Paddle Steamer Resources by Tramscape
The Internet's largest database of
mainly European Paddle Steamers past and present
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Firth
of Clyde,
Scotland
David
Hutcheson & Co : David MacBrayne
Ltd
David MacBrayne
was of three partners in David Hutcheson's company and eventually
took exclusive control in 1879 after the retirement of David
Hutcheson in 1876 and Alexander Hutcheson in 1878. MacBrayne died in
1907 , aged 92, having worked up until the previous year, by which
time the operation had become David MacBrayne Ltd. It was
reconstructed in 1928 as David MacBrayne (1928) Ltd, owned jointly by
Coast Lines Ltd and the LMS railway. As David MacBrayne Ltd from
1934, 50 percent remained with the private Coast Lines Ltd until it
was purchased by the Scottish Transport Group in 1969 and on January
1, 1973 was merged with STG's other subsisiary, the Caledonian Steam
Packet Company to form Caledonian - MacBrayne. MacBrayne's territory
was the Western Isles with Oban as base, but a regular service was
run from Glasgow (later Gourock) to Tarbet and Ardrishaig on Loch
Fyne for delivering mail and passengers for onward connections to the
Western Isles. Marketed since the 19th century as the "Royal Route"
with reference to an earlier visit to the area by Queen Victoria,
MacBraynes ran some well-known, well- loved and long-lived steamers
on the Clyde until the end of the 1969 season when the
diesel-electric vessel Lochfyne was
withdrawn.
MV Lochfyne (1931) was built by Denny of Dumbarton, which built, amongst
others, the turbine
steamer Queen Mary and the paddler Caledonia for Clyde service in subsequent years, but the ship
built for summer cruising in the Western Isles and the Ardrishaig mail service
in winter, was a most unusual vessel. She was the first British passenger ship
with direct drive electric motors driven by a diesel generator. She became the
year-round Ardrishaig boat after the withdrawal of St Columba in 1958, spending
most of her time on the Clyde, but has since spent some early summers cruising out
of Oban with MV Lochnevis substituting on the Clyde.
Photo by Alexander Bain,
courtesy of Donald Bain.
Regular Summer
Vessels
PS Iona
PS Columba
TS Saint Columba
MV Lochfyne
Winter and Main Relief Vessels
PS
Mountaineer
MV Loch Nevis
TS King George V
MV Lochiel
Return to
Firth of
Clyde
Clyde Steamers of the 1930s
Hutcheson / MacBrayne -
Western Isles Services
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