About us

CRSC Honorary Treasurer Billy Tomlinson and Waverley Excursions General Manager Paul Semple proudly hold a hastily unravelled CRSC pennant at Ardnagal Pier on the nominated excursion from Glasgow and Greenock on 18 August 2024

CRSC brings together everyone with an interest in Scottish shipping.

Our monthly meetings in Glasgow are addressed by a variety of speakers from the shipping and enthusiast world. You can attend in person or view the talks online at a time of your own choosing. Details are given on the home page of this website.

We also organise special excursions, often involving unusual itineraries.

Each year we produce two highly prized publications, Clyde Steamers and Review, which are issued free to members.

Our digital archive, comprising hundreds of unique and rare photographs, can be accessed through ‘members only’ posts on this website.

To join CRSC and get all the benefits, please click here.

CRSC was founded in 1932, when the Clyde teemed with shipyards and paddle steamers. Today we focus on the fleet of car ferries and passenger ships around the British coast, especially on the west of Scotland. We are currently celebrating our 90th anniversary.

Uniting past and present is the Club’s unchanging purpose — to create opportunities for enthusiasts to meet, sail and talk together.

A list of officeholders can be found further down this page.

If you have any questions about CRSC, please drop an email to info@crsc.org.uk

The 2024 edition of Clyde Steamers has in-depth features on Captain John Archie Campbell (MV Hebrides), the conversion of Loch Frisa ex Utne, the career of MV Iona, the 1960 sinking of Lochiel and beautifully researched accounts of three MacBrayne ‘oldies’

Review 2023 runs to 64 pages and is full of fabulous illustrations. It gives a summary of fleet activity throughout the year, ship by ship, and features MV Alfred’s west coast berthing trials and Hebridean Isles’ eight months of steering and propulsion problems

Covers of Review 2015

Like previous editions (pictured), the latest Review has everything you might want to know about shipping activity on the west of Scotland throughout the year

TS King George V graced the front cover of the 2019 Clyde Steamers

The front cover of the 2018 Clyde Steamers featured MV Lord of the Isles

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

CRSC officeholders 2023-24

CRSC President Graeme Hogg is chair of the Tighnabruaich Pier Association and a former chairman of Waverley Excursions Ltd

Officeholders are elected by paid-up members at the Club’s Annual General Meeting.

The following officeholders were approved at the April 2024 AGM:

President: Graeme Hogg

Vice-President: Gavin Stewart

Honorary Secretary: Carrie MacKinnon

Honorary Treasurer: William Tomlinson

Membership Secretary: Stuart Craig

Cruising Coordinator: Neil Guthrie

Review Editor: Stuart Craig

Magazine editor: to be confirmed

Ordinary members of management committee: James Fisher, Iain McCall, Eric Schofield, Allan Smith

Honorary Auditor: to be confirmed

Lure of the Hebrides: CRSC excursionists on the top deck of MV Isle of Arran on Sunday 23 April 2023, shortly before leaving Kennacraig and heading down West Loch Tarbert for open sea and the crossing to Port Askaig

Our nominated excursion to Arran on 10 April 2022 was supported by about 25 members and friends — not all of whom were present for this group photo on the pedestrianised causeway of the old Brodick linkspan. The atmosphere was convivial and the chat plentiful — echoing everyone’s appreciation of the fact that, after two years of the pandemic, we could enjoy being out on the water again together

During the CRSC Round Arran charter of MV Isle of Arran on 18 January 2020, Captain Jay Shibel welcomed Club members onto the bridge, including Sandra Hay (left) and Iain and Carrie MacKinnon (right)

An image of the MacBrayne turbine King George V shown by Eric Schofield at his January 2021 Zoom presentation

A screenshot from John McNulty’s Zoom presentation on 10 March 2021, showing his magnificently lifelike model of Jeanie Deans

During our excursion to Islay on Finlaggan in October 2018, Captain Callan Sloan was pictured engaging with one of the groups of CRSC members invited up to the ship’s bridge. We were also given a tour of the engine room

In January 2019 CRSC chartered CalMac ferry Isle of Arran for a midwinter cruise round Ailsa Craig. The excursion was a huge success, with more than 240 people taking part, many of them enjoying a bridge visit as the ship neared our destination

Another view of CRSC’s hugely successful charter of MV Isle of Arran in January 2019. The closer the ship came, the greater the fever of anticipation: CRSC’s charter was the first time a modern CalMac ferry had given a public sailing round Ailsa Craig. Isle of Arran sailed clockwise and anti-clockwise round the isolated granite island, and gave a spectacular demonstration of ‘turning on a sixpence’ off the lighthouse. We were really lucky with the weather: the waters were remarkably calm

Jeanie Deans, Queen Mary II and Duchess of Montrose at Rothesay in 1938 — one of many enthralling images shown by Iain Quinn at CRSC’s AGM on 21 April 2021. During the pandemic the Club held a series of meetings by online Zoom video conferencing, enabling the attendance of a much wider geographical spread of members than usual

Catch up with CRSC’s latest news and reports by clicking here.