Old Maid Comes off the Shelf –
Last Paddle Steamer to Sail Again
Loch Lomond used to be her steaming ground and falling revenues saw her mothballed in 1981, but the Maid of the Loch, the last paddle steamer built in these isles could be making a comeback in time for summer 2018 that is if sufficient money is raised to trigger lottery funding.
Another Age
The maid was launched in 1953 the time of the Queen’s coronation, the Festival of Britain and the last gasps of wartime rationing. She was at once the pride of the loch and a bit of ‘make do and mend.’ The steering mechanism was originally designed to steer a Second World War landing craft designed to disgorge troops onto the battlefields of France, not ply up and down with tourists. The craft was built on the Clyde, at a time when we did such things for the world, and immediately dismantled to be shipped by rail to Loch Lomond in a process called ‘up and down’ and she was promptly reassembled by the loch.
Steam Dream
When the Maid is restored she’ll join the larger PS Waverley, also a paddle steamer, in sailing up and down our waterways, although the Waverley is still fit for sea passages. I hope this all goes to plan, we are careless with our heritage as it is and this is a noble project worthy of success and it will thrill all who see it. If they raise £1.7m of cash towards the project it would release £3.8m of heritage lottery cash and next year she could be steaming again.
A Bygone Age
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