of the departure from a different view point (720p HD)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KJYRzGchwi8

and out in the lake off Lausanne (720p HD)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XD2yOc_KO1E&NR=1

Now another great HD clip, passing the wonderful chateau de Chillon on the rebuilt paddler one of my favorite parts of Lake Leman (720p HD)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W9_U13mFo68

Another HD of her arriving at Lausanne Ouchy with the Savoy Alps and the French shore of the lake as the background (720p HD)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NQG5E1bAa_U

Short one on 16 June 2009 of her coming round the headland between chateau de Chillon and the world famous Swiss riviera resort of Montreux, calling there then departing again in the direction of Lausanne and Geneva

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HjEpHpIPujA

and finally another of her arriving and leaving Montreux (from up the hill this time) passing the now redundant DPV Vevey - something we might never see again

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9HvHQvi1Yag&NR=1

Stuart Cameron

The Three Lochs

2010-09-24T13:49:00.000+01:00

Another short story from Robin Copland - this time focussing on a trip more than a particular vessel.

Photos are all copyright and cannot be duplicated elsewhere without premission of the holder.

Buses have never done anything for me – really, they haven’t. It is funny how very early in your life, you take a scunner to something, and that’s it. For me – it’s buses. I know, I know; call me old-fashioned, bitter and twisted if you want, but buses have never been my thing. Don’t get me wrong – I use them all the time; I religiously sit at the front of the top deck (tricky that, in a single-decker) and I watch the world go by but if you really want to get me going, show me a ship or a train and I’m your man.

This is a long way of saying that the “Famed Loch Eck Tour”, which involved horrific distances (to my way of thinking) on a bus going up and down hill and dale, surrounded all the while by old people (of which, of course, I am now one!), sniffling and chattering and gazing solemnly and lovingly at the passing scenery, would have sent me into the deepest kind of catatonic coma that it would be possible to imagine. I would of course jump at the chance now of such a trip – even with the bus portion! Imagine sailing on TS Duchess of Montrose down Loch Fyne and round through the Kyles of Bute to Rothesay and Dunoon; sign me up, why don’t you, for such an ethereal and joyous sail. But then, in my, by now, teenage years, buses were for the hoi polloi and not for me!

There was one cruise that did tick all the boxes though in those far-off days and that was the “Three Lochs tour”. If you were resident in Largs, there was really only one day in the mid 1960’s when you could do the “Three Lochs” and that was Thursday. By the time I did it, I was no longer the eight-year-old, jellyfish-splattering youngster of a few years earlier; I was now of an age where I was let loose on my own, as long as I demonstrated a willingness to save up at least some of my pocket money to finance things myself.

Thus it was, one sunny Thursday in July, I made my way out of the house, along past Cairnie’s Quay, named for John Cairnie, the one-armed surgeon who was so instrumental in the development of the great Scottish sport of curling; past the old outdoor drafts game; past the lovely big ice cream kiosk run by Nardini’s – the one that used always to remind me of a Victorian bandstand; past the boating pond, where children set sail to their toy yachts more in hope than expectation; past the putting green with its four separate 18-hole courses; and over the Gogo burn towards the pier in the centre of town. By this time, the lovely wee red sandstone pierhead building that housed a small gaming arcade had been replaced by the ghastly, flat-roofed Cumbraen Club, but beyond it, mercifully, the front remained largely unchanged, with its small games stalls, car park and, behind it, the Victorian frontage housing seaside hotels, shops, pubs and residential flats.

The stone beach to the north of the pier was a scene of bustling activity with the wooden rowing and motor boats doing a roaring trade in the early to mid-morning. Their temporary “piers” fingered out into the shallow water in the shelter of the old stone pier and unused boats bobbed gently against them or lay still and angled up on the shingle.

It was always my practice to head down to the pier early just to see what might catch my eye. Largs at this time was still a busy source of business for long distance cruises so, where possible, the timetable planners either had ships calling directly at the pier or, where that was inconvenient, arranged for transfers via Rothesay, Wemyss Bay or Dunoon. The first part of my “Three Lochs” cruise was a connecting service to Dunoon via Wemyss Bay and it was typically MV Countess of Breadalbane or one of the four “Maids” that transported the Largs customers on the first leg of their journey.

mv Maid of Skermorlie (A&J Inglis 1953)

Waiting on the pier, I watched MV Maid of Skelmorlie on her 9.20am sailing to Rothesay. This was an important sailing, because it connected with TS Duchess of Montrose – now, though I did not know it at the time, in her last year of her service on the river – and her Thursday sailing to Inveraray via the Kyles of Bute. DEPV Talisman came alongside next on her 9.30am sailing to Millport. I knew a number of the crew by this time, so had a cheery wee chat with them before they droned off with their ship towards Farland Point and Millport. In the distance, I could see the Skelmorlie make her diesely, smoky way towards Rothesay and, heading across the estuary from Wemyss Bay to Rothesay, there was the splendid, if distant sight of TS Duchess of Montrose herself. You could make her out quite clearly as she passed Toward Point and disappeared into Rothesay Bay. She enjoyed an Indian summer in her last season on the river and it is a matter of much regret for me that never once did I tread her decks. I would have a closer encounter with her around Wemyss Bay later in the day.

There was then a lull at the pier; in the distance I could see one of Ashton or Leven approaching me from Millport, but my attention was drawn to MV Maid of Cumbrae heading our way. The four Maids were amongst my favourites when it came to standing watching them take a pier. Though small, they had twin screws and there was always a nice head of creamy foam as they gripped the water going astern to bring them to a halt. She tied up and the gangway was put out from the landing deck atop the bridge. This would have been a wonderful viewing point for passengers, but the high heid yins thought otherwise for health and safety reasons - they feared the ships would have been top heavy. Stuff and nonsense! Take a look at pictures of the Maid of Cumbrae in her later career as MV Ala in Italy. There she sailed for twenty-five years with an extra deck added the length of her main deck – top heavy indeed! What was a perfectly good observation platform was roped off when they were on the move on the Clyde and this was always a pity.

Neat and purposeful little ships were the “Maids” though. In truth, they were unpopular at first – cramped and noisy compared to their steam-driven cousins and rumour had it that potatoes had to be cut with one flat side so as they did not fall off the plate with all the vibrating! They proved useful servants on the Clyde for their twenty years or so of service though and MV Maid of Cumbrae was even turned into a car ferry to act as “pup” to MV Glen Sannox on the Gourock-Dunoon service. Three of them saw further “active” service abroad and you can still walk on the fourth, MV Maid of Ashton; she was transformed into Hispaniola and now sits dormant on the Thames as an expensive – make that “very expensive” – restaurant ship. Gradually, their time came on the river as the fleet moved from “passenger and excursion” to “car-carrying and essential” and they were sold off, one by one.

In the mid 1960s, they were all as one. The only external difference that all but the most observant could tell was that the Maid of Cumbrae had her name written on the hull in white, slightly lower than on her sisters whose names were emblazoned in black above the hull. A friend of mine was able to tell another couple apart because the staining on the galley door was slightly darker and apparently, one door swung the other way (this was in the days before that phrase had any other meaning!). I gently pointed out to him that, by the time you were close enough to see which side of the door the hinge was on, you could presumably have seen the name on the hull – but that was a detail!

The Cumbrae pulled up handily against the pier and I and about fifty or so others boarded her across the blue gangplanks that were on all the busier piers that the fleet visited. She shook her way from Largs with a goodly crowd aboard her to make her way over to Dunoon via Wemyss Bay. The sail was uneventful and as we approached Dunoon, I could see PS Waverley coming across the firth from Gourock. We berthed at Dunoon and as I disembarked, Waverley made her final approach. She must have been ahead of schedule because she went around the Gantocks and approached outside the Cumbrae and came to a halt in the middle of the three berths at the pier.

Dunoon in those days was a far cry from the Dunoon of today. You can still get a flavour of what it was like when Waverley approaches and one of the streakers occupies the car ferry berth – all is hustle and bustle and there is a hint of what it was like in the sixties. It seemed as if ships were coming and going all of the time in those far-off days – and of course, there was the variety of ships on offer as well. I later learned that the pier had been built by my paternal great grandfather, one William R Copland; he was the chief engineer in charge of the project to increase the size of the pier from single to triple berth. Little did I know, as I tramped from one ship to the other that I was walking upon the work of an ancestor!

At 11.05am, the engine bells sounded and the great paddle wheels started slowly to reverse their ship against the aft rope. Her bow left the pier and once there was enough of an angle, more bells sounded and the paddles, having slowed to a stop, gradually began their forward motion and the stooshie at the rear of the pierside port sponson took shape. As we took our leave, MV Arran approached on her 10.50am run from Gourock. To be honest, my memory is letting me down here and I suspect she may have been running late! Suffice to say that she should have been approaching the pier as we took our leave.

Although the youngest of the paddlers in the fleet by some 13 years or so, Waverley was already 17 years into her life on the river. Her Craigendoran consort, the much-loved Jeanie Deans was in her last season of service on the river and most of the “dreamer” attention was hers. Waverley was a member of the fleet, but still had not developed the following that she enjoys today. She was one of four paddle steamers in the fleet, three of which had originally been “north bank” boats, Waverley, Talisman and Jeanie Deans. The only Gourock survivor by this time was PS Caledonia – still based in Ayr.

I had been on Waverley before as she was a pretty regular visitor to Largs. She had a much more interesting roster than Jeanie Deans to be honest. For the past few seasons, the Jeanie was spared onerous tasks and concentrated on her daily “Round Bute” afternoon cruise. Of all the large cruising ships in the fleet, her lot was the easiest and I suppose we should have seen the writing on the wall, for at the end of the 1964 season, she was withdrawn. Waverley, on the other hand, regularly cruised the waters for which she was originally designed, Lochs Long and Goil, but she also broke free from time to time and was a summertime cruiser around Bute (on her “Round of the Lochs and Firth of Clyde”) as well as a Friday visitor to Glasgow. She took her share of ferry duties on Saturdays when her bigger capacity was needed on the north bank staple run from Craigendoran to Rothesay. In the shoulder season, she regularly took on the turbine cruises as well – to Campbeltown and Ayr. She always acquitted herself well on these runs, according to contemporary reports and had the extra speed in reserve when the occasion demanded.

