Anyone who has driven through Port Glasgow over the years will not have failed to notice the replica of the Henry Bell's pioneer paddle steamer COMET on display in front of the town hall.
The replica vessel was built by apprentices from Port Glasgow shipbuilders Lithgows and was launched on Sat 1st Sept 1962. Unfortunately the years have taken their toll and the vessel is now in a poor state of repair.
Fortunately, thanks to a partnership between Ferguson Shipbuilders (whose yard is close to where the original COMET of 1812 was built), Inverclyde Council and an organisation called The Trust, the replica will be refurbished at Ferguson Shipbuilders Newark Shipyard.
The photo at the head of the page - taken by Bobby Sinclair - shows the COMET replica in steam passing the entrance to the Kingston Dock during the 1960s.
Lets hope that the vessel can be returned to steam for the 200th Anniversary of the original - the link to our own Waverley is obvious!
Good luck to all involved.
Pathe New clip of the launch of the replica Comet in 1962
It is with great regret and sadness that we have to record the death of another stalwart supporter of the preserved excursion vessels PS Waverley and MV Balmoral.
David Morrison had served in recent years as a director of Waverley Excursions bringing in his considerable business experience from his days as the Financial Director of the Belhaven Brewery Company in Dunbar, Scotland. David was a weel-kent face on the ships in their travels around the UK coastline. His marraige to Suzanne took place aboard the Waverley at Tighnabruaich pier just a few years ago.
The funeral is at 3pm on Friday 12th February at Mortonhall Crematorium in Edinburgh.
David is survived by his wife Suzanne, his children Joanna and Scott, his stepchildren Louise, Philip and David and his granddaughter Beth, his sister Elizabeth and his mother Ruth to all of whom we extend our sincere condolences.
We received an email from branch member Jim McIntosh which included an photo of a print he had purchased from the Waverley Gallery in Prestwick of Waverley in Ayr Harbour. This print has been created from a photograph by Stuart Redmond who has used a technique which makes the photo look like a painting.
I think you'll agree it makes for a very evocative scene!
30"x14" framed prints retail for £75 but a larger version goes for £120.
After many years of steady deterioration the former Portsmouth - Ryde paddle steamer Ryde, built by the famous William Denny & Brothers shipyard in Dumbarton, is under demolition. Initial pictures of the operation can be seen at
The following embedded links take you to YouTube versions of the classic British Transport Films' promotional documentary 'The Coasts of Clyde'. It is loaded in three parts (presumably due file size, bandwidth or some other restrictions). If interested you can buy higher resolution copies of this film on DVD.
I think this film demonstrates why there is still a band of 'steamer enthusiasts' that have kept the last of the Clyde steamers, Waverley, going for the last 35 years (the ship has now been in operational preservation for significantly longer than it was in commercial service - 27 years). Those of us on the wrong side of 50 can still recall with some fondness the days when there was a fleet of steamers on the Firth of Clyde. Waverley has been the sole survivor of the breed since 1978. The film includes views of the Clyde paddle steamers Jeanie Deans, Caledonia, Jupiter and Waverley and a brief clip of Maid of the Loch, which is currently statically preserved at Balloch on Loch Lomond. There is a very brief glimpse of three passenger steamers alongside Rothesay pier at the same time, something that most certainly will not happen again (at 3 mins 35 seconds in part 2). (The nearest that you can get to the Clyde steamer fleet feeling nowadays is to visit the paddle steamer fleets of the Lakes of Geneva and Lucerne in Switzerland - but you don't get the open sea feel there). The Rothesay clip depicts part of the paddler Caledonia at the Craigmore (near) end of the pier, the turbine steamer Queen Mary II berthed at the middle berth (Berth2), on one of her regular 'Doon-the-Watter' sailings from Glasgow Bridge Wharf to the Kyles of Bute, and the Waverley berthing at the Ardbeg end of the pier, a berth that she has recently started to use again following the significant remodelling of Rothesay pier. There is some 'artistic licence' at work in the making of the film e.g. the sequence describing the passage through the famous 'Narrows' of the Kyles of Bute involves two different paddle steamers - the first part shows Jeanie Deans entering the narrow channel from the East Kyle (at 4:41), the Jupiter passing through it (at 4:50) and back to the Jeanie Deans exiting the Narrows and turning to port to head down the West Kyle to Tighnabruaich (at 5:04).
