|
|
shipshistories...
 Main
The Fleet
Ships of the Fleet
Queen
Mary (II)
History
The Company's last steamship – and Scotland's last turbine steamer – was built
by Denny's of Dumbarton for the Williamson-Buchanan fleet; and specifically for
the “doon the water” excursion trade from Glasgow to the Clyde resorts. QUEEN
MARY was launched on Thursday 30th March 1933 by Lady Colquhoun, wife of Sir Ian
Colquhoun of Luss, to grandiloquent praise by the shipyard's company chairman,
Mr Maurice Denny, who was sure the Glasgow folk would embrace the new vessel to
their hearts. “The QUEEN MARY, as they would learn when they took their first
trip in her, had special and improved accommodation, far outstripping anything
hitherto attempted in the Clyde River steamer.
This was “a proud boast for the new ship,” notes her 1976 biographer, Robin Orr,
“but it has proved fully justified.”
In many respects QUEEN MARY closely resembled the new generation of turbine
steamers, like KING GEORGE V or the two LMS “Duchesses”. Unlike KING GEORGE V,
though, she had solid bulwarks rather than an open rail to the bow, and her
first-class accommodation was forward, in reverse of Clyde custom hitherto. She
was also, mechanically, much more traditional, with three direct-acting turbines
to her three screws and steam raised from a Scotch boiler. Though her normal
service speed was fifteen knots, she was fully capable of eighteen when pushed.
Yet there were novelties too. The fully enclosed observation lounge, forward,
was most spacious and untroubled by the draughts and disturbance of folk seeking
access to the foredeck. (Instead of a door, this area was reached by a
companionway from the boat deck, above.) Much more usefully, the upper deck ran
almost all her way to her stern, providing not only more deck space in total but
shelter for those on the promenade deck below. The first class dining saloon was
forward, not aft, and so granted passengers a fire outlook and freedom from
vibration. Her third class accommodation – tearoom, smoke-room and bar – lay
towards the stern.
The engine room was enclosed in a way that completely cut off bow from stern
accommodation on her main deck and only after the 1950 introduction of one-class
operation was throughfare possible – via the gents' toilet! There was a large
galley amidships and, in another innovation for the times, this boasted a
splendid refrigerator. With all this enclosed passenger-space, her sleek white
bulwarks rather than rails, a raked bow and cruiser stern, QUEEN MARY had a
remarkably modern profile and, at the end of her career – when she had acquired
the single large funnel – it was hard to remember how old she actually was.
One reason for all this was that in truth she was a purpose-built excursion ship
– which very few of the twentieth century Clyde steamers actually were; most had
to be designed to allow capacity for mails, light freight, and on occasion even
motor-vehicles. QUEEN MARY was also, at thirty-five feet, unusually beamy.
Purists might – and often did – complain of her “tubbiness”, and she could never
match, for instance, the DUCHESS OF HAMILTON for speed; but the new time
turbine-steamer was unsurpassed for roominess and comfort, and in her original
two-funnel profile looked most attractive in the elegant black-and-white livery
of her original owners.
Her base was Bridge Wharf in Glasgow and she sailed most days at 10 am for
Dunoon and Rothesay, with non-landing excursions to Arran, Skipness, etc. On
Saturdays she did the most famous Clyde cruise of all – leaving Bridge Wharf at
1:45 for Dunoon, Rothesay and the Kyles of Bute. Until 1969 – with the exception
of the war years – there was little variation on this routine; and indeed she
would resume it in her very last seasons.
The new ship's impact was immediate and Mr Denny's prophecy abundantly
fulfilled; her “roominess and unique amount of sheltered accommodation and open
deckspace had instantly endeared the 'Mary' to the Glasgow public,” records Ian
McCrorie, “and she remained a firm favourite both for regular sailings and
special charters.”
1935 was an eventful year for QUEEN MARY. That spring the Cunard White Star Line
prevailed on Williamson-Buchanan to change her name, in order to free it for the
splendid new liner nearing completion at Clydebank. So the Clyde excursion
steamer became QUEEN MARY II; and an elegant plaque, as well as a portrait of
King George V's consort, was presented to her owners by a grateful Cunard in
acknowledgement of their gracious act.