It was a busy and well used member of the fleet on which I found myself, then. This was her last season in the plain and unadorned buff and black funnels. By this time, the old NB funnels with their distinctive line part way down the buff section where once there had been white paint – they had gone and their replacements’ ever-so-slightly different rake gave her an eccentric look for the next forty-odd years. Her hull was in full camouflage by this time and her black paddle boxes had been repainted the standard issue white in 1959. Her lower hull was still painted black – the blue hull did not make its appearance until the next season and of course the lions would be affixed her to funnels in 1965.

I always think that the nearer the land, the more interesting the sail, so I have always preferred the sail up Loch Long to the sail down Kilbrannan Sound, for example. In those days, and to ensure that it really was a tour of “Three Lochs”, Waverley would poke her nose into Loch Goil about as far up the loch as Carrick Castle. There had been a pier at Lochgoilhead for many a year, of course and up until recently, it had been a regular destination for the Clyde Steamers. Not by now, though, so after a wide and lazy circle had been drawn in the waters of the Loch, she turned to port and headed north and Cobbler-wards to Arrochar, where the second, entertaining diversion would take place, for it was here that I took leave of Waverley for the day and went for a walk! We fetched up against the old wooden pier on time at 1.25pm.

Arrochar Pier taken from Waverley

Arrochar is a pretty little highland village that straddles the north-east tip of Loch Long. It is at a crossroads and three roads wind their way away from the village – the road to Inveraray over the infamous “Rest and Be Thankful”, the road west to Loch Lomond and onwards to Glasgow and the road that twists its merry little way down Loch Long towards Gareloch and Helensburgh. The small pier – now sadly a derelict matchstick reminder of former glories – had been a regular destination for north bank steamers for over a hundred years, but the Caledonian Steam Packet Company was not averse to sending its “crack” steamers into enemy territory in answer to Jeanie Deans early-thirties invasion of Arran! TS Duchess of Hamilton, for example, used to snake her way up the loch to the pier all the way from Ayr on a day excursion and there are photographs of her and her great rival, the Jeanie cosying up to each other on the single berth pier. Words would have been exchanged had there been damage to respective hulls, I have no doubt!

In the mid-sixties, Arrochar was still visited almost daily by a Clyde steamer and many passengers took the advice in the timetable of the time and made their own way across the narrow isthmus between the seawater Loch Long and the freshwater Loch Lomond. There was over an hour allowed for this traverse, so there was plenty of time to take in the highland scenery and possible even detour up to the Swiss chalet style station on the West Highland line that serves the two communities – Arrochar and Tarbet. Tarbet – then as now – was dominated by the Victorian Tarbert Hotel, a fine stopping point on the notorious A88 up Loch Lomond’s west bank. I went straight down to the pier to see what could be seen and to watch PS Maid of the Loch maker her white-hulled approach, heading south from Ardlui. She made a fine sight and was a beautiful ship to the eye as she sailed through the placid waters of the loch. She still sported two masts in those days and there was plenty of deck space from which to enjoy the sumptuous views on offer.

She approached the pier in somewhat leisurely style compared to her cousins on the river, but she was on time, as I recall, for her 2.35pm departure; this being fresh water as I have mentioned – the commotion as her paddles went into reverse to fetch her up against the pier was less impressive. Gangways were loaded; some passengers disembarked and it was time to board her for the first time in my young life.

There really is something special, is there not, in “bagging” a new ship! To this day, I get excited boarding a ship for the first time and I always make a point of going to explore her nooks and her crannies almost before I do anything else! Not for me this “sitting down in one place and watching the world go by” type of cruising! I’m much more of an “up and at ‘em” kind of a chap!

PS Maid of the Loch had been built at the A and J Inglis Ltd yard in 1953, but was too big to be towed up the river Leven, so she was dismantled and the sections transported by road to Balloch, where they were reassembled. The aluminium superstructure was then added and the vessel fitted out with boilers and machinery, the work of Rankin and Blackmore Ltd of Greenock, whose engine, of course, powers Waverley to this day.

The standard of service onboard was high, although I had already eaten my lunch on Waverley the smells wafting skyward from the galley chimney spoke of good food being well-prepared. The waters though which she travelled were less punishing than on the river, so she was a bright, airy boat and plenty of light got through the big picture windows that extended all the way back to her stern. Aluminium deck houses, painted overall in white, gave excellent views and passengers could use the open top deck as well.

Maid of the Loch (A&J Inglis 1953) at Balloch Pier

There was one big difference between her and her river cousins: if you stood on deck as still as you could, you could detect an ever-so-slight forward and back motion as she travelled through the water – reminiscent, I suppose, of the older Clyde paddle steamers. The reason was that only two cranks drove the paddles compared to the three then prevalent on Waverley, Caledonia and Jeanie Deans. This was a real throwback to older times. You soon got used to it though and the sail down to Balloch passed serenely and all-too quickly, the journey between Tarbet and Balloch taking just under an hour and a half.
Back in those days, the Balloch branch railway line extended all the way to the loch side, hard by the Maid’s overnight berth. The transfer from the Maid to the train was a less onerous affair than from Arrochar to Tarbert. A “blue train” awaited us, still in its original blue colour scheme with the yellow and black line that ran the length of the coaches. The “blue train” was still in its relative infancy, having been introduced in 1959 (there were problems with their transformers, so they were taken out of service before being reintroduced in 1961) and represented an incredible advance on what had gone before. The train was clean and, again, like Maid of the Loch, it was airy. It glided along the single line from the pier, over the level crossing to Balloch Central. Those of us – and there were a discernible number by now on nodding terms – on the “Three Lochs” tour had now completed all three lochs, but of course, there were more adventures to come! We took the train as far as Dumbarton, where we changed to a Helensburgh-bound train to make the connection with our next ship at Craigendoran. This was all new territory to me, I have to tell you! We summered as a family in Largs but were – indeed, if I am honest, still probably am despite my years through in the east! – resolute south-siders. Balloch, Dumbarton, Craigendoran and points north and west – you might as well have been talking to me about Tibet!

Although the railway along the north bank looked settled, in reality, there had been a lot of change over the years since the line to Helensburgh was first opened in 1857. Like all these things, the settled appearance hid the changes of earlier times and was, of course, illusionary. Craigendoran pier and station was only opened, for example, on 15 May 1882, long after the original line to Helensburgh had been laid. The pier and railhead was opened there because of local opposition to a similar facility in the centre of Helensburgh and thus came about the fairly anomalous railhead that was somewhat removed from the population centre that it was meant to serve. Actually – that’s not really fair; Craigendoran was merely a staging post on the NB’s route to the Clyde coast. Within a decade of my visit, of course, in 1972, Craigendoran was finally shut as a Clyde pier and with its closure died almost a century of north bank services to the outer parts of the river. Already, by the time I visited the pier, the offices lay derelict and the pier had seen its best days. Today, if you know where to look, the pier lies empty and derelict and its two fingers seem to be sending one last message of defiance and admonition in the general direction of “the enemy” across the river!

It was still an important railhead in 1964 though and, each night, Jeanie Deans, Waverley and one of the Maids – in the fifties, it had been the Argyll, but by this time, the ships rotated rosters. Can you imagine that, dear reader? Two steam-driven paddle steamers and a Maid! Where’s the camera?
We exited the train, made our way to the pier and onto the ship. I was mildly surprised to find that it was, in fact, Waverley that was waiting for us – I remember assuming that it was going to be one of the Maids. After dropping the “Three Lochers” off at Arrochar, Waverley had waited at Arrochar for barely an hour before retracing her route down Loch Long to Blairmore, then across the firth to Craigendoran. Her regular Arrochar passengers – the ones who had arrived by train that morning at Craigendoran, made their way off the ship and onto a train.

Waverley at Craigendoran (Caledonia just out of shot)

Waverley reversed out of Craigendoran pier and we began our sail back towards Dunoon, via Kilcreggan and Gourock. As we made our way across the firth, TS Queen Mary II was returning direct to Glasgow (Bridge Wharf) from Dunoon and we passed each other mid-firth. “Majestic” might be the word to describe Queen Mary II. She was not swift, like the Duchesses, but her greater beam meant that she could cope with the large crowds that regularly joined her of a morning. She called at Gourock on her way out to Tighnabruaich, but missed out the Caley’s headquarter pier on her return trip to Glasgow. The pursers had to be sharp at Dunoon and make sure that the Gourock passengers disembarked at the Argyll pier to connect to one of the regular Dunoon to Gourock services. If you were a really smart Gourock passenger, you went for a wee walk in Dunoon – maybe enjoyed an ice cream as you did – and you awaited either TS Duchess of Montrose at 7.00pm or TS Duchess of Hamilton at 7.20pm! Those in a hurry caught the official 5.45pm connecting service on one of the ABC car ferries.

Please; give me a break – nobody’s in that much of a hurry!

At Dunoon, we said our goodbyes to Waverley and made our way to MV Maid of Cumbrae, which was returning to Largs after her afternoon cruise to Loch Goil. We left Dunoon sharp at 5.45pm and made our way across the firth to Wemyss Bay. As we left the pier, the car ferry departed and made her plodding way back whence she came to Gourock. Can you imagine it? Back and forth, day-in day-out on the MV Arran!

The next half hour or so was actually rather fun for the “steamer dreamers” onboard! As we crossed over the firth to Wemyss Bay, PS Jeanie Deans came round Toward Point on her return from the Round Bute Cruise that was her lot by this last season in her career. She was similar in layout to Waverley, though her 1930’s hull was longer than her younger consort and somehow more elegant; her main deck windows were completely different in their layout. The big difference between the two ships though was the fact that the Jeanie proudly held on to her NB heritage to the end; she never lost her black paddleboxes. Everything else conformed to the Caley norm except, for some reason, her paddleboxes. And she looked all the better for it.