Incidentally, I think the Cunard Line vessel at the start of Part 1 is the liner Media, which was a product of the John Brown shipyard at Clydebank in 1947, the same year that the Waverley was built by A & J Inglis upstream at Pointhouse. The Media stayed with Cunard only to 1961 when she was sold to Italian interests. In 1989, by which time she was named Lavia, she was gutted by fire at Hong Kong (07/01/1989) while undergoing renovation (an uncanny repeat of the fate of the famous Clydebank-built Cunarder Queen Elizabeth in 1972). Lavia was towed to shallow water where she heeled over onto her side on a sandbank. She was righted and towed to Kaohsiung in Taiwan, arriving 17/06/1989 for demolition. This was around the time of my first visit to Hong Kong by I didn't see her there.
Part 1
Part 2
Part 3
It was in those days that my enthusiasm for the Clyde and its ships and shipyards and particularly its excursion steamers was born. It was an advantage, undoubtedly, that my best pal at the old Burgh Primary School in Rutherglen at that time was Robert Dalgleish, whose grandparents lived in Dunoon. We became juvenile members of the Clyde River Steamer Club in the mid 1960s and I am still a member of the 78 year old club. The picture below shows Rab and myself enjoying a sail on the paddle steamer Caledonia, leaning back on the hatch covering the companionway down to the crew accommodation, right up near the bow of the steamer. The date was the 18th May 1968 and the Caledonia was on a special charter that day to the Rutherglen West Parish Church where Rab and I were members of the 38th Glasgow Scout Troop. The sailing had started at the Bridge Wharf in Glasgow and visited the Kyles of Bute and Loch Riddon. Many years later, as a final year undergraduate, Rab based his degree thesis on a study of the economics of operating steamers on the Clyde. Sadly, the Caledonia was withdrwn from service at the end of 1969, an event that encouraged the formation of the Scottish Branch of the Paddle Steamer Preservation Society. Although it proved impossible to keep the Caledonia operational theBranch members were successful in preventing her demolition and, in 1972 she began a new career as a static bar and restaurant on the River Thames at the former Savoy Pier just upstream of Waterloo Bridge. She continued in that role until badly damaged by a fire in 1981. Unfortunately the prospect of returning her to the Clyde for restoration as a possible running mate for Waverley could not be brought to fruition. She was replaced on the Thames by another Clyde Steamer, none other than the turbine steamer Queen Mary that also features in the film. She remained in the role until 2009. The vessel is currently being transferred to La Rochelle in western France for use as floating hotel. Robert Dalgleish and me on PS Caledonia, 18th May 1968
We often think of Waverley and Maid of the Loch as among the last of the many thousands of reciprocating engine passenger steamers built on the Clyde. Credit for the development of the compound and triple expansion versions of the engine, which finally enabled steam ships to win the battle with sailing vessels for long haul worldwide service, is usually given to John Elder of Randolph & Elder (later John Elder & Co then Fairfield SB & E Co) and Peter Ferguson while in the employ of the Meadowside shipyard. It is true that not many reciprocating engine ships were built after the Maid; notably there was a few imposing tugs for the South African ports but the long lasting era of Clyde-built reciprocating engined passenger ferries was brought to an anticipated end by an unanticipated order for nine such vessels. Appropriately enough the order was won by the Fairfield Company of Govan and the customer was the main operator of ferries across the Bosphorus, the famous 20 mile stretch of water that separates Europe from Asia in the beautiful city of Istanbul. Fairfield's had been supplying ferries for this route for almost 60 years. The yard built remarkable and memorable ships of all types from Clyde paddle steamers such as the Duchess of Fife (1903)and the famous, second Jeanie Deans (1931) to record breaking ocean liners such as the Cunarder Campania (1893) and Canadian Pacific's third Empress of Britain (1956) alongside mighty battleships such as HMS Valiant (1916) and HMS Howe (1942). However, even with such a pedigree of remarkable contracts, the order for the nine passenger steamers delivered in 1961 was specially notable. Sadly, however, not only did it mark the end of Clyde-built passenger steamers, it heralded a troubled period for Fairfield's which culminated in its going into receivership in the mid 1960s after a period of almost 80 years in which they built over 500 ships. Although Fairfield's is long gone its shipyard remains in operation, extensively modernised and currently involved in building the Royal Navy's six new Type 45 destroyers and the new aircraft carriers HMS Queen Elizabeth and HMS Prince of Wales.
All nine of the Bosphorus passenger steamers was built at Fairfield's Govan shipyard but only some of the vessels were fitted with Govan-built engines. The remainder were fitted with engines supplied by Christiansen & Meyer of Hamburg, an indication that, even by 1961, the Clyde had lost a significant part of its capability to build the very machinery that it had brought to the world in the first place - such innovation had enabled up to 30% of the world’s annual shipbuilding output to come from Clydeside, year after year for decades - but no empire lasts forever. By clicking one the individual original names of each vessel, below, you can access a brief summary of the career of each vessel
After around 40 years service the Clydebuilt ferries on the Bosphorus began to be replaced by new ships. At one point there was some speculation about trying to bring one of the ferries back to the Clyde for preservation rather like the large Glasgow-built steam locomotive that has recently been brought back to the city after 60 years in South Africa, which is undergoing restoration work prior to going on show at the new £80m Riverside Museum at Pointhouse Quay, Glasgow in 2011. Predictably nothing came of the plan.
