Mention a trip on the Waverley and many people, especially in Scotland and including me, just smile. They are recalling with fondness their own ‘excursions’ or seeing her ‘paddling’ around the Clyde coast and local sea lochs. Many others will have seen or sailed on her further afield at locations all-around the coasts of Britain and Ireland and the term ‘paddler’ perhaps belies her capabilities as the “World’s last seagoing paddle steamer”.
My first memory of the Waverley is of a gloriously sunny day in 1969, on holiday in Scotland with my parents and sailing through the wonderful Kyles of Bute. Her funnels were a buff/yellow then but by 2023 when I was back on board, they had been restored to their original red, white and black.
I was also on a nostalgic journey, remembering my father’s love of paddle steamers and in particular the old Waverley (built in 1899) and her sister ship the Balmoral on which he had an exciting day trip to France as a young boy. Growing up in Southampton in the 1920s he saw the heyday of the paddle steamers, many of them Clyde built, offering ‘Excursions’ all along the south coast of England. He also recalled how the paddle steamers played their part in two World Wars and that the original Waverley was sunk in 1940 on its last trip back from Dunkirk rescuing troops from the Normandy beaches.
A new Clyde-built Waverley was launched in 1947 and although her fortunes waxed and waned over the years, she was bought in 1974 for £1 by the Paddle Steamer Preservation Society and has survived to provide many more excursions to delight us all today.
In the summer 2023 we took a cruise down the Argyll coast on the Waverley, embarking at Largs and calling at Millport, Lochranza and Campbeltown … but could it live up to my childhood experience and memories?
We left on a dull, forecast to be showery, morning but no sooner had the Waverley turned away from the sea front and Nardini’s Ice Cream Parlour at Largs than the clouds lifted and the sun shone. The weather, at least, was the same as 54years ago!
One of the joys and excitements of being on a paddle steamer is the thrill of going below decks to watch the steam engine at work and the paddles thrashing the sea against the portholes; just as my father described in 1926, so it was in 1969 and again now.
Coming into Campbeltown we passed the Tall Ship training vessel and, in full purple bloom, the heather covered hills of Davaar.
Davaar is almost an island and linked to Kintyre only by a causeway passable on foot at low tide. With time running short on our excursion, we headed out round the headland with its lighthouse towards Sanda Island to catch views of Ailsa Craig.
Turning around in a wide arc and with the cloud now building in billowing layers behind us above a sea still splintered by the sun, the Waverley returned to Campbeltown and the Tall Ship, now at anchor.
The colours intensified and the shadows lengthened on the land as the sun began to fade. We bid farewell to Campbeltown and set course for our return to Largs with new memories made and old ones enjoyed.