As we crossed the firth making for Wemyss Bay, TS Duchess of Hamilton could be seen on her sprint from Largs to Rothesay and her sister, TS Duchess of Montrose followed the Jeanie out of Rothesay on her return from Inveraray. She came straight across the firth heading, like us, for Wemyss Bay, but was scheduled to arrive 15 minutes after we departed. We left Wemyss Bay on time at 6.20pm and as we turned to head south along the coast towards our final destination, Largs, the Montrose began to slow on her final approach into Wemyss Bay.

There was just something about the two Duchesses that set them apart from the other turbines of similar vintage. Where TS Queen Mary was beamier but shorter, with her boat deck extending all the way (almost) to her bulbous stern, the two Duchesses were longer and their boat decks had a nice “step” in them towards the back. The “step” theme was echoed in their sterns where a small half-deck for the rope handlers seemed to finish them off – just so. If you see a picture of either of them taken from the stern, you will see how tapered and graceful their hull shapes were. TS King George V – based in Oban of course, but originally built for Turbine Steamers Ltd, an operating subsidiary of Williamson-Buchanan Steamers Ltd – did not have that stepped arrangement and looked less elegant – to my eyes at least – as a result. Though older than the Montrose and Hamilton by four and six years respectively, she outlasted them, so her builders, Denny’s of Dumbarton obviously did a good job when they built her as the first of the “new-generation” turbines in 1926!

Gradually, we picked up speed for the last leg of our trip along the coast to Largs and, with a lingering glance back to the pier to watch Duchess of Montrose make fast, we made our uneventful way home.

What a day it had been, mind you – what a day indeed! A Maid, Waverley, Maid of the Loch, a trip on the north bank rail line and a nice highland walk to boot. Sadly, the fleet was about to embark on the first of a series of changes that would result, within the decade, in there being only two traditional steamers left on the river – one turbine and one paddler. Jeanie Deans and Duchess of Montrose were the first to go; they were followed in quick succession by Talisman, Caledonia and Duchess of Hamilton. Not long after that, the pioneering Maids were disposed of one by one.

More of those changes another time...

Robin Copland

Sailing up the Clyde on Paddle Steamer Caledonia in 1965

2010-09-21T21:44:00.002+01:00

A super colour film of the weekly Friday cruise up the River Clyde to Glasgow on one of the paddle steamers of the Caledonian Steam Packet Company. The film dates from 1965 (probably August). The Friday upriver sailing was shared by the paddle steamers Caledonia and Waverley. In this film we join the Caledonia at Gourock Pier and sail up a very busy River Clyde to the Bridge Wharf in Glasgow,

Highlights

0:00 Caledonia arriving and departing Gourock

0:10 Tanker British Confidence (built by John Brown's Yard No 716) at Greenock Princes Pier during trials

0:29 Tanker Orissa (Lithgows YN 1152) in new Firth of Clyde Drydock Company's Inchgreen drydock

0:38 Doon the Watter turbine steamer Queen Mary II comin downriver

1:26 Steel & Bennie tug Vanguard with Drysdale pump works in Yoker beyond

1:31 A Clan Liner in the new Elderslie Drydock No 3 with the grab dredger Lennox II in the soon to disappear Clyde Navigation Trusts maroon hulled and black funnel livery dredging outside the drydock

1:43 One of the white hulled Royal Navy Survey ship's, Hecla or Hecate, and one of the 70-feet Clyde-class lifeboats Grace Paterson Ritchie or Charles H Barrett in Yarrow's covered fitting out basin

1:50 The bulk carrier Mountpark at Connell's Scotstoun shipysrd just a few days before launch

1:54 Port Burnie at Diesel Wharf (built Barclay Curle)

2:01 Tin dredger under construction at Alexander Stephens Linthouse Yard

2:10 Very brief look at the ill-fated passenger / car ferry Wahine in Fairfield's Basin She was being built for the Union Steamship Company of New Zealand's Cook Strait service. She was lost in a storn a year or so later

2:21 Harland & Wolff's Govan shipyard after demolition - Vehicular Ferryboat No 4 crossing at /Govan

2:28 Clyde Navigation Trust grab dredger Sir William H Raeburn at Govan Drydocks

2:40 Caledonia at Bridge Wharf

2:52 Very rare view of the new bucket ladder Blythswood in old CNT livery discharging river bed silt dredgings into one of the steam hopper barges

3:22 Swedish America Liner Kungsholm and assault ship HMS Intrepid fitting out in Browns Basin

Sailing up the Clyde

2010-09-14T21:33:00.005+01:00

Some pictures from a beautiful Saturday evening as Waverley sailed up her native River Clyde towards the end of her 2010 main Clyde sailing season.

Waverley off Tighnabruaich

Racing up the West Kyle (of Bute)

Returning to Tighnabruaich

The 'brakes' go on (i.e. the paddle wheels are set to run fast in the reverse direction of their normal rotation) to bring the vessel to a halt alongside the traditional steamboat pier at Tighnabruaich, one of only a few such structures still in existance. In past times, when many vessels such as Waverley would call at these piers in the course of a summer's day, the approach to the berth in all directions would be maintained clear of small anchored craft but this is no longer the case and today's Masters of the Clyde's last paddle steamer have much less room for manouvring a vessel that is much less manouvrable than her modern counterparts. Paddle steamers must be kept steaming along at a fairly high speed to maintain steerage. Fortunately, the paddle steamers have one mitigating attribute - their ability to stop much quicker than ships fitted with conventional screw propellers. Its an asset that skippers new to paddlers must learn about and put to good effect very quickly.

The paddler 'on the knuckle' at Helensburgh pier, the only way in and out of the pier for a vessel of Waverley's size and manouvrability at lower states of the tide.

Looking astern towards the Bowling bend as the sun decends behind the Kilpatrick Hills and the more distant hills of Argyll

Looking astern, having just past under the Erskine Bridge, which will celebrate its 40th year in 2011

Waverley's passengers enjoy a fine evening for the paddler's run upriver

This is where rural Clydeside meets industrial Clydeside (or whats left of it at least). The flat fields on the right are on Newshot Isle, which, if truth be known, is not an island at all - but it was at one time over two centuries ago. Gradually the old south channel of the River Clyde silted up and Newshot became attached to mainland Renfrewshire near Inchinnan. In the 1960s the Clydebank shipbuilding company John Brown (more of which below), recognising that their yard would not be able to produce the large tankers and other vessels then being proposed by their competitors inthe Far East, proposed a plan whereby the old channel to the south of Newshort would be re-opened and greatly expanded to become the main shipping channel on the river, Once the river had been diverted to the south of Newshot they planned to turn the north channel into a vast shipbuilding drydock, capable of accommodating the largest ships envisaged at the time. Needless to say the plan never materialised, which is probably just as well

As Waverley steams round Dalmuir bend on her run upriver the scene ahead is much changed from the halcyon days of Clyde shipbuilding. Only Sir William Arrol & Company's first giant cantilever crane, the Clydebank Titan, remains to mark the site of the world-famous Clydebank shipyard. The yard was laid out at Barns o' Clyde in the 1870s by established shipbuilders J & G Thomson when the site of their original yard was required for the new Plantation Quay and Princes Dock (now occupied by the Glasgow Science Centre and BBC Scotland). Thomson's built many state of the art and world renowned ships, including the record-breaking twin liners City of Paris and City of New York for the Inman Line. Successive owners of the Clydebank shipyard were the Clydebank Shipbuilding & Engineering Company, John Brown & Company, Upper Clyde Shipbuilders Ltd, Marathon UK Ltd and finally UIE Scotland Ltd. During the 65 years that the yard was owned by John Brown it built many of the world's largest, fastest and most famous ships - RMS Lusitania, RMS Aquitania, HMS Hood, RMS Empress of Britain (II), RMS Queen Mary, RMS Queen Elizabeth, HMS Vanguard, HMY Britannia, RMS Transvaal Castle and RMS Queen Elizabeth 2 (Yard No 736) to name a few. The final ship built at Clydebank was the humble bulk carrier Alisa in 1972. For the next 20 years the yard continued to be productive, turning out massive and complex structures for the North Sea offshore industries but it finally closed after almost 120 years of world-leading engineering. It left behind a town that may not have existed had the Thomson brothers not moved to this site and brought with them the name of their original shipyard - Clyde Bank. The site of Brown's East yard is now occupied by the new Clydebank College (as seen behind the Titan, above) but the site of the West yard,where the Titan stands in splendid isolation, is still largely derelict, almost a decade and a half after this once centre of engineering excellence closed - a stark reminder of how much easier it is to be destructive of undevalued assets and skills that it is to create them and maintain them.

Passing Garmoyle (Erskine beyond)

Approaching Scotstoun and the almost complete new Type 45 destroyer HMS Diamond

HMS Defender, the 5th of 6 Type 45 destroyers to be fitted out at BAE Systems Scotstoun shipyard. The Scotstoun shipyard was founded by Alfred Yarrow in 1906 when he moved his business and 300 of his Thames-based staff from his former shipyard at Poplar. In this view Defender is berthed in No 3 Drydock at the Elderslie Dockyard (or '3 Dock' as it is now known). The Elderslie Dockyard was created by John Shearer & Co in 1907 when his slip dock at Kelvinhaugh was removed to make way for Yorkhill Quay, the latest extension to Glasgow Harbour. The No 1 Drydock was converted into a covered drydock in the 1980s. No 2 Drydock was added at a later date (upriver of the No1 dock) and the No 3 dock was added in the mid 1960s. Until the mid 1970s the Elderslie Dockyard was operated as a commercial ship maintenance facility by Barclay Curle Shiprepairers and it was common to see 4 or 5 large merchant ships undergoing overhaul or refit simultaneously

A detail of Defender

HMS Diamond (D34), the third of six Type 45 destroyers to be built at BAE Systems Clyde shipyards

MV Rover, Clyde-built at Renfrew in 1964 for Greenock-based Clyde Marine, one of the oldest family run businesses on the Clyde. In 2010 Rover has been operating a new passenger service between Braehead, Glasgow Science Centre (ex Plantation Quay) and the Broomielaw, the Port of Glasgow's original quayside.