By 2003 only four of the steamers remained in service: Inkilap, Kanlica, Tegmen Ali Ihsan Kalmaz (originally Ihsan Kalmaz) and Turan Emeksiz. All of the ships had been taken out of service by 2005. The embedded YouTube film was recorded 8th Sep 2003 - it shows the Turan Emeksiz and the engineroom of the Tegmen Ali Ihsan Kalmaz.
The film on YouTube was taken by Carl Jesper whose videos of Waverley, the Swedish passenger steamers Norrskar, Storskar, Drottingholm, Saltsjon and Blidosund and the steam-powered icebreakers Sankt Erik and Bore can also be found on YouTube. My own pictures of these ships (except Bore) can be found at
One of the older Fairfield-built Bosphorus ferries is still in operation, as a luxury cruise ship in the Med.
As Halas (above) she still has some of her Bosphorus ferry character - but this doesn't extend to the fares! There is a brief history of her on the Clydebuilt Ship Database:
No doubt the first of many - my first picture of Waverley in 2010 - January 1st at just after 13:00 (click on picture for better sarpness)
It has been claimed, more than once, that Waverley is the most photographed ship in the World. Well that would probably be impossible to prove one way or other especially in these days of digital imaging when it seems almost obligatory to take many more images than are really needed. How many pictures of Waverley will be taken in 2010 - I can't even guess how many I may take but, for the first time, my first picture of the year of the Mighty Paddler was taken on the first day of the New Year and New Decade. Normally, family commitments have made it impossible for me to get anywhere near the Clyde on New Year's Day but this year my normal target for 'first footing' is currently mid way through a 14 day cruise in the Caribbean Sea. So it was all change today (and even the steak pie, the traditional Ne're'day fayre in Scotland was replaced by lamb steak!). I managed a quick diversion into the SECC car park and here is the first picture of Waverley in 2010, taken at just after 13:00 on Jan 1st. In Glasgow the first day of the New Year was very sunny (unfortunately the sun was shining on the wrong side of the ship for me and low temperatures / others not so keen on taking pictures of paddle steamers in mid winter discouraged me from loitering on Stobcross Quay; waiting for the sun to hide behind a wispy cloud).
In the last few days of 2009 some floating ice was noted on the surface of the Clyde in Glasgow harbour (see Charles McCrossan's posting below) but even then the ice was nothing like the thick solid layer of ice that stretched from the north bank to the south bank all the way from the weir at Glasgow Green to Govan in the early days of 1982 when temperatures in the city remained below -20 degrees celsius (centigrade if you prefer) for almost 3 weeks and the ice at the sides was over a foot (30cm) thick. The pictures below show Waverley frozen-in during that big freeze in January 1982. At this time her Glasgow base was No 52 Stobcross Quay - roughly where the Crowne Plaza Hotel now stands. In the middle picture her current base, then known as No 83 Plantation Quay, can be seen off her port side, long before Science Centres, Media Quarters, IMAX cinemas and Squinty or Squiggly bridges were ever thought of.
The other veseels in this view are Western Ferries mv Sound of Islay and the heavy lift ship Happy Pioneer, in to lift power station equiptment for the new Castle Peak Power Station in Hong Kong. The major changes in Clydeside are very obvious - about the only remaining landmarks are the North Rotunda of the Harbour Tunnel and the Stobcross Crane. The large black roofed building above Waverley was formerly part of the marine engine building works of David Rowan (workplace of my maternal grandfather and first big Clyde works that I was ever in - at the tender age of about six!), which built both steam and diesel engines, the latter being principally Doxfords under licence. It closed in the mid sixties but the facilities were used by the Scottish Machine Tool Corporation for manufacture of lathes. boring machines, etc for about 15 years. It was demolished not long after this picture was taken.
Hope everyone has had a good Christmas and are getting over the New Year celebrations. Thats two months gone bye already since Waverley finished her 2009 season and May 2010 is getting nearer.
A couple of photos of PS Waverley under her coat of snow at Pacific Quay, Glasgow, taken last week.
At least a boiler should be back on when work parties start up on 9th January!!
The Clyde paddler steamer Mercury, second of the name to serve in the LMS Railway Clyde fleet, was the first of a new breed of paddlers, being fitted with concealed paddleboxes, which when viewed from a distance, could result in the vessel being identified as a screw driven ship.
