Not motoring
Transport of delight
Gavin Stamp
Standing on a rock a little upstream of Dumbarton Rock — the seat perhaps, but perhaps not, of King Arthur — is an obelisk erected to the memory of Henry Bell, pio- neer of steam navigation in Britain. In 1812, Bell launched his Comet, a tiny steamboat which began a passenger service between Glasgow and Greenock, and within a few years steam-powered boats were plying down the Clyde estuary and providing reg- ular services to the Western islands. The paddle-steamer became a familiar feature of the Firth of Clyde and they were used both for work and for pleasure, excursion trips `doon the watter' becoming a favourite jaunt for Glaswegians.
Apart from the ugly, if efficient, car fer- ries which cross the Firth of Clyde near Gourock and Greenock, there is only one passenger boat now to be seen on the Clyde. This is the Waverley, claimed to be the last ocean paddle-steamer in the world. She is operated not by Caledonian McBrayne nor by a commercial company but by a charity: the Paddle Steamer Preservation Society. The Waverley is a beautiful and enchanting vessel. With her good Scottish name and her red, white and black funnels which are such a happy sight on the water in the summer months, this working antique symbolises the extraordi- nary maritime and ship-building history of the Clyde in the (shameful) absence of a proper maritime museum in Glasgow.
On seeing the Waverley for the first time, most people assume she is Edwardian or even Victorian with her twin raked funnels and big paddle-wheels within traditional ornamented casings. In fact, she is only a couple of years older than I am (if in rather better shape). Her eponymous predecessor was indeed Victorian, being built in 1899, but she was sunk at Dunkirk in 1940. So, although the traditional paddle-steamers were already in decline, her owners, the London & North Eastern Railway, simply built another one at Greenock in 1946-47 with war damage compensation. And why not? A single, fixed axle driven by three pistons may seem primitive, but the pad- dles allow the shallow-draught vessel to accelerate rapidly across the water.
If time is no object, this is the way to travel. There is something intrinsically exhilarating about being on water while the beat of the paddles is curiously relaxing and therapeutic. Below deck, one can gaze at the brightly polished and well-lubricated engines, whose regular motion is almost hypnotic. The Waverley offers several attractions on a voyage, whether the mag- nificent scenery of the Firth of Clyde or the well-stocked bar downstairs. Passengers can disembark at Millport, Rothesay, Largs, Campbelltown or wherever (the route varies) or just stay on board all day. Two weeks ago, I took my first trip of the season on the Waverley. It was a long one: from Greenock right up to the top of Loch Fyne. My Steam Boat Companion of 1831 told me that while the journey by road from Glasgow to Inveraray is 73 miles, by sea the route is 36 miles longer, so it took all day to negotiate the Kyles of Bute and then chug all the way up the long sea loch past Ardr- ishaig to Inveraray, that planned Georgian town dominated by its proto-neo-baronial castle, symbol of the power and arrogance of the Dukes of Argyll. Then we went on even further, slowly chugging past Dunder- ave Castle then, after weaving around the fish farms opposite Lorimer's Ardkinglas, penetrating almost as far as the celebrated Oyster Bar. And the Waverley went slower and slower, silently moving over the smooth, clear water where, the captain announced, no steamer had ever gone before.
It was a very special excursion, and the Waverley will not sail so far again for some years for the journey is too long for one day. But for how long can the boat, pushing 50, carry on anyway? Metal and water do not mix well, so ships have a finite life, and it seems the inevitable fate of handsome paddle-steamers to become bars and restaurants. It will be a poorer world and a poorer Clyde with no paddle-steamers to delight and captivate, so the Waverley's owners are applying for £3 million of lot- tery money for a 'complete rebuild' to pro- long her life by 20 years.
Much as I want the ship to go on and on, I could not help feeling uneasy at learning that her entire superstructure is to be replaced. Can she really then be the same, even if traditional materials are used and the design repeated? But why should ships be different from buildings: as the man who runs Waverley Excursions observed to me, historic buildings are restored by replacing weathered parts, and it is true that not a single original stone survives on the exterior of, say, Westminster Abbey. So let the Waverley be restored; she is a worthy recipient of Lottery cash and rather more useful as well as more elegant than many fixed, ancient structures.
I forget who said that great buildings look like ships, but it is so often true. As is the reverse: beautiful ships are good archi- tecture, distinctive shapes with elegance and proportion and disciplined by function. If you cannot go down the water from her home in Glasgow, then board the Waverley when she goes round the South Coast in September, calling at Weymouth, Yarmouth, Bournemouth .. , There can be no more enjoyable way to travel.
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