Passing the small bulk cargo vessel A B Liverpool, loading scrap metal, at Shieldhall Quay

Launch and Career of a Clydebuilt Icon to be celebrated.

2010-09-09T13:51:00.003+01:00

The 43rd anniversary of the launch of the iconic Queen Elizabeth 2 is to be marked by events at her birthplace of Clydebank.

Waverley and QE2 met many times during the liner's long and illustrious career and I hope that members will take the time to support this event.

Clydebank ♥s the QE2! is an event organised by clyde walking tours™, in association with QE2 website and forum theqe2story.com and will consist of a 90 minute walking tour of Clydebank including the former site of the world famous shipbuilders John Brown and the area formerly occupied by the very slipway on which QE2 and many other famous liners were built and launched.

In the evening a 1 hour presentation on QE2 will be delivered by the qe2story's Rob Lightbody in the Cunard Suite, Clydebank College (College Square, Queens' Quay, G81 1BF).

For more details and to buy tickets please visit http://qe2.eventbrite.com/

Visit the internet's premier QE2 website and forum at http://www.theqe2story.com/index.html where you will find many many interesting facts, discussions and features on the world's most famous ocean liner - including Q&A sessions with two of the QE2's former masters!!

QE2 on the Clyde for the final time Oct 2008 © G Stewart

End of Season Sunshine

2010-08-31T13:28:00.003+01:00

After a dismal July it was good to see Waverley enjoy better weather and loadings in August. The last 2 days of her main Clyde season were particularly good with blue skies and crystal clear views - the following pictures were taken during the last half hour of the final day sailing to Ailsa Craig .

Looking back to Ailsa Craig one of the most important bird sancturies in the UK and third largest location for breeding gannets (after St Kilda and Bass Rock) with 40,000 pairs

Passing village of Dunure, with its impressive castle ruins, basking in the evening sunshine

The Heads of Ayr

and Greenan Castle

So, back to Ayr, one of the oldest sea ports in Scotland.

Our long serving purser Jim McFadzean, a son of Ayrshire, has often recounted a famous line from Robert Burns' classic poem 'Tam o'Shanter' as the paddler returns to the port

"Auld Ayr, wha' ne'er a toon surpasses for honest men, and bonny lasses"

The changing face of the Ayr seafront - even more residential development where the busy fish market and shipyard once stood

Big Queue

2010-08-24T00:53:00.000+01:00

Good to hear and see that the paddler has been attracting good numbers in August 2010 following the atrocious weather conditions in July. The picture below shows the big queue that was awaiting her arrival at Largs pier on Sunday 22nd August for the 'one-off' sailing to Ardeishaig. This would have been Waverley's first call there in many years. Sadly, however, the call had to be cancelled at very short notice after the pier operators informed Waverley Excursions that they could not make a berth available.

Largs Pier (and queue) from Waverley on 22 Aug 2010 with Cal Mac Ferries Loch Shira

Farewell Clyde-built Man

2010-08-12T22:56:00.010+01:00

'And there will be no hooliganism, there will be no vandalism, there will be no bevvying because the world is watching us, and it is our responsibility to conduct ourselves with responsibility, and with dignity, and with maturity.'

The sentence that save an industry.

Jimmy Reis stated 'We don't just build ships on the Clyde, we build men'

Following the succesful UCS campaign Jimmy Reid was elected rector of the University of Glasgow, the fourth oldest Univesity in the UK and second oldest in Scotland. His address to the Court of the University became famous around the world, known as the 'rat-race' speech. It was reproduced in full in the New York Times which proclaimed it the finest speech by any public speaker since Abraham Lincoln's Gettysburg Address.

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/still-irresistible-a-workingclass-heros-finest-speech-2051285.html

Many disagreed with Jimmy Reid's political philosophies (he shifted from Communist to Socialist and lattely Scottish Nationalist) but even his opponents recognised his intellectual might and common compasion for others.

Jimmy Reid's funeral was attended by two other prominent Govanites who started their working lives in the burgh's shipyards, Billy Connolly and Sir Alex Ferguson as well a former Prime Minister Gordon Brown and Scottish First Minister Alex Salmond. The following link is a brief new report of Jimmy Reid's funeral

http://www.beaconradio.co.uk/Article.asp?c=n&id=1921718

Jimmy Reid sailed on Waverley many times especially since he retied to Rothesay and I know that he took great joy in watching her sail round the bay from the garden of his bungalow on the hill above the pier

RIP Jimmy - we'll miss the wee chats in the Kyles

The Shipyard Apprentice

written by Archie Fisher (another Clydeside of the same era)

Doon the Watter 1955-56

2010-08-11T05:24:00.009+01:00

When the Clyde from Glasgow to the Tail of the Bank was still full of ships

A sail from the Bridge Wharf on Glasgow's turbine steamer Queen Mary II

Points of note

On departing from Bridge Wharf (beside KGV Bridge) - brief view of dredger and William Sloan's vessels (traded to Bristol and London at Windmilcroft Quay (south) and Burns Laird and Coast Line vessels engaged on the various Glasgow - Ireland route berthed at the Broomielaw and Anderston Quay including Lairds Loch, Irish Coast and the Royal Scotsman or Royal Ulsterman

Vehicular Ferryboat No 4 at the Lancefield Quay terminal (bottom of Elliot Street) - relocated from Finnieston Quay when the Stobcross Crane was constructed (1931-32) Ferry still in the old Clyde Navigation Trust maroon livery

New ships berthed under the Stobcross (Finnieston) crane - funel-less awaiting engines

Fairfields yard (now BAE Govan) with the Canadian Pacific's third liner to be named Empress of Britain fitting out in the basin

A near full KGV Dock - with one of the old CNT steam dredgers - Shieldhill or Cairndhu?

Chain ferries at Renfrew and Erskine

Stemer band with Braehead Power Station (where shopping centre now sits) in the background

Fitting out basin of the dredger building specialists Lobnitz & Co at Renfrew

John Browns and Singers at Clydebank - Singers factor was one of the largest in the world of any type - workforce of over 20,000 - own railway station and very famous clock tower.

Vessels in Dalmuir Basin with the base of the Benrather cantilever crane - first one on the Clyde and (unlike the 5 others on the river) a real 'hammerhead crane. Built in 1905 for Beardmore's by the short lived Glasgow Electric Hoist & Crane Company at their Nuneaton Street works in the Parkhead district of the city to a design by the German Benrather engineering company. Crane was demolished ca 1971

Introduction by Alex Norton

Bit different from today's river viewed from Waverley

Stuart Cameron

depv Talisman - The One and Only

2010-08-05T14:16:00.000+01:00

Words by Robin Copland.

Pictures as Credited.

Any of us who have viewed the Clydesite web forum will know Robin Copland - a long time Clyde steamer enthusiast who is well known on the site for his stories and musings entitled "Monday Morning Light Relief". During Waverley's sailing to Oban this year I was chatting to Robin over a dram when the subject of this Clyde Steamer stories came up in conversation. I asked Robin if he would consider writing something for this blog to which he agreed and this piece about Talisman is the first of hopefully many from Robin. So enough from me - relax and enjoy some time travel courtesy of Robin Copland..........

She wasn’t what you would describe as pretty as she droned her way past the big buoy in Largs Bay, heading towards the pier in the centre of the town. Not pretty in a conventional sense in any case. She wasn’t speedy like the Duchesses; she wasn’t beautiful like the occasional Jeanie Deans (occasional to the Largs Channel, at any rate); she wasn’t purposeful like the Maids and she wasn’t cute like the Ashton or Leven.

Talisman was different, somehow. She was noisier than the other paddlers in the fleet. She was certainly more plodding and her roster rarely varied from Largs, Millport, Wemyss Bay and Rothesay. Maybe it was the plaque behind the Bridge. HMS Aristocrat – that spoke of other adventures furth of the river. What a name too – HMS Aristocrat! Later, I learned that she was nicknamed “Wasp” during her war service – somehow apt. When built, though she looked like a conventional North Bank paddler, she was anything but internally. She was the first and only – and as Duncan Graham puts it in his wonderful book Sunset on the Clyde, those two words “are seldom a good combination” – Diesel Electric Paddle Vessel in the fleet.

She was a flighty mistress in her early years and had her marine superintendent, Mr Perry, taking the happy pills for her first four years. There was talk of selling her on or perhaps re-engining her with more conventional steam-driven machinery as the war approached in 1939; she was so out of favour and sorts that she had been laid up for part of that year. She was in disgrace if we are honest and her revolutionary machinery was just that – revolutionary; but not in a good way.

And then came reprieve. Now it is not often that the Second World War has been described as a reprieve, but for Talisman, reprieve it was. But first, we should record that there already was a Talisman in the Royal Navy, so the jokers in the Admiralty (and if you had asked the Marine Superintendent on the North Bank, “jokers” is the word he would have used!) renamed her HMS Aristocrat.

She sailed south down the estuary and out to the world of the deep-sea and the grown-up. She contrived to be in the right place at the right time; she led a charmed existence and what’s more, she charmed all who sailed in her. She visited France; she weathered channel storms; she avoided V1 doodle bugs in Antwerp harbour; she entered MacBrayne’s kingdom and even helped rescue a liner from the rocks of the Gairloch. And all of this while the turbine stars of the Clyde fleet, Duchess of Hamilton, Duchess of Montrose, King Edward, Glen Sannox and Queen Mary II, to name but a few, were on more mundane ferry and tendering duties on their home river. Oh, what a life of adventure did HMS Aristocrat lead until 1946, when all returned to peacetime normality.

