ONE of Scotland’s most famous turbine steamships will be dry-docked for the first time since 1997 thanks to a £150,000 fundraising boost.
A combined grant of £150,000 means the famous steamship, TS Queen Mary, will enter dry-dock on the River Clyde next week.
Once docked she will undergo a full inspection and renovation of her hull, with specialist marine coatings applied to protect her from the elements.
The cash has been provided from the Landfill Communities Fund by EB Scotland and Clydesdale Bank.
Friends of TS Queen Mary, a charity patroned by Scots actor Robbie Coltrane OBE, is also hoping to raise £2 million to restore the steamship as an interactive exhibition and an arts and culture venue.
Calum Bryce, charity trustee, said: “I’d like to say a huge thank you to Jim, to Clydesdale Bank and EB Scotland for this tremendous boost to our campaign. Just twelve months ago this beautiful vessel was stranded on the Thames and facing the scrapheap. Now, she’s back in Scotland and could be entering dry dock as soon as next month. It’s quite something.
“Entering dry-dock will be the first time she has been out of the water in almost 20 years. It will give us a unique opportunity to fully inspect her from stem to stern.
“We still have a long way to go to reach the £2 million fundraising target but we’re confident it can be done.”
Jim Pettigrew, Chairman of Clydesdale Bank, said: “Clydesdale Bank has built its reputation around being a part of the community and it’s important for us to support great community projects, like this one. The TS Queen Mary is a magnificent ship and I am pleased that we have been able to unlock vital funding to support her restoration.”
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules here