How sweet is the Clyde?

It was time to be back on the water but to begin with, our hulls stayed dry.


We took the ferry crossing to the Cowal peninsula on the west side of the Firth of Clyde. This is Western Ferries' MV Sound of Scarba which runs from McInroys Point to Hunter's Quay. If you plan to use this crossing, you can get discount tickets in Paul's Food and Wine shop at 94, Shore St, Gourock. A return ticket for car and driver is £27.20 if bought on the ferry or £15 bought in Paul's! If you are travelling from the Cowal side you can get the same discount tickets at Sandbank General Store and Post Office.


It was a great morning to be out on the Clyde with views in every direction. As the MV Scarba motored out of McInroys Point at 7am, we passed the MV Nordstrand at anchor. She is an 88.3m grain carrier and was waiting for high tide to make her way up to Glasgow. In the distance, the mouth of Loch Long leads into the Argyll mountains.


A few moments later, the Calmac ferry, MV Saturn, passed on her way from Dunoon to Gourock.


The view to the south showed the Cloch lighthouse and the distant hills of Arran above Bute. MV Aasli, a bulk carrier was making her way up the Clyde with a cargo of granite aggregate from Glen Sanda.


Straight ahead, the houses of Hunter's Quay and Strone flanked the entrance to the Holy Loch.


As we crossed into the middle of the Clyde we saw the Inverkip power station chimney behind the Cloch lighthouse and the steep slopes of Little Cumbrae island on the horizon.


Looking back up the Clyde, past the MV Nordstar, we could see the Maersk Line ship, SeaLand Performance at anchor off Greenock. She was being readied for sea after having spent the recession laid up in Loch Striven for nearly a year. She was finally towed out of Loch Striven on 21st May 2010. Just behind the SL Performance, you can see the capsized hull of the MV Captayannis, which was wrecked here in a storm in 1974. She is known locally as "the sugar boat" and is a popular sea kayaking destination. Her full cargo of sugar soon dissolved in the murky waters of the Clyde.

A chill wind on the Clyde

WE had decided to paddle anticlockwise round the Cumbraes to take advantage of the ebb tide and NNW wind which would help our progress down the west coast of both islands. In the distance we could see a tanker waiting at the south end of the Clyde channel to pick up a pilot from the Clyde pilot boat the MV Mount Stewart.


Rounding Skate Point at the NW end of Great Cumbrae, it was a relief to get the wind behind us.


With Bute and Arran in the background, the tanker proved to be the Nuuk Maersk, a small product tanker of 144m x23m and 16,600DWT. She was built in 2007. She was en route to the the oil storage facility at Finnart some 46km further up the Clyde estuary on the banks of the fjord like Loch Long.


The west coasts of Great and Little Cumbrae stretched away to Holy Island and Arran in the distance. There are a series of raised beaches and the distant Little Cumbrae lighthouse is built on one of them.


Even with the wind behind us, there was considerable windchill and we used hoods as well as thermal hats and pogies for our hands. We began to wonder what had happened to the forecast sunshine and light winds.

Banking on the recession

This massive billboard advert caught my eye. The Royal Bank of Scotland was a major casualty of the World recession, after it had over invested in the US subprime mortgage market. The bank is trying to recover by concentrating on its home market and this billboard is part of its campaign to rebuild its image with Scottish customers. I hope they are not thinking they will recoup £2 billion or so from some of the remote communities featured in the adverts. When I first saw the incredibly beautiful TV advert, I thought it was for Visit Scotland, the tourist board. The above photo was taken on the island of Tiree in the Inner Hebrides and is pretty much the view we recently enjoyed when approaching Scarinish harbour.


This is lovely Loch Striven. It deeply bisects the beautiful Cowal peninsula, which protrudes into the head of the Firth of Clyde. It is a an interesting place to paddle and is in complete contrast to the exposed isle of Tiree. So what is the link, I hear you ask? Well it is to do with the World recession.


Moored within the Loch are five huge container ships from the Maersk Line. One is the Maersk Beaumont and I reported her arrival in the Clyde on the 2nd of May this year.