Talisman circa 1947/48

New deckhouses were added to bring her into line with modern expectations of sheltered accommodation, but back came the gremlins – so much so that she was laid up again in July 1953 on the arrival of the last of the four Maids, the Maid of Cumbrae. This time, it seemed, her fate was sealed – but for the unhappiness of the good folk of Cumbrae with the wee Marchioness of Lorne. Believe it or not, the Marchioness’s 12 knots had been just about OK for her original Holy Loch service; hopeless though for the slightly more exposed Millport station and her cause was not helped by the longer journey times between piers. The good folk of Greenock thought long and hard about their problem and decided to equip Talisman with new diesel engines. Thus improved, she went a whole knot faster than previously she could manage post-war and miraculously – though not without the odd scare – she gave good service on the Millport run for another 14 years.

By the time she hove into view around the lion rock and ponderously paddled her way towards a very young me, standing on the shingle beach watching in awe, seven years had passed since her re-engining and she was about midway through her time on the Millport run. She was a busy boat by this time and although her route rarely varied as I have said, her passengers certainly did. Cows, bulls, sheep, cars, post, newspapers, produce, locals and holidaymakers all graced her decks, though the people were less apt to leave their calling cards than were the animals! I became a regular on the hops between Largs and Millport, Rothesay and Wemyss Bay and though she was no Duchess of Hamilton, she was certainly more interesting and entertaining to my way of thinking than the Ashton or Leven!

Her typical weekday and Saturday roster took her from Millport at 7.20am to Largs and Wemyss Bay, returning from Wemyss Bay along the same path to Millport, where she arrived at 9.55am. After a short layover at the Old Pier, she retraced her steps leaving at 10.15am and returning to her home base at 12.45pm. Following a half-hour layover, she returned to Largs, leaving at 1.15pm and arriving at the unforgiving L-shaped Largs pier at 1.40pm. Unusually, she laid over at Largs for half an hour before striking out for Rothesay.

All of these inter-pier runs were listed in the Principal Services part of the company timetable, but the last Millport to Largs run was also part of her daily “Cumbrae Circle” cruise. For the princely sum of 4/3d – that’s about 22p in today’s money, a holidaymaker could leave either Largs or Millport, head for Rothesay with an hour and a quarter ashore, then cruise via Kilchattan Bay and around the west coast of Cumbrae back to Millport and Largs. The last Millport to Largs sector of the cruise became the first part of her final round trip of the day to Wemyss Bay. She reversed out of Wemyss Bay for the last time at 6.20pm, headed south for Largs (6.50pm) and arriving for the last time at Millport Old Pier at 7.15pm where she tied up relatively early for the night.

During her day, she came into close contact with many of her fleet mates.

• She would regularly bump into (not literally, of course!) one of the ABC car ferries at Wemyss Bay or Rothesay, sharing the pier with them there on a number of occasions throughout the week.

• As she vacated Largs pier on a summer Wednesday at 2.10pm, Countess of Breadalbane would slide alongside the same pier ready to take up the sail to Dunoon at 2.20pm. Passengers on that Wednesday cruise returned to Largs on Waverley. Often, Talisman had to bide her time off Cairnie’s Quay to let her bigger Craigendoran sister offload her passengers. I can remember one such occasion; I wondered why Talisman was holding off and also noticed that, as she started off again for the pier, the water was fair pounding out of her starboard paddlebox – a combination, I suppose, of a full passenger load and all of them on the starboard side of the ship awaiting disembarkation.

• As she sailed on her afternoon cruise, she would pass Maid of Skelmorlie to the west of Cumbrae, which was on the Cumbrae Circle cruise going the other way round. I imagine that it must have been a pleasant diversion for the golfers on Millport Golf Club to watch the two ships pass in waters rarely visited by the Clyde fleet, although obviously busy with steamers coming and going from further afield.

• In those far-off days, Duchess of Montrose took the Inveraray cruise on Tuesdays and Thursdays throughout the summer and, on her return, she would sail from Rothesay across to Wemyss Bay between 6.00pm and 6.25pm, arriving just after our ship had vacated the pier for her final sailing to Millport at 6.20pm. Looking west on that same sail on a Thursday, a passenger might notice the Montrose’s sister ship, Duchess of Hamilton, as she powered her way from Largs to Rothesay on her homeward run from Campbeltown.

• On a summer Saturday, Duchess of Montrose returned from her cruise round Ailsa Craig and was scheduled to arrive at Millport (Keppel) pier at 7.20pm. Talisman would come buzzing round the Lion Rock on her final leg of the day from Largs into Millport Bay at about the same time that the Montrose approached Keppel.

• On Tuesdays, her near contemporary, Caledonia sailed north from Ayr on a cruise to Loch Goil. She was scheduled to leave Millport (Old) pier at 12.20pm and sail to Largs for 12.45pm. Talisman and Caledonia passed in the Largs Channel right in front of our house and it was interesting to compare the two ships. Talisman, seemingly lighter built and smaller that the heavy-looking Caledonia; more traditional looking with her fan paddle boxes than her fleet mate.

The truth was that in 1960 it would have been strange had she not met her fleet mates as she went about her daily business. Interestingly, her encounters with Jeanie Deans were few and far between – unless of course, you happened to be in solitude of the Kyles of Bute on a Sunday afternoon. Then you would see a sight that would gladden the heart of all fans of the North Bank tradition. Yes, the three steamers’ funnels were painted in the buff and black of their Gourock bosses; yes, both Waverley and Talisman had paddle boxes painted in Caley white and yes, Talisman was no longer based in her spiritual home at Craigendoran, but ..., but .... there they were in all of their glory – Jeanie Deans, Talisman and Waverley. Talisman returning from Tighnabruiach (her one weekly diversion from her staple summer diet) to Largs; Jeanie Deans on her cruise round Bute and Waverley on her run to the Kyles of Bute all the way from Craigendoran. Still going strong; still sailing on the river of their birth; still giving pleasure to all those who eschewed, for the time being at least, the joys of foreign travel. It would be nice to think that the captains of each of them doffed their caps in each other’s direction as they piloted their charges through the narrows.

(Image is from a photo of the author's John Nicolson painting)

Talisman continued to serve her adopted home until 1967. In her latter years, her funnel had been scarred by a tiny lion and her hull had been painted the BR blue that became the norm for four or five years. Jeanie Deans had already flitted to the Thames for an unhappy year or two and Duchess of Montrose had bowed to the inevitable and been towed to Belgium to be broken up. The fleet was moving with the times. Talisman was unceremoniously towed to Dalmuir and the end, when it came, was swift.

Talisman – First and Only. Maybe not a bad way for those of us who still do, to remember a fine and faithful workhorse of the fleet.

Robin Copland

The Big Sail

2010-07-20T04:01:00.020+01:00

(All pictures are my own except where noted otherwise - click on them to enlarge)

Last Sunday Waverley operated her longest excursion of the 2010 summer season - all the way along the navigable River and Firth of Clyde - and all the way back again. In the 198 years that paddle steamers have been operating on the Clyde the sailings from Glasgow to Campbeltown and the Kintyre peninsula and Inveraray at the head of Loch Fyne have been the longest operated - at least 14 hours is normally required to complete the return sailiing. In spite of recent atrocious weather Waverley set off from her base at Plantation Quay adjacent to the Glasgow Science Centre at 0900 on Glasgow Fair Sunday.

She hadn't long left her berth when she was passing the new £80m Riverside Museum at Pointhouse Quay which will open in 2011 as a replacement for Glasgow's famous Museum of Transport. The new building is virtually complete and work will soon start on moving some of the large exhibits (buses, tramcars and steam locomotives) from the old premises at the Kelvin Hall to the new venue on the site of the former A & J Inglis Pointhouse shipyard where Waverley was built just after the cessation of WW2.

Waverley approaching the new Riverside Museum at Pointhouse Quay (part of this riverside area was known as Partick Wharf, where some of the Clyde steamers had called in bygone days)

The river side frontage of the new museum corresponds closely with the former riverside elevation of the Pointhouse shipyard.

Work is ongoing to prepare the new permanent berth for the sailing ship Glenlee which will move here following drydocking in September 2010.

The new museum is close to the confluence of the River Kelvin and the River Clyde. It was from a launch slipway on the now 'greened over' east bank of the Kelvin that Waverley was launched on 2nd October 1946.

The construction of the sixth and final Type 45 destroyer for the Royal Navy is progressing; the vessel is to be named HMS Duncan (after Admiral Duncan, one of Admiral Lord Nelson's trusty lieutenants) at her launch on 11th October 2010. Duncan is latest of over 750 ships to be built at the Govan yard, now operated by BAE Systems. Originally built in the 1860s by the renowned shipbuilder and engineer John Elder, the yard was best known for nearly 80 years as the Fairfield Shipbuilding & Engineering Company or just 'Fairfields' (as many Clydesiders still refer to it). It produced everything from paddle steamers to battleships, from passenger liners to aircraft carriers. It is only in the last decade that the yard has specialised exclusively on naval and auxiliary ships. It is currently fabricating enormous sections for the aircraft carriers HMS Queen Elizabeth and HMS Prince of Wales. However, those vessels will not be launched into the Clyde as the sections will be assembled in drydock at Rosyth on the Forth having been transferred there by barge from Govan.

Currently, Duncan is the last of well over 25,000 ships that have been launched into the Clyde and 2011 looks like being the first year since the early 1700s that no substantial ship will be launched into the Clyde (or, in fact, anywhere in the UK)

Soon to be named HMS Duncan - will she be the last big ship launched into the Clyde? Let us hope not.

