When we re-introduced the idea of the ‘friends’ to help the old lady, we said there should be regular (3 per year) newsletters concentrating on some aspect of the Ship or the people involved with her. I approached a member of the crew, but he went off to get married; I guess his mind was on other things. I approached a member who remembers using the ship when he was a child before the 2nd world war, but his wife is poorly, There is a promise there and that should be interesting. So, like most things, I’ve to do it myself.
Why am I involved? I have an interest in steam ships. As a boy I wanted to go to sea in the engine room, but my father dissuaded me. He had been the skipper of a Norwegian tanker during the war and the memory of engine room staff in torpedoed ships was too fresh in his mind. I was born in Dunoon and brought up in Bute and frequently as a child commuted between the two on the ‘steamers’; Marchioness of Lorne, Waverley, the Duchesses, Queen Mary 11, Jeannie Deans, Saint Columba and others. Where are these ships now? All long since been scrapped having first been sold overseas or sent to the Thames to be a restaurant. We only have 2 passenger ships still in steam (not counting Vic32) here in Scotland and we must do all possible to ensure these remnants of our once wonderful past are kept for the generations to come. They are floating, working museums. As long as they are kept working, they should be safe from the fate of their sisters.
.In the summers of 2006 to 2008 I was invited to Norway, with my launch Silkie, to veteran ship festivals in Stavanger. There is great enthusiasm in Norway, and many other European countries for this taste of their past. Sweden, Switzerland, Germany, Denmark still have active fleets of veteran ships (and not all steam) See Riskafjord II, built in 1864, Børøsund celebrating her 100th Birthday and still with the original engine and boiler, Oster, Stord and many others. http://www.nordsteam2008.no/hvem.html Quite a sight to see them lined up at the quay taking the scene back to the 1920s.
Scotland was a world leader in using steam to power ships large and small. The Sir Walter Scott was the forerunner of the Clyde flyers King Edward, the duchesses Hamilton and Montrose and the Queen Mary 11. The Waverley is the last of the long line of paddlers that plied British waters.
I sometimes wonder if part of our disrespect for our country is that the past is, in many cases, destroyed or placed in museums with insufficient funds to keep the artefacts in good repair. The glaring example is the ‘City of Adelaide’. We need to go to San Francisco to see a well maintained square rigged clyde built ship, the ‘Balclutha’. Or to the ‘Cutty Sark’ in London. We are not encouraged to have pride in our past. We don’t fly our national flag at home.
You are helping in a small way by your efforts on the Sir Walter Scott. At the end of October The operations are closing down for the winter. Only a small staff is being kept on for marketing and maintenance. The practical help that was freely given last winter will be welcome again.
The ‘friends’ are due to hold their AGM soon. Please let me know by e-mail ‘easter@matriix.com’ If you wish to attend or if you are happy to authorise the chair to use a proxy. A statement of the accounts will be sent to you soon and you can change your mind after that. Roger Martin has been overwhelmed by his retirement job, fixing Aston Martins, so we are looking for a new secretary. Any volunteers?
Gudmund Friis Jørgensen
Chairman
