PS Maid of the Loch

Coordinates: 56°00′31″N 4°35′31″W / 56.008663°N 4.591872°W / 56.008663; -4.591872

PS Maid of the Loch is the last paddle steamer built in Britain. She operated on Loch Lomond for 29 years and is now being restored at Balloch pier.

Construction

PS Maid of the Loch is the last of a long line of Loch Lomond steamers that began about 1816, within four years of Henry Bell's pioneering passenger steamboat service on the River Clyde. In 1950 the British Transport Commission, owner of the newly nationalised railways, made the decision to replace the Princess May and Prince Edward with a new paddle steamer, to be the largest inland waterway vessel ever in Britain.

Maid of the Loch was built by A. & J. Inglis of Glasgow, launched on Thursday 5 March 1953, and entered service later that year. She is a "knock down" ship: that is, after assembly at the shipyard she was dismantled, and shipped to the loch (by rail to Balloch at the south end of the loch), and there her sections were reassembled on a purpose built slipway. Her tonnage measures 555 grt, and the length is 208 ft (63 m). Her two cylinder compound diagonal steam engine is less advanced than had become usual on steamers such as the PS Waverley, but was considered suitable for the limited area of operations.