Cammell Laird.

[Jim Brady]

More good news for Merseyside and British Ship Building.Cammell Laird have won the contract to refit and lenghthen the Orkney Islands ferry Hoy Head.The work on the MV Hoy Head will increase it's car capacity from 14 to 24.The work means that the ferry will be out of service for about 4 months from October.
Regards.
Jim.B.

[Captain Kong]

Hi Jim
I was on the Gourock to Dunoon Ferry a few weeks ago and told one of the Ferrymen that they were to have two new Ferries that were being built in Lairds, He knew nothing about it, He went around his mates and told them , They didnt know. So the Ferry Co. is keeping it a secret from their men. I kniow they are being built but not them,
THEY DO NOW.
cheers
Brian.

[vic mcclymont]

Hi Jim
I was on the Gourock to Dunoon Ferry a few weeks ago and told one of the Ferrymen that they were to have two new Ferries that were being built in Lairds, He knew nothing about it, He went around his mates and told them , They didnt know. So the Ferry Co. is keeping it a secret from their men. I kniow they are being built but not them,
THEY DO NOW.
cheers
Brian.

There are two Dunoon ferry services the Calmac, passenger only and the Western ferry service (cars and passengers). Western have ordered the two new ferries, and it is no secret as it has been announced in the local press.
Normally Western Ferries order from Ferguson shipbuilders, but Fergusons are building two ferries for Calmac.

[Captain Kong]

Hi Vic, I was on the Car and passenger Ferry there and back to Dunoon. So it must have been Western.
Cheers
Brian

[Richard Quartermaine]

A blast from the past! 61 years ago in Summer of 1951 when we came back from New Zealand the 'Gothic' went into Cammell Lairds, Birkenhead for a refit for the Royal Tour (cancelled in Mombasa on 7th February, 1952). As I had no home in the UK I was asked to work by for a few weeks tallying stores. It was a good few weeks and I think it was the Seamens Mission in Liverpool where I stayed commuting across the Mersey to the dock during the week and again at weekends, as it was mid summer, to New Brighton. It is good to know the old firm still going strong.

And Brian, your trip to Orkney. What a delightful place but at Christmas 1975 the days were short and it was very cold. I had gone there with strict instructions from my Margaret to be sure to be back home in Kinclaven (Perthshire) for Christmas with the children. I was sent there by Turriff Taylor to help pay off the crew of their Oil Pipeline terminal on Flotta Island in Scappa Flow. We were very busy and at the last minute I phoned to get on a flight to Aberdeen. No luck, Christmas was a couple of days away and frantically I tried to get home when a local said "had I tried P&O?". They had a place on the 'Rognavald' sailing that night from Kirkwall for Aberdeen. Whew!! Problem solved, the sea was like a millpond and there was a full moon in a cloudless sky. It was one of the most memorable times I've had.

I saw a TV programme some years ago where a couple toured England and Scotland where they met the local undertaker and they were chatting . The question of whether he was Orcadian or "an Incomer" was asked and the reply was, in that lovely accent of the islands, " Oh, I'm an incomer. My ancestors came here in 1743."

All the best,
Richard Q