These great ships, which normally carry the World's trade, are weathering out the worst of the recession, here in the sheltered recesses of Loch Striven. Despite its apparent isolation, Loch Striven has played its part in the World economy on many occasions in the past. I sailed in the loch in May 1974 and there were 10 giant oil tankers moored right along the length of the loch.there. They were laid up as a result of the '73/'74 oil crises. Then in '76 and '77 two giant LPG carriers, which had just been built in Belfast, were mothballed until '92 and '99 in Loch Striven because the discovery of North Sea gas had made them redundant.


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At the mouth of Loch Striven an inconspicuous jetty is actually a NATO fuelling point for warships. A huge series of oil tanks are hidden in the hills above.


Today on the 6th September 2009 ShipAIS shows that the Nord Mermaid is unloading fuel oil.


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Ardyne Point at the mouth of Loch Striven has another connection with oil.


I took this photo off Ardyne Point from a yacht in May 1978. It shows the concrete Cormorant Alpha oil production platform nearing completion in the Ardyne construction yard, before being transferred to a Norwegian yard for completion. There is an interesting story about this rig told in the Dunoon Observer.


Oil tankers are not the only things to be mothballed on the Clyde. Just a few miles from the mouth of Loch Striven, on the east coast of the Firth of Clyde lies Inverkip oil fired power station. This was opened in the early 1970's just when the oil crises made it uneconomic to generate elictricity from oil. It was only used intermittently and was mothballed in 1988. Its huge chimney of 236m is Scotland's tallest structure and is a landmark for miles around. It is due to be demolished this year.

All in all, Loch Striven is a fantastic sea kayaking destination and despite its proximity to Glasgow, is little known except to local Cowal sea kayakers such as Pam.

Economy of scale.

This is the Maersk Beamont entering the Clyde on the 2nd of May 2009. We had stopped on Bennane Head to get a good view of Ailsa Craig. At first we thought she was an aircraft carrier but it was soon apparent she was an empty container ship. It is unlikely that Scotland would have enough exports to fill such a giant ship. Indeed tonight, a week later, she is still anchored in the Clyde north of the Cumbraes.

It would apear that she is a victim of the economic crisis and has come to the Clyde for shelter and to weather out the recession. She was launched in Germany on 30/11/2007. She is 294m long with a beam of 32m and a draught of 13m as such she is one of the largest ships to enter the Clyde.

You do need to be careful when crossing to Ailsa Craig!

I have posted about the history of the Maersk Line previously.

02/05/2009

A ship's bell rings down the years.

This is the bell of the SS Valkyrian, which was wrecked off Dunure harbour in Ayrshire. I recently posted about the bravery of William "Buckie" Munro and 30 other fishermen from Dunure who bravely rescued all but one of the Vakyrian's crew.

I was absolutely delighted to receive a comment from William Munro, who is a descendant of Buckie Munro. It turns out the bell remained in the possession of his family until 1985! He has very kindly added to and corrected some the information I discovered in Dunure and on the internet.

Here is his comment:


"What is shown in your good account is not a postcard but a painting of the ship which previously was hanging on the wall in Mr Mckinney Maersk Moller's office in Copenhagen.


It was presented to me by Mr Moller in December 1985. Thus the date is in fact 1986 on the inscription. It was presented to me as a gift when the bell from the ship (photo in your article)was donated to the Maersk museum in Copenhagen. It had been in the family since the time of the sinking."

What a wonderful story, two families exchanging tokens and mementos of a momentous event which had thrown their ancestors together 102 years before! Of course, if we had paddled from headland to headland, we would have missed Dunure and been none the wiser. This is an important part of the history of this coastline and now thanks to William we have a first hand account of a consequential event. I have corrected and added to my previous posts.

20/01/2008

Dunure, the birth place of one of the world's largest shipping lines.

I recently posted how the fishermen of the fishing hamlet of Dunure rescued all but two souls from the crews of the Valkyrian and the Iron Duke. Both ships were wrecked on the reefs of Dunure on the night of 11th December 1883. Who would have thought that the bravery of Buckie and his neighbours that night would have resulted in the birth of one of the World's largest shipping lines?


One of the lucky men to be rescued that night was Captain Peter Maersk Moller of the Valkyrian. She was a 381 ton Danish sailing barque bound for Glasgow from Virginia when she got caught in hurricane force winds in the Clyde. Her sails were torn away and she drifted towards the Ayrshire coast. She tried to put out her anchor but the cable broke before the steam paddle tug Iron Duke could reach her. The Iron Duke's engine failed and she was also driven onto the rocks at Dunure and wrecked shortly afterwards.

