On a calmer day than one recalled by Alan Riddell during a family holiday to Campbeltown, when his father had to go back to work, Duchess of Montrose rests after her long sailing from the upper Firth
This is the first part of a short series describing the memories of former purser Alan Riddell, looking at the last years of the the Caledonian Steam Packet fleet on the Firth of Clyde. Part one covers the period up to 1964.
The press coverage of PS Waverley paddling over 1000 miles via the Pentland Firth and Dundee to get to the South Coast for her autumn sailings last year reminded me of the days when passenger steamers journeying up and down the Clyde and Western Isles was an everyday part of life which we took for granted, and which gave me and my family much pleasure.
Looking a little run-down, Duchess of Fife towards the end of her career
It’s hard to believe now that in 1963 the Clyde services were provided by 15 passenger boats and only four car ferries, and that apart from the Skye ferry, all of the Western Isles services were by passenger and cargo boats, with the first three car ferries coming only in 1964.
I was born and brought up in Greenock on the Firth of Clyde and my earliest visual memory is of a holiday in Millport when I was four, when milk was still brought round the town in a churn on a horse and cart, and rock pools were the highlight of my day.
One clear memory is of cars being driven onto a paddle steamer at Wemyss Bay over planks, and my parents subsequently confirmed to me that it was Duchess of Fife in her last season.
By the time I was eight in 1956 we were holidaying in more distant Clyde towns. I well remember in Campbeltown my Dad having to go back to work before we went home, the turbine steamer Duchess of Montrose arriving in a fierce storm more than two hours late, and our apprehension as she struggled out of Campbeltown Loch into the Kilbrannan Sound in what seemed to me gigantic waves: Dad, who had been at sea for many years, was entirely unperturbed.
Ready for a race! Duchess of Hamilton belches smoke as she hurries away from Largs
By 1957 my parents were buying each year an eight-day season ticket on the steamers, and we travelled to all corners of the Firth, including on the paddle steamer Jupiter whose master, Captain Hector McKenzie, was a friend of Dad’s, and I remember the very uncomfortable movable metal seats in her saloon. It was Jupiter’s last season and her skipper moved to Talisman, where I found her apparently motionless electric motor driving the paddle wheels surprisingly fascinating.
From 1959 through to 1964 I travelled round the Clyde with groups of schoolfriends — each group of maybe four or five with their own season tickets — all travelling separately but meeting up randomly with other groups in various ports and on various steamers. They were single sex groups but there were as many groups of girls as there were of boys. My group used to set up camp on top of the lifejacket containers, and eat our packed lunches there, and our particular joy was going down Firth on a stormy day and getting soaked. The Kilbrannan Sound was a favourite — if the weather wasn’t too bad you leaned on the bow rail and ducked behind the ropes when a wave came over. When it was really bad you stood behind the solid wooden rail on the upper deck and ducked down as the spray came over and hit the wheelhouse!
A stormy day on Jeanie Deans, when Alan Riddell and his friends would get soaked in the engine room alleyways
It was mostly the turbine ‘Duchesses’ that kept going down to Campbeltown and Ayr in bad weather (Ailsa Craig, which was non-landing, was usually cancelled quite readily in storms) but occasionally the paddlers went to the outer Firth too. Of course Caledonia, as the Ayr excursion steamer, operated there all the time, but she was only accessible to us when she came upriver on cruises. But I remember what fun it was crossing on Jeanie Deans from Brodick to Largs on a stormy day when nobody bothered to put dodgers on the paddle sponson openings. The waves were splashing in and the water was sloshing along the starboard engine room passageway so we schoolboys were able to get splashed by the spray and run through the water at the same time!
A particular attraction of the paddle steamers was the immensely broad foaming wake they produced, which we called ‘Creamola Foam’ after a popular powder for making fizzy drinks which many of us carried along with our Shippams Paste sandwiches. But broadly they were regarded as inferior to the turbines. Most people’s favourite was Duchess of Hamilton, but I favoured the ‘Montrose’ and I still have a postcard of her signed by most of her crew from Captain James Murphy down. By a master-stroke of timetabling, on Wednesday and Friday mornings both Duchess of Hamilton and Duchess of Montrose were scheduled to leave Rothesay for Largs at 10:15, and their races were the highlights of each week!
In 1964 both Duchess of Montrose and Jeanie Deans were withdrawn but I was doing other things during the school holidays, and only managed to catch the turbine’s last sailing at the end of August. But in September, although I was back in school, I took a season ticket to use at weekends and enjoyed some fine weather sailing on Jeanie Deans’s last ordinary sailings through the Kyles of Bute. I well remember both the ‘Montrose’, boarded up, being towed off to Belgium for scrapping, and the ‘Jeanie’, also boarded up, heading off under her own steam for the south!
Duchess of Montrose being boarded up for her trip to the breakers, and Jeanie Deans in the Albert Harbour
Jeanie Deans ready to begin her journey south, the lower part of her funnels repainted into LNER red
The second instalment will cover the start of Alan’s career as an assistant purser, but will be available for members only. If you have not already joined CRSC, then why not take advantage of our introductory offer and become a member? Your first year will be at the discounted rate of just £15 (usually £35), and full details can be found here.
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Published on 06 March 2026