In October that year QUEEN MARY II passed to the ownership of the CSP (itself a
subsidary of the LMS Railway) though it was December 1939 before she acquired
yellow funnels; and they did not long survive until the adoption of hideous
wartime livery – first all grey; later black hull with dingy “horizon yellow”
funnels and superstructure. She spent the war period almost continuously on the
Gourock-Dunoon run and it was 1st June 1946 before she resumed service from
Glasgow. She also enjoyed the company of a distinguished consort; the pioneer
Clyde turbine, KING EDWARD, which undertook the 10 am secondary run from Glasgow
(QUEEN MARY II would sail at 11 am) till her withdrawal in 1951.
QUEEN MARY II became a one-class ship in 1950 and acquired a mainmast in 1953.
In 1954 a cafeteria was installed. She was reboilered in the spring of 1957 – a
Yarrow water-tube oil-fired boiler was installed- and emerged with a startling
new look; one modern funnel in place of her original two. It was
well-proportioned, though, and “many think her appearance has been improved,”
mused G E Langmuir sourly, “though it is difficult to resist the preference for
two funnels.”
In 1960, QUEEN MARY II was fitted with radar and in 1965 adopted the new CSP
livery – her hull painted that strange “monastral” blue, and two Caley lions
rampant fitted to her funnel. (A these were of a standard size, ill-suited to
the bast range of CSP lums, they were mere red splodges from a distance.) In a
regrettable move that ruined her lines and appalled her admirers, her masts were
shortened for the 1969 season, in order to allow her passage under the new
Kingston Bridge. (As Bridge Wharf was closed for ever at that season's end –
before the Kingston Bridge was even finished – the mutilation, which was never
reversed, was entirely pointless.)
STG ownership saw reversion to black hulls and, her Glasgow base withdrawn,
QUEEN MARY retreated once again to Gourock and added a few Round Ailsa Craig
trips to her schedule. The withdrawal of DUCHESS OF HAMILTON led to considerable
refit in the spring of 1971. The most urgent task was the improvement of her
electricity supply. This done, her facilities were massively revamped.
The deck lounge was refurbished and the dining saloon forward became a modern
cafeteria. The bar was promoted from the lower deck to the main deck aft – it
became the “Firth Lounge”- and a daft plan to build a new bar on her upper deck
(and thus reduce open deckspace for passengers) was averted. A a new dining
saloon was, bizarrely, put in the lower deck in what had been the traditional
Clyde steamer location – though forward rather than aft – and this became the
“Queen's Restaurant”, though in the grotty cheapskate atmosphere of the 1970s
this was frequently out of use.
Thus QUEEN MARY II sallied forth for the summer of 1971, adding various ports of
DUCHESS OF HAMILTON to her roster – and thus she operated a lively mix of
cruises from Dunoon, Largs and Rothesay to the Kyles of Bute, Inveraray, Arran
and Campbeltown
“QUEEN MARY II, though not as fast as the last Caley 'Duchess', and perhaps
lacking some of her character, is the more sensible choice as the premier
cruiser,” admitted Iain C. MacArthur, “for she is more economical with her
water-tube boiler installation of 1957 and has more spacious accommodation, now
properly modernised...”
It was enough to ensure that QUEEN MARY II survived WAVERLEY, when the Compan's
last sea-going paddlesteamer was withdrawn (as it seemed) at the end of the 1973
season, the year QUEEN MARY II acquired a CalMac red funnel. She survived even
KING GEORGE V – though never reciprocated that ship's brief 1970 fling on the
Clyde with a West Highland jaunt of her own. The (brief) demise of WAVERLEY saw
QUEEN MARY spend the 1974 season as the very last Clyde steamer, adding certain
WAVERLEY jaunts like Round the Lochs or Round Bute to her increasingly
complicated schedule of all-day cruises, with a sortie to Arran on Wednesdays.
