TRADITIONAL MAIL BOATS |
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Fleet Features
Traditional Mail Boats |
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Traditional Mail Boats |
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Text By Stuart Cameron |
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A fairly rare reminder of the pre Ro-Ro days when David MacBrayne Ltd operated
traditional mail boats to the Western Isles... |
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In this view from summer 1972 the Inner Isles mailboat Claymore and the hitherto
Stornoway mailboat Loch Seaforth are berthed at Oban Railway Pier. Both vessels
were products of the famous Dumbarton shipyard of William Denny & Brothers,
the Seaforth in 1947 and the second Claymore, 8 years later.
Both vessels carried MacBraynes' famous Highlander on their bows - something
that didn't return until the recent Clansman
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A
rather dull but nonetheless evocative view of David MacBrayne's mailboat
Claymore being towed out of James Lamont's East India drydock on 31 December
1974. She was to berth alongside Caledonian MacBrayne's turbine steamer King
George V on the right. It was a raw, dreich Hogmanay that one!
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Claymore alongside KGV in the East India Harbour on a rather nicer day, 12th
October 1974. In the left hand drydock in the car ferry Arran with the MacBrayne
cargo boat Loch Carron in the new drydock
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View
looking the other way on the same day, 12 October 1974 - Claymore, King
George V and Queen Mary II - all Denny-built.
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The
last time that I saw the 1955 Claymore in service - at Oban Railway pier on 1
Nov 1975
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Claymore's
(by then) archaic method of loading cars for the Isles, typical of the
unhurried and relaxed lifestyle that prevailed in the Hebrides until the
early 70s.
Everything was about to change, forever.
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In 1976 the car ferry revolution rendered Claymore
redundant at the tender age of 21 years. So she forsook the Sea of the
Hebrides for the more temperate waters of the Mediterranean Sea, where,
transformed into the small cruise ship City of Andros - later City of
Hydra - she offered cruises in the Greek islands. Although she was
significantly altered in appearance her Denny funnel was still
recognisable. By this time she was sailing for Cycladic Cruises SA and
boasted a small swimming pool on her upper deck - not something that would
have been particularly well utilised on her winter sailings to
Lochboisdale.After several years laid up in Pireaus she sank at he moorings 2-3 years ago.
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Finest of MacBrayne's three Claymores - the 1881 Glasgow - Stornoway mail
steamer built by the Thomson brothers in their new Clydebank shipyard in
1881. This vessel was the favourite of the great doyan of Scottish West
Coast shipping Graham Easton Langmuir. In his 'West Highland Steamers' Mr
Langmuir compared the vessel in beauty with the larger Denny-built
Antipodean steamer Rotomahana of the Union Steamship Company of New
Zealand.
This fine picture of the first Claymore in Oban Bay was the work of the
late John Nicholson.
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 All
photographs of the above ships by Stuart Cameron. The picture
of CLAYMORE 1881 by J. Nicholson.
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the vessels mentioned above Here:
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| LOCH
SEAFORTH
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CLAYMORE
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KING
GEORGE V
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LOCH
CARRON
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ARRAN
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QUEEN
MARY II
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SoC
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