Lochdunvegan
Gaelic Name:
N/A
Current Status:
Type:
Callsign:
Steel MV
IMO:
MMSI:
Launched:
Acquired:
0
21/11/1950
??/12/50
Entered Service:
Disposed:
November 1973
Details
Ordered By:
Cost:
Registered:
Launched by:
Named after:
David MacBrayne Ltd.
Glasgow
A Loch on the North East coast of Skye
Dimensions
Length:
180.1'
Draught:
Breadth:
9.6'
30.6'
Gross Tonnage:
562
Technical
Builders:
Akt. Lindholmens Varv, Gothenburg
Yard No:
0
Engine Builders:
A/B Atlas Diesel.
Machinery:
2 SCSA 6 cyls. 13 3/8”-227/16”.
Speed:
12
Hoist & Lifts:
Remarks:
She was the very first ship in the fleet to have a variable-pitch reversible propellor.<br>LOCHDUNVEGAN also remains the only ship in CalMac history in having a hull strengthened to withstand ice, including an ice-breaking bow.
Capacities
Passengers:
Cars:
Crew:
Lifeboats:
0
0
0
2
Facilities
Route Timeline
1950 - 1971: Glasgow - Stornoway & As Required Car Charters
1972 - 1973: Glasgow - Tobermory - Armadale - Lochalsh
1973: Oban - Tiree Car Carrier
Current, Last or Usual Route
History
David MacBrayne Ltd was struggling, post-war, to maximise available tonnage and the couple of decades succeeding 1945 saw a remarkable number of second-hand ships enter Company service. One was the Swedish coaster ORNEN, built at Gothenburg in 1946 and acquired by David MacBrayne Ltd in August 1950. After an overhaul at Flushing she was handed over to the Company's agents on 21st November and sailed to Glasgow via Rotterdam and Dublin.
In December she was renamed LOCHDUNVEGAN – originally it had been planned to call her LOCHALSH, but a tiny BTC turntable ferry at Kyleakin beat her to it – and the latest MacBrayne recruit took up the Glasgow-Stornoway cargo run in succession to the ancient LOCHGORM, a steamer built in 1896.
In the spring of 1951 LOCHDUNVEGAN was given a refrigerating hold for the carriage of Stornoway-landed fish, and deck cabins were built to accommodate four passengers. On occasion she also made special trips from Uig to Tarbert, and from Oban to Tiree, to convey cars. MacBrayne's cargo trade declined rapidly with the advent of large car ferries and by 1972 LOCHDUNVEGAN was on a very limited Glasgow-Tobermory-Lochalsh service. From early in 1972 she discarded her usual Armadale stop. Shortly after, MacBrayne's discontinued cargo calls to Tobermory and Kyle and Stornoway was added to the roster of LOCHCARRON in July 1973.
Due for withdrawal that September, LOCHDUNVEGAN spent some time that summer as a dedicated Oban-Tiree car ferry (the cars, of course, being slung aboard by crane). She had, at last, a violent end to her MacBrayne career, grounding at Lochboisdale on 23rd August after her rudder jammed. She was eventually towed clear and taken to Lamont's yard at Port Glasgow for slipping and assessment.
LOCHDUNVEGAN never sailed again for David MacBrayne Ltd and was sold in November 1973 to George Stavrou and Others, to sail under the Greek flag as their FANIS. In 1977 she was acquired by Sklevenitis Bros and renamed VASSILIS, being engaged on inter-island trade in the Aegean; she was sold again in 1982 and still again in 1987, being re-named the MAGY and in 1994 was still in service.
Text thanks to John MacLeod
Gallery