PS JEANIE DEANS
QUEEN OF THE SOUTH
*
*
Take me back to the CLYDE BUILT page please.
*
*
Take me back to the INDEX page please.
Take me back
Built for the London and North Eastern Railway at Fairfield's Govan yard, the steamer was launched in 1931.
She was the first paddle steamer to be fitted with a three crank engine, which could push her 800 tons through the water at more than 18 knots, but her deep draught kept her in the lower reaches of the Clyde.
Based at Craigendoran near Helensburgh, she cruised to Arran, Ayr, Girvan and Ailsa Craig.
During the Second World War she was requisitioned by the government and stationed on the Thames as a minesweeper.
She later became an anti-aircraft vessel and narrowly missed being hit by a parachute mine during the Blitz.
After the war she returned to her former duties up and down the Clyde estuary and was once more a firm favourite with holidaymakers and day-trippers alike.
Her route was later extended to take in Arrochar, the Three Lochs cruise and, during the 1950's, she cruised around the Isle of Bute.
In 1964, no longer able to compete with the multitude of more modern vessels on the Clyde, she was laid up at Greenock.
However, a paddle-steamer enthusiasts' group bought her and she sailed to the Thames the following year where she was renamed Queen of the South.
She was employed by the Coastal Steam Packet Company on river cruises until 1967 when technical problems resulted in her being sent to Belgium where she was eventually scrapped.
