Greenock From PS Waverley

Stuart Cameron, on March 22, 2009, said:

SS Shieldhall berthed at Customhouse Quay - the Shieldhall was built by the Renfrew-based shipbuilder Lobnitz For Glasgow Corporation's sludge disposal fleet. She was fitted with passenger accomodation to enable her to carry passengers during her normal service runs, a tradition that had commenced for convalescing servicemen duting the Great War. Sheildhall was replaced by the new motor vessel Garroch Head in 1978 and was sold to Southern Water for sludge disposal work from Southampton. Upon retiral their the vessel was acquired by a charitable organisation that had been formed soecifically to preserve the ship. Based in Southampton the vessel makes occasional longer distance visits - to the Bristol Channel and to the steam festival at Dordrecht. In 2005, her owners embarked on their biggest project to bring her back to the Clyde on the occasion of the ship's Golden Jubilee (50th anniversary of her launch). By this time she had been away from the river of her birth for greater time than she had served on it and it was good to see her once familar profile on the river again for an all-to-short period. During the return, she visited Glasgow (Finnieston Quay), Rothesay and the old MOD pier at Fairlie.