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The TSS Queen Mary was the largest steam turbine ship ever built for cruising the Clyde coast.
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Queen Mary was built at William Denny's shipyard at Dumbarton in 1933 for Williamson-Buchanan Steamers Ltd.
Weighing more than 1000 tonnes and with a length of 352ft, she was powered by three direct drive steam turbine engines.
Because of her size and level of comfort, she was a popular vessel at the Bridge Wharf at Glasgow, where she picked up passengers for trips down the Clyde and out beyond the estuary.
Two years after her launch she was 'persuaded' to change her name to Queen Mary II to allow her original name to be taken by the most famous liner ever built by Cunard.
In 1957, the steamer was converted
from steam power to oil burning and her two funnels were replaced by a larger single funnel.
As well as sharing the same name as the world-famous Cunarder, the Clyde steamer was to share a remarkably similar fate. In 1967 Cunard's Queen Mary was retired from service and made her last voyage to Long Beach, California, where she became a luxury hotel and restaurant.
In the same year, the Clyde steamer returned to her maiden name and continued to ply the Clyde coast for another decade, laterally under the
ownership of Caledonian MacBrayne.
After she was decommissioned in 1977, she faced an uncertain future but in 1988, again sporting her twin funnels, she was refurbished as a floating restaurant and moved to London.
The steamer Queen Mary 2nd sails past Queen Elizabeth
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