On 10th April her Royal Highness The Princess Royal visited TS Queen Mary in Glasgow to see first hand the progress that has been made over the last 12 months, and also to meet the supporters, volunteers and funders involved in the restoration.
On board TS Queen Mary all of the key partners for the next phase of the project briefed Her Royal Highness. Work due to be carried out includes the completion of structural steel work repairs; new ship's windows; designing the ship’s main machinery and systems; and new steel for the ship's decks.
An artist's impression (provided by WDC Creative) was also shared with The Princess Royal of what TS Queen Mary will look like once she is finished.
Iain Sim (Chairman) said: “We were delighted to welcome back our Royal Patron to Glasgow for her fourth event in support of the charity. Our project to restore TS Queen Mary continues to gather pace with significant progress in the last year. We feel very privileged to have HRH The Princess Royal as our Royal Patron, celebrating as it does the ship’s important link with the Royal Family, for which the ship is renowned.”
TS Queen Mary was built by William Denny & Bros. of Dumbarton in 1933. She was a steel-hulled vessel built to carry mail and passengers out of the River Clyde to ports on the west coast of Scotland, and was powered by three steam turbine engines propelling triple screws.
During WWII, she was painted naval grey and maintained the Gourock to Dunoon service for over six years, also serving as a tender for ocean-going vessels. From 1943, she was owned and operated by the Caledonian Steam Packet Co. Ltd, coming under the auspices of Caledonian MacBrayne in 1973. Withdrawn from service in 1977, she was owned by Glasgow City Council from 1978 to 1980 and intended for a Clyde maritime museum project, which was abandoned on financial grounds. She was moored at various London docks between 1981 and 1987 until purchased and converted to a bar and restaurant by Waterloo Bridge.
In 2016, she was towed back to the Clyde and is currently docked in Glasgow. Since rescuing the vessel from being scrapped, the Friends of TS Queen Mary have so far raised and invested £4m in the project to restore the vessel as a heritage destination and education centre. In March 2022, it was announced that, instead of becoming a static exhibit, the ship will be restored to sail on the Clyde once more.
Source: Friends of TS Queen Mary Facebook page
Photo: Martin Shields
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Scotland