IONA Passing BUTE off Gourock Early in Her Career

IONA's Profile View as Launched

Her vehicle facilities certainly impressed; IONA's passenger accommodation, though, compared very poorly with the 1964 ships. For a start, there wasn't much of it and no one could describe her saloons as spacious. There was a full-width lounge, with seating for 101 passengers, forward on the boat deck. It was quite pleasantly decorated, with seats upholstered in shades of violet and blue: by the end of her career these had been recovered in sick-coloured vinyl. However, seated passengers enjoyed but poor views – her high bows obstructed the outlook forward and in event winter-boarding seemed to cover those windows almost all rear round.

Aft of this, a deckhouse held a cafeteria for 97 passengers. Below the boat deck and on either side of the car deck – but raised 8 ½ feet above that level – were two “gallery” decks, incorporating gangway entrances for use at high tide, and her officer's berths. IONA's grim smoke-room/bar was situated below the car deck – at least Clyde commuters were used to this by now and could seat fifty people; on this lower deck, too, were the quarters for her crew.

In a bid to economise – and most unusually for a big MacBrayne ship – the new ferry had no sleeping accommodation for passengers. She was nevertheless granted a Class V certificate for 581 passengers, though the Islay station did not require a passenger capacity greater than 400 on a Class III. Designed to Lloyd's Class + 100A1, for service in exposed Western Isles waters (or the Clyde, downfirth) IONA had BoT IIA and III Certificates for 160 and 403 passengers in winter and summer respectively.

There was more single-berth officer accommodation on IONA's navigating bridge deck. The new ferry's machinery certainly impressed. The Denny-Brown retractable stabilisers complimented the diesel-driven 3-ton bow-thrust controllable-pitch propeller, and her main machinery consisted of twin Paxman engines each driving a fixed-pitch propeller through a gear; this, noted Mr Langmuir, gives propeller speed of 300 rpm, compared with the engine speed of 900 rpm, and a speed of 16 knots at 80 per cent continuous rating. Control can be had from the consoles in the engine-room, in the wheelhouse, in the bridge wings, or at the aft end of the navigation bridge deck, for astern working.”

Her normal service speed proved to be just over 15 knots, with something useful in reserve. IONA was in fact the first ship in the Company's history to have her screws powered via geared transmission, instead of direct drive, but these gearboxes were to be a regular source of trouble throughout her career. She had, in fact, two serious design faults. The first was trivial, but annoyed a host of travellers over the years: IONA boasted very little open deck space for passengers, and what little there was was pretty cluttered with mooring bitts and so on. She was the Company's first vessel without traditional teak decking and, as years went by and paint encrusted, her composite decking hosted an annoying number of puddles.

Much more serious was her bow-visor; it was an extraordinary design, raised not on a hinge but by a n odd racking system. The visor wasn't even watertight and, when regulations were tightened so fiercely late in her career, the IONA's sphere of passenger-carrying operation became very limited. In addition the bow-ramp was so foolishly designed – several sections, coiling back into the vehicle deck like a dragon's turn – that it consumed several car spaces.

Indeed, there was to be no shortage of trouble in these early months; even schedules had been deliberately eased for the newcomer on the Dunoon service – there were still no linkspans at either port and CLANSMAN, with her 50-car capacity, had always struggled to keep to the traditional 20-minute turnround times. IONA was leniently scheduled on the service, providing eight return crossings daily through the week and six on Sundays, with 45 minutes allowed for most of her turnrounds.

As early as 30^th May, on only her second day in service, the IONA had to be despatched to Troon for repairs to her starboard ramp, which she had damaged at Dunoon the previous day. Hoist repairs took a whole day and she did not return till Monday 1^st June – GLEN SANNOX had dashed to relieve her and the two vessels briefly consorted one another. On 2^nd June, IONA was again out of service – her forward capstan needed repairs. Later in June her bow-thrust unit gave up the ghost; by this time Clyde traffic was such that IONA could not be granted any more time off, and she had to operate without it until able to retreat to dock in October. (It broke down again four days later.) Her automatic steering failed as soon as she left Gourock on 1^st November – by now IONA was doing special once-weekly Gourock-Brodick runs, in the absence of the new CALEDONIA, to collect long commercial vehicles beyond the capabilities of GLEN SANNOX – and after sailing in helpless circles she finally managed to berth back at Gourock, with all the greater difficulty as her capstans seized their moment to break down too.