Here is an account in Captain Maersk Moller's own words:

"The "Valkyrian" sailed on 7th November 1883 from New Port Mews, Virginia, carrying walnut wood. The voyage was smooth, on Thursday 11th December, I passed close by Corsewall Point in a moderate southerly gale. When the watch was set at 8p.m. there was a strong gale, SW to SSW. We drifted along the coast with enough room to keep going throughout the night, but at about 10p.m. the wind veered to WNW and NW in a squall. The sails were blown away like paper. We were then off Turnberry and Ailsa Craig heading WNW and had signalled for a pilot. Land was a few miles to leeward. I called the men to the cabin and explained the situation. I read from the bible and we said a prayer. We could do no more then, but later given the chance, we had to try the best to save ourselves. The ship was driven onto the rocks at Dunure and brokeup. All but one poor sailor was saved, due to the bravery of the men of Dunure."



The Dunure fishermen had managed to save all but Henrie Jansen who was swept away by a giant wave in the darkness. The wooden Valkyrian was smashed to smithereens and just about all that was left was her bell. The bell remained in the possession of William Munro's descendents until they presented it to the descendants of Captain Maersk Moller in 1985.

Captain Maersk Moller returned to the sea and three years later on 16/12/1896 he bought a British built steamship, the SS Laura, from the DFDS line that operated her on the Faroe Island service.


This stamp was issued on 21 February 1983 when SS Laura still sailed under DFDS colours.


Under Captain Maersk Moller, SS Laura continued on the Copenhagen Faroe Island run with a stop each way at Granton near Edinburgh. This photograph was taken in 1908 a year before she was sold. She was subsequently wrecked on the coast of Iceland in 1910.

Captain Maersk Moller painted a light blue stripe on her funnel with a white star on it. He believed it was his lucky star. In 1904 he founded the "The Steamship Company Svendborg" with his son Arnold Peter Maersk Moller. AP did not always agree with his father and the other board members and eight years later went on to found the "Steamship Company of 1912". This has grown into AP Moller-Maersk which is one of the largest companies in the world. Maersk Line container ships such as the Emma Maersk are some of the largest ships afloat.


This is Arnold Maersk McKinney Moller. He was CEO of the company from 1965 until 1993. He is Captain Peter Maersk Moller's grandson.


In 1985, in exchange for the bell of the Valkyrian he presented Mr William Munro, who is a descendent of Buckie Munro, with a painting of the Valkyrian, which had hung in his office at AP Moller-Maersk for many years.

I wonder if Buckie's pipe was made of walnut!

Lastly, I hope that you, the reader, will now realize why we do not paddle from headland to headland!

References
Ayrshire roots.
Dansk Posthistorisk Selskab.
Faroese Stamps.
AP Moller-Maersk.
Mr William Munro 5/02/2008

20/01/2008

Brave Buckie and the wreck of the Valkyrian

Last week we stopped off at the Anchorage Bar in Dunure on the Firth of Clyde. While we were enjoying some Guinness I noticed the above faded photograph hanging in a corner. There was no annotation but it aroused my curiosity.


While we were warming ourselves by the pub fire we got talking to one of the locals. It turns out that he lives in the recently restored cottage in the photo above.

He told us that apart from the castle, it is the oldest building in Dunure and dates from 1640. More recently, it was inhabited in the late 19th century by one William "Buckie" Munro, the man in the photo! He was one of 31 fishermen of Dunure who went to the rescue of the Valkyrian a 381 ton Danish barque which was wrecked in hurricane force winds off the coast of Dunure during a frightful storm on the night of 11th December 1883.


They rescued 9 of her 10 crew including her master Peter Maersk Moller (above).

No sooner had the fishermen rescued the Danes than another ship was driven onto the rocks. She was the 32 ton steam paddle tug, Iron Duke, which had come to assist the doomed Valkyrian. Again Buckie and the men of Dunure threw themselves into the breaking seas and succeeded in rescuing five of the Iron Duke's crew. Her master, Captain McBride, was lost leaving a widow and five children.

The Valkyrian's bell was salvaged by Buckie after the storm. It remained in the cottage at 1 Habour View, Dunure for many years before being passed to Buckie's descendants.

20/01/2008