Marchioness of Graham canting in the river at Bridge Wharf in 1957
In this article Graeme Hogg previews an event that took place in June 2025 at the Fairfield Museum in Govan, when a recording was made of well-known Club member Richard Orr recollecting his time serving aboard Clyde steamers as an Assistant Purser during the late 1950s.
All lovers of Clyde steamers have their favourite ships. I suspect very few would name the Marchioness of Graham amongst them. Her career on the Clyde was short, lasting only 21 years in service from her introduction in 1936. Although a turbine steamer, built by Fairfields, she was something of a maid of all work, unlike the more glamorous and larger cruising turbines. She was strongly associated with the Arran run for much of her life.
Richard Orr with a copy of his book describing life aboard Marchioness of Graham as a Purser in the 1950s
Some years ago, well known Club member Richard Orr published a book entitled “The Marchioness of Graham: A Purser’s Log”, recounting his exploits on the Marchioness and other steamers over the summer of 1957 by means of the diary entries he kept of that time. It was a fascinating insight into life afloat for a young student in the very different world of nearly 70 years ago.
The Club thought it would be of great interest to members to hear some of Richard’s tales from that summer in person and arranged to hold a daytime meeting at the Fairfield Museum in Govan in June this year with Richard as the speaker. It was something of a departure for the Club, to test the water for meetings at different times and formats from the traditional series of winter get-togethers.
For a variety of reasons, the planned gathering before a fairly small audience was not possible, but Richard spoke of those times to a small group and it was recorded for broadcast at a later date.
That time has now come and Richard describes some of the incidents which punctuated what was to be the Marchioness’s last season on the Clyde. He talks of the personalities he encountered among the officers and crew. As the ship was virtually the spare boat that season, being the only steamer not converted to oil burning, she had a hugely varied set of sailings at Arran, deputising for a broken down Caledonia as the Ayr excursion steamer and performing cruises, which seemed mostly to have been shoehorned into the timetable without a great deal of thought or imagination.
He follows up her subsequent life in Greek waters where she survived, much changed, into the 1970s, outlasting many of her 1930s contemporaries. What shines through Richard’s talk is his huge affection for the ship, even if he was unable to summon the same enthusiasm for some of his shipmates.
This is Part 1 of a two-part talk Richard gave that day. Part 2 deals with his subsequent time as an Assistant or Junior Purser aboard Queen Mary II over many more years, the real love of his life. This equally fascinating insight will be posted to the website very soon, but access will be restricted to fully paid up CRSC members only.
When you start this video, please click the box on the lower lefthand side to get the full screen version.
Thanks to Robert Newth and David Cherry for video production.
If you enjoyed watching this video, and have not yet joined CRSC, why not do so now? You can take advantage of a discounted membership price of just £15 for your first year here, and new members will receive a welcome pack which includes the current syllabus of meetings and the latest editions of our two publications — the magazine CLYDE STEAMERS and the REVIEW. In addition you will be able to access our growing library of Members Only posts.
Published on 22 December 2025