All this was duly fixed; then, on Wednesday 11^th November, IONA suffered the first of what was going to be a regular crisis in her career, the failure of her (starboard) gearbox. She lay out of action for two days at Gourock while repairs were effected, but then managed to complete 1970 without incident; indeed, she remained almost constantly on the Gourock-Dunoon station until November 1971, apart from occasional assistance at Arran. The shallow waters around Wemyss Bay precluded her use on the Rothesay station.

The real problem was that she was operating a service for which she was not built and by means – a side-loading hoist – which had never been intended as her primary mode of operation. Nevertheless Iain C MacArthur quite fairly describes her architect's failure to add a turntable at the forward end of her car deck as a “careless omission”, and this made the management of on-board traffic – especially long vehicles and trailers – all the more difficult. Between that blunder, and her unfortunate run of mechanical breakdown – no doubt exacerbated by all her hi-tech equipment, beyond the experience of CSP officers – IONA struggled to keep to her timetable. Once she was able to end-load at Gourock – she hanselled the new linkspan on 26^th July 1971 – matters considerably improved, but as she had still to hoistload at Dunoon she was unable to freight the 32-ton vehicles for which she had been designed.

And that design bore scarcely any resemblance to a previous Ailsa car ferry like GLEN SANNOX – only thirteen years before – or even the 1964 trio of MacBrayne car carriers. The most obvious influence on the darkly utilitarian IONA was her intended rival SOUND OF JURA, built in Norway for Western Ferries in 1968 – the first drive-through ferry in west coast waters and of frankly ghastly appearance.

After IONA's own overhaul, she had two bursts of Clyde relief early in 1972 – Ardrossan to Brodick, and back on the Dunoon station – and was at last released from CSP charter. On 4^th April 1972 her funnel was painted MacBrayne red and IONA set sail for the Western Isles.

She began MacBrayne service on the Port Askaig and Colonsay run for which, after all, she had been built – but from Oban, not West Loch Tarbert. From 1^st May she displaced the ageing LOCH SEAFORTH as Stornoway mailboat, and IONA duly offered a car-carrying service thereafter to Kyle of Lochalsh and Mallaig. This was to be but a temporary expedient as Ullapool had now been designated the most suitable mainland port; though lacking a rail connection, the passage to Ullapool was a shorter crossing and much more convenient for drivers, especially with its relative proximity to Inverness. The change was just as well, for IONA's basic passenger facilities – and lack of sleeping berths – were ill-fitted for the very long sailing to the West Highland railheads.

A new terminal and linkspan were finally completed at Ullapool and these were inaugurated by IONA on 26^th March 1973; the very old Stornoway service to Mallaig and Kyle passed into history. IONA still had to hoistload at Stornoway as the Lewis linkspan took another two months to complete; it finally opened on 23^rd May, and thereafter the IONA (and, indeed, her successors) bowloaded at Stornoway and sternloaded at Ullapool. She was now, of course, part of the Caledonian MacBrayne fleet – all the MacBrayne car ferries, bar the second SCALPAY, passed into CalMac on 1^st January 1973 – but her wee funnel was never adorned by Caley lions.

In fact Caledonian MacBrayne, though operating and advertising all passenger services, at first only owned the pleasure steamers: the car ferries were transferred to Caledonian MacBrayne Holdings Ltd. (the former Arran Piers Ltd.) and David MacBrayne Ltd. still owned the SCALPAY and assorted passenger and cargo-boats, continuing to operate the surviving cargo service to Stornoway, and certain loss-making passenger runs, such as Tobermory-Mingary and Mallaig-Small Isles. The plan was that David MacBrayne Ltd. would run any service requiring a subsidy, with CalMac operating on profitable lines. It proved to be a pipe dream and everything was integrated under Caledonian MacBrayne Ltd in 1980; David MacBrayne Ltd. survives on paper only, with two Directors, no ships, no services and no function.

She was not a popular Lewis mailboat - “The facilities on the IONA for vehicles are good, but her passenger accomodation is indifferent,” sniffed Francis Thompson in 1973 – but from 13^th June IONA was enmired in difficulties that proved, to this day, to be the most humiliating episode in CalMac history.

Problems began on 13^th June 1973 when the Stornoway linkspan broke down. IONA had to hoistload, again, for three days; there was great relief that the converted CLANSMAN's entry to service had been held up, as she would have been unable to load vehicle traffic at all. The ramp had only been repaired for five days when on 22^nd June IONA herself broke down, and for several days offered but deplorable service, sailing at 10 knots on one engine. (A passenger-carrying ship would not now be allowed to leave Stornoway or Ullapool on only one engine.) Naturally, her arrivals and departures soon bore no recognisable relation to her timetable.