A few minutes after passing 'Fairfields' the paddler was abeam of Shieldhall Quay, one of only 3 remaining commercial dock areas still operating on the upper Clyde - the others being the adjacent King George V Dock and the Rothesay Dock in Clydebank. The commercial quays and wharfs upstream have all ceased to operate, the Kingston and Queens Docks and Yorkhill Basin have been filled in and have disappeared without trace and Princes Dock is substantially filled in. This crane and its sister have been handling bulk cargoes at Shieldhall for many years but in the past 2-3 weeks its sister has been demolished and cut up, no doubt adding to one of the local heaps of scrap metal

Only the base of the crane's sister machine now remains (left of centre) - how long will the other pair on Shieldhall Quay survive? Clydeside used to be a forest of cranes but very few remain.

Apologies for the quality of this image - it shows the two new cranes purchased by Clydeport in recent years. They are highly mobile and of significantly greater lift capacity than the old cranes.

A historic little crane currently lies in three bits on the western quay of KGV Dock. It was built by Babcock & Wilcox in Renfrew in 1909 and worked on Windmillcroft Quay in Glasgow for almost a century (the huge Clydebank Titan crane is the only older Clyde crane still in existence). For much of its working life it was associated with the coastal steamers of William Sloan & Co which operated from the Clyde to the Bristol Channel and the Thames.. It was a fairly unusual design due to the narrowness of the quayside. Latterly it was used by Euroyachts Ltd to lift leisure craft into the river. It was removed from Windmillcroft Quay about 2 years ago to make way for the south side landfall of the new Tradeston Bridge, At the last minute it was saved from the bscrapper's burning torches and placed in storage in a shed at the dock until its recent move out onto the quay.

Above picture and the next three were taken a couple of days before the Big Sail. First, shows Waverley passing the coastguard vessel TTS San Fernando which had been launched just six hours earlier at 0400 on 16th July 2010 from the covered building berth at BAE Systems Scotstoun yard (formerly Yarrow's). She was sponsored and named by the wife of her future captain and slid into the dark waters of the Clyde to the accompaniment of Aaron Copland's 'Fanfare for the Common Man'. The vessel is the last of three sisters for the Government of Trinidad & Tobago. Her sister, TTS Scarborough was launched at Scotstoun last December and the third sister, TTS Port of Spain, is being built at BAE Systems Portsmouth yard (ex Vosper Thornycroft).

The following fine picture of San Fernando in the building hall at Scotstoun just before launch was taken by Barry Watson, one of the best recorders of the contemporary Clyde shipping scene in both picture and video. Go to Barry's Upper Clyde Shipping blog to see his film of the launch of San Fernando and his many other excellent pictures and films of Clyde shipping.

Waverley passing BAE Systems fitting out complex - founded in 1907 by John Shearer & Co and formerly known as Elderslie Dockyard. Elderslie House and the Elderslie estate was on the opposite side of the Clyde at this point.

Waverley passing TSS Scarborough at Elderslie. The new vessel went down river later in the day to commence sea trials.

The BAE Systems yard at Scotstoun is the fitting out and completion centre of excellence for the £6 billion Type 45 Destroyer programme – the original plan for 12 vessels was cut to 8 then to 6, Currently the 3^rd, 4^th and 5^th vessels are fitting out at the complex

Diamond at Elderslie Wall

Dragon in No 2 Drydock (left) and Defender in No 3 Dock

The crane to the right of Defender is one of the last functional artefacts of the famous William Denny & Brothers’ Leven Shipyard at Dumbarton which built over 1500 ships, the greatest output of any Clyde shipbuilder in terns of numbers of vessels built. The No 3 dock was excavated in the 1960s at the same time that Denny’s went into voluntary liquidation.

Work progressing on the infilling of the Pudzeoch at Renfrew- presumably for more residential developments. Originally cut as part of a canal (hence

Canal Street

nearby), the Pudzeoch was a hive of activity until just a few years ago. It served as a fitting out Basin for William Simons Renfrew shipyard and a repair and lay-up berth for the Clyde Navigation Trust’s fleet of ferries, dredgers and hopper barges being immediately downstream of the Trusts Renfrew slip dock following transfer of these facilities from its former slip dock at Dalmuir.

The two SPT ferries Renfrew Rose and Yoker Swan, successors to the CNT ferries, were withdrawn from service ealier this year and they are currently laid up in the Rothesay Dock awaiting their fate. Meanwhile, the diminutive ferry Island Trader has taken over the Renfrew to Yoker ferry service on a privately financed basis. There has been a ferry across the Clyde at this point for about 800 years.

Since Clydeport, the private entity successor to the Clyde Navigation Trust, disposed of its once significant fleet of dredgers and hopper barges many years ago, dredging operations on the river has been subcontracted, mainly to the long established Westminster Dredging Company, and their dredger Medway II has been a familiar periodic visitor to the river for a number of years. However, in the last couple of weeks the modern and highly efficient suction dredger Shoalway has made her first appearance on the river, dredging in a number of locations - close to the tall ship Glenlee at Yorkhill Quay and off Clydebank at confluence of the rivers Clyde and Cart.. Therefore, meetings of Waverley and Shoalway have become quite frequent of late.

Shoalway undertaking dredging work off Clydebank as Waverley returns to the city from her normal sailing to Tighnabruaich on Glasgow Fair Saturday. The small red marker light that can be seen to the left of Shoalway's bow marks the end of the massive main launch ways of the former John Brown yard - cradle of many of the world's most famous passenger liners and warships. The slipway can be seen at low water but is submerged by a few feet at normal high tides.

On such a long sailing as this one the number of calling places is necessarily restricted. After clearing the navigation at the Tail of the Bank, the paddler headed direct to Largs where she arrived on time, two and a half hours after leaving her Plantation Quay berth. This is a commendable timing especially as it includes canting at the entrance of the Princes Dock immediately after departure - it can be difficult to maintain this time at normal cruising speed if its done against a strong flood tide in the river section. After embarking a good number of passengers at Largs the paddler proceeded swiftly southwards, passing hrough the Tan (the channel between the Greater and Lesser Cumbrae islands), round Garroch Head (at the southern end of Bute), across the Sound of Bute and around the Cock of Arran into Lochranza. The latter was for long a calling place on sailings to Campbeltown until the closure of the traditional wooden steamer pier in 1972. Calls by Waverley at Lochranza became possible again a few years ago when a new overnight berthing structure for the Lochranza to Cloanaig ferry operated by CalMac Ferries Ltd was constructed. In common with many of the piers on the west coast and islands of Scotland, and the ships operated by CalMac Ferries, Cowal Ferries and Northlink Ferries, Lochranza pier is owned by Caledonian Maritime Assets Ltd of Port Glasgow. This company originated as the Caledonian Steam Packet Company way back in 1889, becoming Caledonian MacBrayne Ltd in 1973 and Caledonian Maritime Assets in 2007.

After clearing Lochranza, Waverley proceeded down the Kilbrannan Sound (between Arran and Kintyre) giving good views of the Apostles of Catacol, Pirnmill and Carradale, where she had made that spectacular, (and probably one-off) call in September 1992. About 6 hours after leaving Glasgow the familiar old lighthouse on Davaar Island, sentinal guardian of the entrance to Campbeltown Loch, was off the port bow as Waverley approached the capital of Kintyre for her third and final visit of 2010.

As Waverley sailed into Campbeltown her 'Pilot Jack' (the name of the broad white bordered version of the UK Union Flag that is flown at the bow of a British merchant ship) was lowered and replaced by a much older Pilot Jack (shown in the picture above). This old flag was being given its first 'airing' in almost 46 years. It was last flown on the jackstaff of the magnificent Clyde turbine steamer Duchess of Montrose at the very end of of her 34 year career on the Clyde on her last visit to Campbeltown in August 1964. The splendid picture below, taken by Brian Hargreaves on 26th August 1964, shows the Duchess of Montrose departing Campbeltown with the Pilot Jack at her bow. A nice little bit of nostalgia that the flag was carried back to Campbeltown by Waverley 46 years later.

Th Duchess of Montrose was built by William Denny & Brothers at Dumbarton in 1930 and she was joined by her quasi sister ship, Duchess of Hamilton, which was constructed by the Harland & Wolff shipyard in Govan in 1932. These vessels represented the peak of style and performance of the hundreds of excursion steamers that have sailed on the Clyde since the first such vessel, Henry Bell's Comet, appeared in 1812. Each of the two 1930s Duchesses had Steam V passenger certificates that permitted them to carry over 1800 passengers. The Montrose's steam turbines were built by Denny's enginebuilding subsidiary, Denny & Co, at the Dennystown Forge, which was situated further up the River Leven than the shipyard. The Hamilton's machinery was constructed in her builder's workshops at Queens Island in Belfast. Both ships were capable of speeds well in excess of 20 knots which made them well suited to the longer Clyde excursion routes, to Campbeltown, Inveraray and, more rarely, Stranraer. Unlike the now ubiquitous Waverley, however, neither of these ships left the waters of the Clyde. Even towards the end of her career the Duchess of Montrose was a fast ship and, although racing of the Clyde steamers had long been frowned upon by 'the officials', it was keenly anticipated and enjoyed by regular passengers. On her sailings to Inverary, it was not unknown for the Montrose to enter into a little tussle of speed in the Kyles of Bute with her rival, the magnificent three funneled turbine steamer Saint Columba, operated by David MacBrayne Ltd. In the early 1960s summer Friday timetabling enabled her to challenge her sister, the Duchess of Hamilton, in the short stretch across the Firth between Largs and Rothesay. Duchess of Hamilton was under command of the legendary Captain Fergus B Murdoch MBE and the Montrose was under Captain John MacLeod.
Duchess of Montrose, and the famous Craigendoran paddle steamer Jeanie Deans (Waverley's big sister) fell foul of the infamous 'axe' weilded by Dr Beeching on the British Railways network and its associated coastal fleets in 1963. On 19 August 1965, a year after her last sailing, the magnificent Duchess of Montrose left her native Clyde waters for the first time and forever. She was towed to the shipbreaking yard of Van Heyghen Brothers at Ghent. Duchess of Hamilton remained in service until 1970 and was eventually demolished by the West of Scotland Shipbreaking Co at Troon in 1974.

