THE last major paddle steamer built in Britain has been presented with two items from its illustrious past to put on display.
Robert Cleary, a former purser on the Maid of the Loch, has donated leather money-bags once used to hold the day’s takings from the ship before they were banked locally in Balloch.
Both bags are at least 60 years old.
One bag bears the inscription “Superintendent Steward, Loch Lomond Steamers, Balloch Pier” and was used to hold the money from the catering department, while the other was used by the then purser for the fares collected.
The Maid is currently moored at Balloch Pier, on Loch Lomond, as a static visitor attraction.
The Heritage Lottery Fund has given the Maid's owners, the Loch Lomond Steamship Company, funding worth £230,000 to employ the professional services needed to prepare a technical specification and develop a £5.5 million project to get the ship sailing again.
It has also promised £3.8m if the charity can raise the other £1.7m.
Mr Cleary, a retired teacher, used to work as a purser on board the Maid during the school holidays in summer.
He was recently clearing out his attic when he came across the bags, which he says he “kept” after the Maid's last sailing in August 1981.
John Beveridge, director of the Loch Lomond Steamship Company, said yesterday: "The money collected in the bags would be deposited in a bank then transferred to the Caledonian Steam Packet Company/Caledonian MacBrayne account. This was apparently the system introduced in the 1930’s and was used right up until the Maid stopped sailing.
"We're not sure about the actual date of the bags, but they certainly pre-date 1954 so are at least 60 years old. There were no such thing as credit cards then – everything seemed to be by cash."
He added: “We are very grateful to receive this unique piece of the ship’s history and will consider the best way of displaying these, together with their story."
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