On Tuesday 27^th June, in a bid to end this ordeal, COLUMBA was at lunchtime dispatched from Mallaig to relieve her. She left Ullapool with a load of vehicles that evening – 3 ¼ hours late – but, forced to hoistload at both ends, had no hope of maintaining the timetable either. COLUMBA's absence caused much difficulty on other routes – Lochboisdale traffic was diverted via Uig, and the LOCH ARKAIG had to make extra calls at Armadale – and she had to sail back to her own schedule on Friday 29^th June, IONA still undergone repairs at Stornoway and still out of service.

The newly rebuilt CLANSMAN (two months late) was due to reach Ullapool and take the evening run that night. In fact, CLANSMAN did not arrive until lunchtime on Saturday 30^th June, and sailed an hour later – the first departure from Ullapool since Thursday, where feelings were now running quite high: there were still no facilities whatever for waiting passengers. On passage, CLANSMAN promptly developed an electrical fault. She had difficulty berthing in Stornoway and then had serious problems with her bow-visor. The first car was not unloaded until 7.45 am on Sabbath morning, almost 24 hours after her arrival at Ullapool. By now CLANSMAN had completely broken down and there was no ferry sailing from Stornoway on Saturday: she and IONA lay uselessly by the quayside, a calamitous advertisement for the newly merged Caledonian MacBrayne Ltd.

1973 had proved a dreadful year for the Company, stalked by delays, breakdown, and even shipwreck (LOCH SEAFORTH had foundered at Tiree in March; and the MORVERN briefly sank in the Crinan Canal); and Stornoway proved such a crisis point – for CLANSMAN was plagued by mechanical troubles that summer that the management seriously investigated the possibility of putting veteran turbine steamer KING GEORGE V on the Ullapool crossing, in the absence of any conceivable alternative.
 

IONA Entering Oban Bay Mid 70's
From the Outer Isles

IONA later in her career at Coll

“The day of the family amphibious saloon has not yet come. We are spared the sight of tourists – yachting caps at a jaunty angle – driving off the end of the pier at Ullapool and setting course for Stornoway. The seaways are happily free of the omnivorous car, which is devouring all that is best in the urban environment, and increasingly fouling the countryside.

Vandals – disguised as your friendly local councillor – connive in the urban destruction by sanctioning the construction of multi-storied car parks in town centres. These monstrous concrete mausoleums – invariably disfiguring the centre, no matter how small and attractive the town – only succeed in adding to the already chaotic traffic congestion. Henry Ford thought he was liberating the peasants when his mass-produced Model T rolled off the first primitive assembly lines. In fact, he was shackling Western man in servitude to the car. Even naval architects have fallen under its baleful influence, as anyone who has travelled aboard the IONA can testify.

“A comparatively recent addition to the CalMac fleet, the IONA is a floating car-park, expressly designed for the comfort and convenience of the automobile. In the eyes of her designer, human freight was clearly a secondary – if not a minor – consideration.

“Seating and promenade space on deck is virtually non-existent. The arrangement in what is laughingly labelled the observation lounge is of so uncompromisingly bleak a nature that it might have been lifted straight from a Victorian House of Correction. In keeping with the reformatory atmosphere, on the day I crossed from Tiree to Oban aboard the IONA the shutters remained firmly in place on the for'ard windows. A drab expanse of shuttered windows does little to enhance a long sea journey. Of course it may have been part of a none too subtle plot to drive the disgruntled passenger to the bar.

“The smoke-room/bar, deep in the bowels of the ship, has all the charm, colour and gaiety and warmth of a public lavatory. On the other hand, it could have been a faithful replica of the traditional old-tyme Glasgow drinking den.

“What a joy then to board an older vessel, the HEBRIDES, and travel in comfort to Tarbert by way of Lochmaddy. The HEBRIDES is everything that the IONA is not. There is every facility for the human passenger – on deck and below deck – and the relaxed, pleasant service that one remembers from earlier days when CalMac was simply MacBrayne.

“Given such an admirably equipped and well-run vessel, it is curious that CalMac should go to such extraordinary lengths to confuse the travelling public as to her whereabouts on any given day. The essence of a good timetable, designed to cultivate custom, is a simple regularity. 'Simple' is the last word that could be used to describe the incredibly complicated timetable of the HEBRIDES. I defy anyone to commit it to memory, even after an intensive study.

“Obviously, this convoluted schedule was devised by a malevolent dwarf with a grudge against humanity and a mad passion for cars. He wants the HEBRIDES withdrawn from service and replaced by an austere floating car-park, and has hit upon a beautifully simple solution – a timetable of such baffling complexity that CalMac returns on the Uig-Tarbert-Lochmaddy run will suffer such a drastic fall that the service will be discontinued.