Waverley offered the good folk of Campbeltown a 2 hour excursion to the Sanda Islands and towards the Mull of Kintyre and she was rewarded with good support from the locals and tourists - by now the sun was out, the wind was gentle and the sea was almost glassy calm. There follows a few pictures from that part of the Big Sail

The western extremity of Waverley's Big Sail was off the village of Southend at the bottom of the Kintyre peninsula where the prominent feature is the white painted pile of the former Keil School (above and below) - a couple gannets out fishing too!

Above, the clear atmosphere afforded us good views of the County Antrim coastline of Northern Ireland - with a large ACL container ship outward bound through the North Channel from the Irish Sea to the Atlantic Ocean

Off Kintyre we passed Ronja Viking, one of the modern Norwegian-owned fish farm servicing ships - possibly bound for Portavadie in Loch Fyne where vessels of her type are regular visitors

Ailsa Craig, sometimes called Paddy's Milestone, viewed from the west - with a wig of light cloud and a veil of sea mist

Below, have passed through the Sound of Sanda on the outward leg we returned outside the Sanda Islands (Sanda, Sheep Island and Glunimore) on the homeward voyage with great views of Sanda's spectacularly perched lighthouse

Slightly late and against the tide Waverley's engine speed was raised to circa 48 rpm on the return voyage a rare sight in these days of fuel economy.

Approaching Largs we noted the new Trinidad & Tobago Coastguard vessel Scarborough undertaking trials off the Portachur buoy.

TTS Scarborough and CalMac's Bute (the latter on last service run from Rothesay to Wemyss Bay)

Scarborough at rest on a golden sea

Waverley departing Largs (circa 2030) for Glasgow

At Largs in the Gloaming, the classic motor boat Britannia

(with TTS Scarborough in the background)

Homeward Bound off Wemyss Bay
- the end of a great day on the World's Last Seagoing Paddle Steamer

Stuart Cameron

Clydebuilt ex Steam Yacht NAHLIN returns to service.

2010-07-11T01:18:00.004+01:00

The former steam yacht NAHLIN, which was built at the John Brown shipyard in Clydebank in 1930, has recently returned to operational service. However, her original steam turbine prime movers have been removed and she is now powered by a diesel electric installation although she retains some form of steam-raising plant as she can be heard (and seen) exercising a fairly powerful steam whistle in the film of her, link below, passing Friedrichsort Lighthouse while running trials in the western Baltic Sea in April this year. (In fact she appears to have two steam whistles, rather like Waverley before her rebuild)

NAHLIN running trials on the Baltic, April 2010

The classic yacht was built for Lady Yule of Glasgow and in 1936 the yacht was chartered by King Edward VII for as cruise in the Adriatic Sea and down to Istanbul. The American divorcee Mrs Wallis Simpson was also aboard attracting media attention and a course of events that led to the abdication of the King.

In 1937 NAHLIN was sold to King Carol II of Romania to serve as his royal yacht but two years later, after he forsook his crown on the commencement of WWII the NAHLIN passed into the ownership of the Romanian Government. She had been renamed LUCEAFARUL (Evening Star) and in 1948 her name changed again to LIBERTATEA (Freedom). For 60 years she languished on the banks of the Danube until 1999 when she was purchased by British interests and her original name and port of registry (Glasgow) were restored to her. She spent some time in the Mersey before being towed to Germany in 2005. After 5 years the restoration is complete.

In the second link (below) the Red Duster can be seen flying proudly at her stern. The restored vessel looks absolutely stunning:

Classic Clyde-built yacht NAHLIN of Glasgow returns to operational service at Kiel Holtenau, 26th April 2010

Look forward to seeing her sail back up the Clyde some day

Stuart Cameron

Tighnabruaich Pier Trust Cruise 2010

2010-07-08T02:26:00.005+01:00

Last Saturday Waverley undertook her annual short saling from Tighabruaich to assist the local pier trust to raise funds for the continued maintenance and operation of the pier, one of just a handful of traditional steamer piers still in existance. The following shot are of the paddler departing from the pier for her cruise towards Ardlamont Point and her subsequent return to resume her main sailing upriver to Glasgow
(click on image then click again for full size)

Stuart Cameron

2010-07-01T12:51:00.001+01:00

Waverley at Greenock Customhouse Quay, Rothesay and Tighnabruaich - First Clyde Main Season Weekend

2010-06-30T13:46:00.020+01:00

Waverley's first Saturday call at Greenock of the 2010 summer season

(Pictures are my own except where stated otherwise, click on picture for full screen view).

Like parts of Waverley's 2100 IHP triple expansion, reciprocating steam engine, the newly repainted Customhouse Quay clock tower was cast in the nearby Rankin & Blackmore's Eagle Foundry in Baker Street, Greenock (click on the image for a bigger view).
Daniel Rankin and Edward Blackmore had started their foundry business in the 1860s. Due to Rankin's pioneering training methods, for his staff, the Eagle Foundry became known locally as 'the Academy' (not, of course, to be confused with the renowned Greenock Academy!). In the 1920s Rankin & Blackmore was taken over by the shipbuilding dynasty, Lithgow's of Port Glasgow, then the largest privately owned shipbuilding group in the world, and remained part of that group until the closure of the Eagle Foundry in 1964.

Pictures from MV Cruiser (on private charter)

Below, two more shots from the first Saturday of the paddler's 2010 summer season, these being courtesy of Tom Dunlop. In the first she has canted round the dolphin at the old Berth 1 end of Rothesay pier and is just starting to go astern; this being her normal departure from the pier following the significant rearrangements of the shore side in recent years. Three blasts on the steam whistle (to alert unsuspecting 'wafies' who probably don't know what the signal means anyway!).

and so .......

to Tighnabruaich for the first visit of 2010. First stop: Suzies for some and Tighnabruaich Hotel for others.

Below, on to the Sunday of the first Clyde main season weekend, with some views from the paddler rather than of her. First up, Waverley finds an unusual visitor at the Braehead pontoon - Clyde Marine's motor vessel Rover. Rover had been deputising for the larger mv Cruiser on her new 5-days per week schedule from Glasgow Broomielaw to the Titan Crane at Clydebank (Cruiser having been on a private charter from Greenock on the Saturday).

In fact, at this berth Rover is not far from her birthplace - she was constructed for Clyde Marine Motoring Co. of Greenock in 1964 by the boatbuilder Hugh McLean & Co at their Clyde Boat Yard in Renfrew. The yard was located just upstream of the Clyde Navigation Trusts former workshops and patent slip on the riverside adjacent to the east side of the legendary Pudzeoch (basin). McLean was a prodigous builder of quality small craft, not least being lifeboats for the many prestigious liners built on the river during the halcyon days of Clyde Shipbuilding including those for Cunard's Queen Mary. MacLean's main rivals for this work on Clydeside were Mechans Ltd , which operated from the Scotstoun Ironworks at Balmoral Street on the north side of the river (almost directly opposite the location of this picture). Some estimates put MacLean's output at over 5000 new boats. Rover's Kelvin diesels were supplied by another Glasgow firm Bergius Kelvin whose manufacturing works were in Dobbie's Loan, north of George Square. The firm produced thousands of small diesel engines for small craft, the fishing industry being a major customer. The Dobbie's Loan works are long since closed. Kelvin diesels are now serviced by British Polar Engines Ltd of Helen Street in Govan but no new engines have been produced for many years.

In the picture above, Rover is berthed alongside the preserved, former steam, coaster Kyles, which is now thought to be the oldest Clydebuilt vessel still afloat. In fact Kyles was built on the White Cart River in Paisley. She was Yard No 11 when built by John Fullerton & Co as a cargo coaster for Stuart Manford of Glasgow in 1872. Over the following 112 years she had no less tham 16 different owners on Tyneside, Humberside, the Thames, South Wales and elsewhere on the Bristol Channel. At times in her long and adventurous career she was converted into a sand dredger, salvage vessel and sludge carrier. Her original steam engine, built by William King & Co of Glasgow (a well known builder of marine steam engines in the 19th century), was replaced, in 1953, by a 120 BHP, 4 cylinder diesel engine built by Appingedammer Brons Motoren but that engine dates from 1929 so it had seen significant service before it went into the Kyles. Kyles has been owned by the Scottish Maritime Museum since 1984 (see also http://www.clydesite.co.uk/clydebuilt/viewgal.asp?id=4) and based at their 'Clyde-built' out-station at the Braehead shopping centre in recent years.

Also viewed from Waverley last weekend were two new Coastguard partol vessels being built at BAE Systems Scotstoun Shipyard (formerly Yarrows) for the Government of Trinidad & Tobago. The first vessel, the TTS Scarborough, was launched on 19th November 2009 after which she entered the covered drydock at Scotstoun, the first vessel to go into that Drydock in many years. It was the first drydock to be built at the Elderslie Dockyard when the shipbuilder and repairer John Shearer & Son was forced to vacate their Kelvinhaugh Slipdock in 1907 to make way for the new wharfage that became known as Yorkhill Quay (where the Tall Shp Glenlee is currently berthed, though not for much longer). Scarborough is now alongside the original Yarrow fitting out berth created when the firm moved to the Clyde from Poplar on the Thames in 1906.

TTS Scarborough (CG51) alongside at Scotstoun (viewed from Waverley)

Scarborough's sister ship (seen below on the easternmost of the two covered building berths at Scotstoun) is due to be launched in to the Clyde in the early hours (circa 04:00) of 16th July and, subsequently, she will be named TTS San Fernando. These covered building berths were created by Yarrows after they acquired the adjacent yard of the Blythswood Shipbuilding Company, which had produced its last ship, the Northern Lighthouse Commissioners tender Fingal, in 1964.

Below, the view aft from Waverley slightly further downsstream - the future HMS Defender, fifth of the six new Royal Navy Type 45 destroyers, in the No 3 drydock at Elderslie Dockyard (on the left side of the picture) with HMS Dragon in No 2 drydock (on the right side of the covered No 1 dock) and HMS Diamond lying alongsde Elderslie Wall. TTS Scarborough can be seen in the dstance at the old Yarrow ftting out quay. Diamond has recently completed her sea trials and will soon be handed over to the Royal Navy to join the first two Type 45s, Daring and Dauntless, in the fleet. As can be seen in this view, Defender in Dry Dock No 3 is sitting much higher than Dragon in No 2. This is because the No 3 dock has been specially modified to act as an enclosed, non-tidal wet dock in which the large gas turbine engines can be tested to a much greater degree, and free of tidal restrictions, before the vessels put to sea for the first time. The Type 45 destroyers are the first RN ships ever to adopt turbo-electric transmission, thus eliminating gearboxes, for long one of the least reliable parts of naval machinery installations

The No 3 drydock at Elderslie was built in the 1960s when the firm of Barclay Curle, which had recently closed its famous Clydeholm shipyard further upriver at Whiteinch, expanded its shiprepairing business at the Dockyard. One of the first vessels to enter No 3 dock was the brand new passenger liner Kungsholm which was being built at the John Brown shipyard at Clydebank for the Swedish America line. Kungsholm was the penultimate ocean liner to be built at Clydebank, after her came only the famous Queen Elizabeth 2 (QE2). Although both of these prestige liners were stunning ships in the 1960s and were built to a level of quality that saw them far surpass their original design lives, they proved not to be good contracts for their builders. Brown's lost heavily on both contracts and were driven to the edge of bankruptcy from which they never really recovered.

A press cutting of the beautiful passenger liner Kungsholm leaving her builders yard for sea trials

As is well known QE2 retired to Dubai in 2008 but she is sadly redundant there, a victim so far, of world recession. Kungsholm is still in service, currently named Mona Lisa but her long career will come to an end later this year as she will no longer be able to comply economically with the latest SOLAS (Safety of Life at Sea) regulations. Soon afterwards she is likely to follow many of her predessessors and contemporaries in a full speed, suicidal final run onto the beaches at Alang in India were she will quickly be ripped apart by the oxy-acetylene burner gangs. When Mona Lisa ex Kungsholm has gone, for the first time in well over 150 years there will be no Clyde-built passenger liner sailing anywhere on the world's oceans - indeed, the end of an era.

The beautiful Kungsholm

now (as Mona Lisa) the last surviving operational Clyde-built passenger liner in the world

but not for much longer

(Splendid picture of her by Bob Scott)

Stuart Cameron

Lake of Lucerne paddle steamer introductions

2010-06-24T02:25:00.016+01:00

If you have not visited the website of SGV (Schiffartgeselschafft des Vierwaldstattersee or the Lake of Lucerne Navigation Company) for a while you might find some interest in a relatively new addition to their website - movies introducing the services and ships operated by the company. Of particular interest to paddle steamer enthusiasts will be the individual films introducing the paddle steamers Stadt Luzern, Uri, Schiller and Gallia, all four vessels being introduced by one of the SGV captains. The film on DS (Dampfschiff) Uri has some excellent views of the vessel's stunning First Class (Dining) Saloon, famed for its elaborately decorated wood panelling and its unique deckhead, adorned with delicately painted Alpine flowers. The Uri is introduced by Captain Beat Kallenbach who has been closely associated with Switzerland's oldest operational paddle steamer for a number of years and many Scottish Branch members will remember meeting Capt Kallenbach during his visit to Waverley during her Diamond Jubilee celebrations on the Clyde in 2007 when Waverley flew the flag of Uri (the paddler and he Swiss Canton after which she is named) to mark Capt Kallenbach's visit and recognising that he flew Waverley's name pennant and the houseflag of the Waverley Steam Navigation Company on the 'jackstaff' and mainmast of DS Uri during a visit of several of the Scottish paddler's crew to Lucerne some years earlier. This is the link to the SGV movies gallery - once you get there you can select the movies indiviually:

http://www.lakelucerne.ch/en/company/movie-gallery.html

The flagship of the SGV steamer fleet is DS Stadt Luzern, the largest and newest of the five vintage steamers on the lake. Senior master Captain Kuno Stein, for many years associated with DS Schiller, introduces Stadt Luzern as her master. Capt Stein is also remenbered by many PSPS members for his visits to Waverley and Kingswear Castle on the Clyde and the Western Isles and on the Thames and Medway.

Captain Kuno Stein on paddle steamer Schiller

Captain Stein enjoying a sail on paddle steamer Waverley from Portree, Isle of Skye, Scotland.

A close encounter with paddle steamer Stadt Luzern near Treib on Lake of Lucerne

Paddle steamer Stadt Luzern passing under the spectacular rock structures where the scars of geological turmoil that happened much earlier in plant Earth's life are laid bare for all to see. The incredible Axenstrasse roadway between Brunnen and Fluelen was blasted and cut through the mountains in recent times. Motor ship Rigi can be seen ahead of the paddler, heading to Fluelen from Tellesplatte. Part of the Alpinr resort of Seelisburg can be seen in the mountains above MS Rigi .

Paddle Steamer Uri on the Vierwaldstattersee

Captain Beat Kallenbach on Uri on Lake of Lucerne

Paddle Steamer Schiller sailing between Rutli and Bauen in 2007

Paddle Steamer Schiller's builders plate

Paddle Steamer Gallia sailing between Vitznau and Beckenreid in 2008

All pictures are my own more at :

http://pudzeoch.smugmug.com/Ships/Luzern-its-Lake-and-its/1768572_cyYAV#93243863_mTwgV

and

http://pudzeoch.smugmug.com/Ships/Luzern-its-Lake-and-Steamers/1787495_PJPKQ#90639771_Jmfzs

Stuart Cameron

Ship Shape and Bristol (Channel) Fashion!

2010-06-09T13:43:00.002+01:00

No sooner have Waverley's Western Isles trips finished but our little paddler is on it's way somewhere else! Somewhere else at the moment is the Bristol Channel where she will spend a couple of weeks entertaining her friends, supporters and the public in general undertaking varied sailings. Her timetable for this area can be found here .

Waverley left the Clyde on Wednesday 2nd June arriving at Swansea in good time to take her first sailing from there to Lundy Island on Saturday 5th. This sailing took her from Swansea to Porthcawl, Ilfracombe, Lundy and back. It was at Portcawl on the outward leg that Chris Jones caught her in good weather loading a healthy number of passengers for the day's sailing. She left for Ilfracombe with 700+ aboard.

Chris has kindly given the branch permission to post photos taken by him at Portcawl.

Waverley backs away from Portcawl - next stop Ilfracombe.

Thanks to Chris for the pics!!

Gavin Stewart

Waverley in the Western Isles 2010

2010-06-07T22:55:00.007+01:00

I saw Waverley off from Glasgow on the Friday morning and then joined her at Oban for the Sunday evening run up to Fort William and the sailing to Tiree on the Monday. Two days of glorious weather, great passenger numbers, good company and great sailing.

Its always good to see an orderly queue wending its way towards the gangway

At 06:50 in the morning it looks even better

After all the winter work, drydock overhaul, trials and careful planning by all involved,

the official start of the 2010 season at 07:00 on Friday 28th May was delayed............

because the Sandwich man was late!!

Finally on the move at the start of her 2010 season.

Canting into Prince's dock entrance

Off she goes down the Clyde - or so we thought!

A good 250/300 metres into her stride and still she won't let go of her winter berth!

The cant rope got stuck on the wooden rubbing piles on the face of the quay

and can be seen stretching out behind Waverley.

Waverley finally detached from the rope and heading downriver

with the new Glasgow Transport Museum taking shape in the background.

This shot gives some impression of the potential future difficulties for Waverley,

when the Tall Ship Glenlee gets moved to her Transport Museum berth,

where she will be lying in the river above, but to the left of,

where Waverley's port paddle box is in this photo.

Waverley arriving into a very sunny Oban bay on Sunday evening

with the small cruise ship Quest heading out of the bay, having just

vacated the North Pier berth (and holding up Waverley with her delayed departure)

Arriving into North pier Oban

Seeing the crowds on board I was a bit worried about there being something left to eat for my tea
However not only was there plenty of food, but the highlight of my weekend was getting
one of the really excellent "Sunday lunches" for my tea - good food and travel must go together!
Well done to Craig and his team!

Monday morning dawned bright and sunny with the promise of a great day.

Waverley arriving into Oban bay after her run down from Fort William

Heading across the bay to North pier

The repainted funnels looking resplendent in the sunshine alongside Tiree pier

Waverley going astern from Tiree pier on her short cruise

Heading out from Tiree

Paddles biting in as she starts to move ahead

Returning to Tiree after her short cruise

Waverley alongside at Tiree with the David MacBrayne house flag

(kindly supplied by her supporters from Arran) shown off to good effect above the bridge.

For many, the first weekend on Waverley is just another (or a first) day trip away somewhere.

However, for a significant number of her passengers over the whole weekend it is a chance to meet up again
with good friends and acquaintances that you said cheerio to on the last sailing day, the previous October,
or maybe even haven’t seen since the last West Highland weekend.

There is plenty of time to chat, laugh, eat and drink in good company while catching up
on the events of the past six months and reminiscing about days and years gone bye.

However I did think it was a bit much when I was sitting having my breakfast
in the B&B on the Monday morning and suddenly found myself surrounded by Arranites –
or maybe it was the scary stories I was being told about vicious Teddy Bears that put me off my “full Scottish”!!

A larger selection of photos of Waverley and other sights and shipping seen over the weekend can be found at

Recent Shipping Photographs

Charles McCrossan

More Dunkirk 70th Anniversary Photos

2010-06-07T15:20:00.001+01:00

Following on from the previous post - WSN Secretary and Scottish Branch Committee member Deryk Docherty has given permission for a couple of his photos of the ceremony - taken from the port side paddle box.

Thanks again to Deryk for permission to post these images.

Gavin Stewart