The Princess Royal has visited Glasgow to see the ongoing restoration of a historic Clyde steamer whose passengers once included royalty, a famous general and a US first lady.
Anne was making her fourth visit to the TS Queen Mary, which is berthed at Glasgow Science Centre in Govan.
She met supporters, volunteers and funders involved in a project to restore the vessel once known as “Britain’s finest pleasure steamer”.
Launched in 1933, the Queen Mary was built in Dumbarton by William Denny And Brothers Ltd, with an initial capacity of 2,086 passengers.
She was named after Anne’s great-grandmother.
At the height of her success, the steamer carried 13,000 passengers each week.
Anne’s grandparents, King George V and Queen Elizabeth the Queen Mother, and the then-Princess Elizabeth, as well as Princess Margaret and Lord Mountbatten of Burma, sailed on the vessel.
Other well-known passengers included US first lady Eleanor Roosevelt, Second World War Allied commander Viscount Montgomery of Alamein, and music hall star Sir Harry Lauder.
The vessel’s final cruise was in 1977, and after a time in London she was towed back to the Clyde in 2015, where she has been based since.
Restoration work began three years ago, after an announcement by Anne during a visit in March 2022 that the Queen Mary would sail again.
Friends of TS Queen Mary, the charity tasked with the restoration, has raised more than £5 million for their work, and said they had been “overwhelmed by the generosity of corporate donors and individuals”.
Charity chairman Iain Sim said they were “delighted” to welcome the Princess Royal, who is the vessel’s royal patron, for her fourth visit.
“Our ongoing task to ensure TS Queen Mary sails again on the Clyde continues to gather pace with some significant progress in the last year,” he said.
“We feel very privileged to have HRH The Princess Royal as our royal patron, celebrating as it does the important link with the royal family which the ship is renowned for.”
In the last 12 months, steel decks have been laid in place of the original Burmese teak decks to comply with modern safety rules, and the interior and exterior of the vessel have been painted.
Queen Mary is officially a dry ship!
— TS Queen Mary (@fotsqm) October 11, 2024
Almost 1,200 square metres of steel deck have been laid and the impact has been transformational.
Made with British steel supplied by @TataSteelUK and support from @WBAlloys and @BAES_Maritime.
Enjoy that #FridayFeeling!#follow pic.twitter.com/BwKvcfZmF4
The task of replacing all 164 windows has progressed, and their design and safety requirements have been approved.
Several partners and supporters of the project were introduced to the Princess Royal, including Rajesh Nair, chief executive of Tata Steel UK.
The charity also released an image of what the Queen Mary will look like when fully restored.
It is hoped the Queen Mary’s return to sailing will provide a boost to Scotland’s tourism, particularly the Clyde coast resorts such as Rothesay and Dunoon, which were destinations in the vessel’s heyday.
When not sailing, the restored vessel will remain based at Glasgow Science Centre as a heritage attraction.
Also on Thursday Anne officially opened BAE Systems’ Applied Shipbuilding Academy, in a ceremony at the company’s Scotstoun site.
The £12 million training facility, which measures 5,500 square metres and includes more than 30 teaching zones, will provide learning and skills development activities for more than 4,500 employees at the company.
Simon Lister, managing director of BAE Systems’ naval ships business, said: “It’s a tremendous honour to welcome her royal highness to our Applied Shipbuilding Academy to meet with some of our colleagues and see first-hand how we’re developing the next generation of shipbuilders.”
