During our recent trip back home we had a very nice time at Glasgow's Transport Museum. In addition to old trams and trains they have a magnificent section on ships which is not to be missed. Entry is free.
I remember as a boy going to Kelvin Grove Museum? and was awestruck by the magnificent ship models they had there then - great to see this exhibition is being maintained. It was a pleasant surprise to find a scale model of our very own Lairds Isle there.
I can remember (just!) on more than one occasion seeing the
Lairds Isle's thick black smoke in the distance a few minutes
before the ship itself appeared over the horizon on her way back
from Belfast.
Three photos of Lairds Isle leaving Ardrossan for Belfast. The first was taken on 22 July 1952, the second sometime before 1954, the third probably the first sailing of the season, again before 1954. Her 6 boilers could produce some amount of smoke!.
Wow Tom, that smoke from the Lairds Isle. Al is right you could see the smoke before you could see ship coming towards Ardrossan - that middle photo is a classic.
Regarding the middle picture in particular, one might well say "Lang may yer lum reek" (but not to that extent) I could well imagine that anyone out on deck when it happened would finish up looking like a coal miner just finishing his shift. (My paternal grandfather was a coalface miner until his accident).
Bob
Visiting The Glasgow transport museum was a real treat last year in Glasgow, I stayed at the west end in a lovely little hotel for a few days while home , this year I plan to go again for a bit longer.
My Mum and Dad talked about the lairds Isle fondly and often commented when it was seen approaching or leaving Ardrossan. I found out when I was bit older that Mum an Dad went on the Lairds Isle to Ireland on their honeymoon in 1937.
I've often wondered why she was such a smokey old ship.
Was it something to do with the boilers or the furnaces? It was originally a coal-burner, but seem to remember hearing that she was later converted to oil. Did that make any difference?
JD.
John
The story as I have been told is that the company chose to burn any old used, cheap oil that was able to burn. It continued to burn this inferior and cheap oil despite having to pay several fines The story claims that the company were prepared to pay the fines because it was cheaper that buying decent fuel oil. I cant say if all this is true but somewhere in there could lie the truth.
I could well imagine that anyone out on deck when it happened would finish up looking like a coal miner just finishing his shift. (My paternal grandfather was a coalface miner until his accident).
