On Tuesday 7th July 1964 Caledonia’s trips from Ayr were cancelled due to the weather.
The following day, Wednesday 8th July she set off from Ayr at 2pm for an afternoon cruise to Brodick but it was considered too windy for her to return to Ayr so she took her passengers on to Fairlie where they went ashore and returned to Ayr on public transport. She then sailed to lay over at Gourock on the Thursday and Friday as the weather was still against her.
On the morning of Saturday 11th July she set off from Gourock to Ardrossan to take her place that day as second vessel on the ferry service across to Brodick.
With Captain James Simpson, who had command of Caledonia from 1960 to 1963, off sick in the summer of 1964 his place on the bridge was taken by Capt Donald McPherson who was relieved from time to time by Captains Angus MacEachran and David McCormick. After the withdrawal of Jeanie Deans at the end of the 1964 season, her master Captain Donald Crawford transferred to Caledonia from 1965 and remained with her as her principal captain right up to 1969 when she was withdrawn from service.
Ayr was abandoned as a base for an excursion steamer from 1965 with Caledonia being brought back to partner Waverley on a week about basis with the excursion programme from Craigendoran and with her large passenger capacity put to good use on the main ferry runs at weekends.
Kingswear Castle returned to service in 2023 after the first part of a major rebuild which is designed to set her up for the next 25 years running on the River Dart. The Paddle Steamer Kingswear Castle Trust is now fund raising for the second phase of the rebuild. You can read more about the rebuilds and how you can help if you can here.
John Megoran
This article was first published on 7th July 2021.