Mercury was delivered in 1934 from the Fairfield Shipbuilding and Engineering Company, Glasgow, her quasi-sister ship, Caledonia, coming from the Denny yard at Dumbarton in the same year. Over the next 6 summers Mercury and Caledonia served the Coast resort in a post-Depression revival of the Clyde excursion trade. However, as the 1930s progressed the clouds of war gathered over Europe and, in common with other Clyde paddle steamers, she was requisitioned into the Royal Navy. HMS Mercury and the other paddlers served in many roles during the War but they were most commonly recognised in the dangerous business of sweeping vital sea areas for enemy deposited magnetic mines.
By late 1940 Mercury and Caledonia (renamed HMS Goatfell for wartime service) were based at the vast natural harbour at Milford Haven in south west Wales. From there they swept sea areas icluding the southern part of the Irish Sea, the Bristol Channel and the south coast of Ireland and it was while minesweeping in the latter area on Christmas Day, 1940 that Mercury was fatally damage when a mine exploded closeby. Although her Clyde sister tried to tow the damaged paddler back to the safety of Milford Haven it was to prove a futile exercise and Mercury sank in relatively deep water.
A few pics of the late Colin MacDonald (distinguishable, of course, by the bushy beard) and his Caledonia Sounds during their long associaton with Waverley on the Clyde. Research has confirmed that Colin, in fact, first appeared on Waverley in 1990 as a substitute for another band, which must accredit him with one of the longest day and night stands in musical history!!
Apart from entertaining in the Jeanie Deans lounge on Fridays and Saturdays, Colin was always keen to preserve the tradition of strolling musicians on deck when the heavens allowed and as can be seen other well revered Waverley devotees such as fiddler Jim Clark were always welcome to join the band on the run.
Inevitably there were changes in the Caledonia Sounds line-up over the years and the most recent trio were Colin, crooner Alex and Colin's chief comrade George on drums. Collectively they recorded a CD "Waverley Party Time" which was what Colin was all about!!! His repertoire from Scottish dance music to standards, swing, pop and golden oldies was remarkable. His devotion to Waverley was legend.
The Paddle Steamer Preservation Society (PSPS) is Britain's longest established, largest and most successful steamship preservation group. A registered charity founded in 1959, we have over 3000 members and through our associated charitable companies we operate the only two working paddle steamers in Great Britain. Without the PSPS there would no longer be the opportunity to sail on a Paddle Steamer in Great Britain.
Our aims i) to preserve paddle steamers in sailing condition ii) to educate the public in the historic significance of paddle steamers in the Nation's maritime and industrial heritage iii) to acquire, preserve and exhibit a collection of equipment and material associated with paddle steamers.
Our Ships
Flagship of our fleet is Waverley the last sea-going paddle steamer in the world. Built in 1947 Waverley was gifted to the Society for just £1. As well as operating on her native Clyde each summer she visits other coastal areas around the UK during the spring and autumn each year.
Kingswear Castle is Britain's only operational coal-fired paddle steamer. Built in 1924 to sail on the River Dart she was purchased by the Society in 1967. From 1985 until 2012 she sailed the Thames and Medway. In 2013 Kingswear Castle returned to the Dart where she now operates public sailings during the summer season.
The society is composed of five branches: Scottish, London & Home Counties, Bristol Channel, Wessex & Dart and North England - all of which help raise money to keep our paddle steamers sailing.
The Scottish Branch
The Scottish Branch was formed in 1969 by Douglas McGowan, now our Honorary Branch President. In November 1973 Douglas was invited to attend a meeting with CalMac which resulted in Paddle Steamer Waverley being gifted to the PSPS for £1! It was then on 8th August 1974 that the PSPS took ownership of the last sea-going paddle steamer in the world and her second career in preservation had begun. Since 1974 the Scottish Branch has been directly linked to supporting Waverley.
The Scottish Branch is proud of its achievements. We are an active and forward thinking branch with a thriving membership of over 800 - we are proud to be the branch which secured an operational future for Waverley. Our members are regularly involved with voluntary work which helps ensure Waverley continues to sail. During the summer sailing season we help raise funds through the Society's Grand Draw and our annual fundraising cruise on Waverley. The Branch meets in Glasgow each month during the non-sailing season (October - April) and we extend an invitation to join the Society and indeed join the Scottish Branch.
Anyone who has driven through Port Glasgow over the years will not have failed to notice the replica of the Henry Bell's pioneer paddle steamer COMET on display in front of the town hall.
The Clyde paddler steamer Mercury, second of the name to serve in the LMS Railway Clyde fleet, was the first of a new breed of paddlers, being fitted with concealed paddleboxes, which when viewed from a distance, could result in the vessel being identified as a screw driven ship.
