Paddle Steamer Maid of the Loch prepares for new lease of life. скачать в хорошем качестве

Paddle Steamer Maid of the Loch prepares for new lease of life.

The Maid of the Loch entered service in 1953, the same year as the Queen's coronation. But the Maid fell on hard times as passenger numbers dwindled and the ship was eventually mothballed in 1981. While the ship did remain watertight while moored at Balloch on Loch Lomond, copper piping and artefacts disappeared. When she was built on the Clyde she was immediately dismantled to be shipped in railway wagon-sized chunks to Loch Lomond. It was a technique called "up and down", usually used to send ships across the globe for local assembly. Overseeing the engineering side of getting the maid sailing again, tasks such as sourcing and installing a new boiler, is John Beveridge. He said: "From our point of view this is the real unique bit about a paddle steamer. "You've got the engines that everyone can see going round, the engineer working the controls, you hear the sounds and the smells, and you can see the paddles turning. "You can't do that in any other vessel, everything is hidden. This is the showpiece of the ship." Engineers on that other famous Clyde paddle steamer, the Waverley, have offered technical support. While the Maid is about three-quarters of the size of the Waverley, the Loch Lomond Steamship Company charity's Robin Naysmith says it is easily big enough to be financially viable in terms of passengers and special events. Sadly the Heritage Lottery Fund turned down the Maid of the Loch for £3.8 of funding which would have seen the Maid sailing on Loch Lomond again in the summer of 2019. The fight to restore the Maid of the Loch to operational condition continues. The board of the Loch Lomond Steamship Company will continue to search all avenues in their aim to return her to sailing on Loch Lomond once again. For more footage follow link:    • Paddle Steamer Maid of the Loch