WAVERLEY, however, proved spectacularly undead; she was recommissioned under
private (charitable) ownership in 1975 and resumed steamer sailings from Glasgow
– at weekends – for the first time since 1969. These were a big hit and CalMac
took note.
There followed an unedifying dual and without quarter; the STG had had the
foresight, in the famous £1 sale of WAVERLEY to her new owners, to insert a
conditional clause precluding the use of the paddler in direct competition with
CalMac vessels on CalMac routes. There was no reciprocal clause to stop CalMac
muscling in on the restored Glasgow excursion business; even better, Strathclyde
Regional Council was persuaded in 1976 to grant subsidy to the Company for MAID
OF THE LOCH and QUEEN MARY II – and nothing at all for the “poor old WAVERLEY”.
So the turbine resumed “doon the water” cruises from Glasgow on Sundays and
Mondays in 1976, joining WAVERLEY at her Anderston Quay berth; more, the demise
of the great Cunarder – now entombed in Los Angeles concrete – allowed her to
revert to her original name, with a special ceremony held on board on 6th May
1976.
|
|
Yet, despite all these advantages, QUEEN MARY could not finish off the world's
last sea-going paddlesteamer; and as the public spending crisis mounted and the
screws tightened on CalMac's budget, it became obvious they could not afford to
retain this expensive summer butterfly. There was but a limited, and dwindling,
market for a Clyde excursion steamer; and WAVERLEY, with the thrash and dramas
of paddles, had pretty well cornered it.
In the winter of 1976-1977 the STG Board committed themselves to a major refit
of the 1957 car ferry, GLEN SANNOX, and it became apparent that this would allow
her to replace QUEEN MARY as summer excursion vessel while earning a useful
crust, in relief work, every winter.
But QUEEN MARY would enjoy a last, forty-fifth season on the Clyde through the
summer of 1977. She made her very last sailing on 12th September; it was an
“Evening Showboat” excursion from Largs to Rothesay and the Kyles of Bute. She
then repaired forlornly to Greenock's East India Harbour to await her fate. |
One of her final CalMac cruises |
|
There followed several nerve-shredding years of speculation and uncertainty,
expectation and dashed hoped. On 30th June 1978 it was announced Glasgow
District Council had purchased the QUEEN MARY, for use up-river as a static but
floating maritime museum. The advent of a new Conservative government, and
savage public spending cuts, put paid to the plan and in April 1980 the old
turbine was sold to Euroyachts Ltd. There was the usual gossip about possible
static use in an atmosphere not helped by the destruction, in just over a year,
of the OLD CALEDONIA and the KING GEORGE V by fire; and an unhelpful reminder,
in Ships Monthly, that QUEEN MARY enjoyed a scrap-value of around £30,000.
|
|
She was acquired by a London company, Tesright, in 1981; it emerged that there
were Chinese-born
businessmen involved in the venture, though Tesright made plain she was not to
become a Chinese restaurant. Towed to the Thames that January – though only
after her rusting lions were removed by order of Lord Lyon King of Arms; and
much of her steam plant stripped out and freighted to the National Maritime
Museum - QUEEN MARY lay helplessly in Tilbury Docks for several years and was
eventually restored for a static role in 1987, and indeed to a two-funnel
condition, after being sold yet again to Toby Inns Ltd.
Though much altered internally, QUEEN MARY still lies at the Victoria Embankment
in the berth once occupied by the OLD CALEDONIA, serving as a pub and restaurant
with somer rented office accommodation besides; in 1997 she enjoyed another
refit, at Chatham, and the twin white funnels once again became yellow. “She
remains open to the public on Victoria Embankment,” writes Colin Smith,
“regularly visited by Glasgow businessmen who find themselves in London and in
need of refreshment in familiar surroundings.”
 Text thanks to John
MacLeod (C) |
Being painted from blue back to her original
livery on the Thames
|
All material on this site © Ships of
CalMac 2001 - 2013, unless otherwise stated.
This site is NOT connected to the Official Company Site -
www.calmac.co.uk
Contact Us ¦ Read our
Privacy Policy |