“CalMac should scrap the existing schedule and replace it with a sensible timetable. As for the malevolent dwarf, I have the perfect solution for him. He should be given a CalMac cardboard cup and plastic knife, and banished to the smoke-room of the IONA.”

MacLean was quite kind in ascribing the bar to the “bowels” of IONA. In his jolly Away With the Ferries (1999), Stuart Craig suggests the facility lay in the vessel's rectum.
 

IONA Turning to Berth at Lochboisdale June 1978

At first she gave three return runs daily between Kennacraig and Port Ellen, with two on Sundays. From 24^th October 1979, she was able to use the newly extended pier at Port Askaig as well, and gave two calls weekly during the winter. The Company had not timetabled a Port Askaig service since ARRAN's withdrawal for conversion in 1972. At the end of September 1981 Western Ferries finally abandoned their Islay service, though retaining SOUND OF GIGHA on Feolin Ferry. Locals duly petitioned CalMac for more calls to Port Askaig, which were duly granted, at the expense of Port Ellen.

From the start of the 1985 summer timetable IONA lay overnight at the latter port, rather than at Kennacraig, in a bid to placate Port Ellen's inhabitants – though the arrangement was not continued in 1986. Islay is a difficult service and, despite providing excellent new facilities at Port Ellen (in 1981) and Kennacraig (in 1983) CalMac were constantly re-inventing IONA's duties in a bid to keep as many people as happy as possible.
 

IONA in East India Harbour
Receiving her New Gearboxes

IONA at Armadale on one of her
Last Hoist Loading Operations

She was a great success at Armadale and achieved a remarkable 94% increase in car traffic and 78% increase in passenger figures. She also in assorted seasons offered a varying routine of weekend sailings from Mallaig to Castlebay, Lochboisdale and (less successfully) to Tobermory on Mull. In winter she relieved widely throughout the fleet. IONA also on occasion was chartered for special cruises – to such exotic haunts as Tarbert Loch Fyne, Canna and even Tighnabruaich – and she did eventually do some runs from Wemyss Bay to Rothesay; she remains the only vessel to have bow-loaded at Wemyss Bay.

But she was knocking on; she was increasingly unacceptable on the longest ferry crossings and considerations of deadweight and buoyancy soon demanded massive works of alteration if she were to remain in CalMac year-round service. It was not deemed worth it and with the arrival of a new CLANSMAN in 1998, LORD OF THE ISLES would be free to take over the Mallaig-Armadale run. IONA was accordingly placed on the sale list and she was formally sold, during the 1997 season, by a company called Pentland Ferries – newly reformed and eager to revive a Pentland Firth car ferry service from Gills Bay in Caithness to Burwick or St Margaret's Hope on Orkney. (This had been disastrously attempted by the well-intended Orkney Ferries in 1989, using a badly designed new ferry between quite unsuitable terminals and at the loss of millions of pounds in public money – hugely humiliating Orkney Islands Council, which squandered vast sums in subsidising the ill-planned venture.)

IONA saw out her last days of CalMac service at Armadale, finishing on Saturday 25^th October 1997. On Thursday 23^rd the lions were removed from her funnels and work began on painting out the Company's name.

She left Mallaig at midnight that Saturday to be delivered to her new owners, duly arriving at St Margaret's Hope at noon the following day. After berthing trials she was left with a skeleton watch until sale formalities were completed that November.

In fact it would be several seasons before PENTALINA B – as she has been renamed – could take up the Gills Bay-Orkney service; she was, however, well maintained and the seasonal service -b with much learned from the debacle of 1989 – has been a great success. And the former Iona, now in plain red and black funnels and minus her hoist, did have an unexpected CalMac swansong: caught out in the summer of 1998 when the ISLE OF LEWIS sustained a major breakdown and the new CLANSMAN was still not ready for service, Caledonian MacBrayne saw nothing for it but to charter the PENTALINA B.
 

Accordingly the ISLE OF MULL dashed to Stornoway and the PENTALINA B sailed south to maintain the Oban-Craignure service for just under three weeks, in partnership with PIONEER. She has not since served in West Highland waters. “Throughout her life she was never looked upon as being a 'star', concluded a scribe for the West Highland Steamer Club, “but rather was an efficient workhorse that undertook efficiently all that was asked of her and so proved herself to be a most worthy unit of the fleet.” In truth, IONA was a small and rather ugly ferry with a dodgy gearbox, an adequate rather than outstanding ship which never inspired affection wherever she served.

PENTALINA B and PIONEER working at Craignure