An anonymous £ 1 million donation has been made to help the TS Queen Mary said the River Clyde again.
The massive donation from an unknown benefactor will go a long way to help the historic steamship set sail again, 90 years after it was built at a Dumbarton shipyard.
The iconic ship once carried the Queen Mother and King George VI, and the astonishing gift will "turbo-charge" the revamp taking fundraisers to the halfway mark for the estimated £ 10 million cost, the Scottish Daily Express reports.
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Built at William Denny shipyard in 1933, back in business the ship carried 13,000 holidaymakers 'Doon the Watter' to seaside resorts including Rothesay and Dunoon.
It was the largest ship ever built for the excursion trade on the Clyde.
Iain Sim, chairman of Friends of TS Queen Mary, said their donations now stand at £4.8million and added: "We are overwhelmed by the generosity of this individual. It delivers a massive boost to our fundraising endeavour which has caught the public mood across Britain and around the world.
"The individual who made such a substantial cash gift wishes to remain anonymous and we, of course, respect that request. But to say we are over the moon is putting it mildly.
"Our work continues to restore an iconic British ship whose proud history serving the Clyde rekindles many memories for tens of thousands of Scots and others across the world. We want to say to this most generous benefactor, 'thanks a million'."
He said the money will be used to construct new steel decks for the ship - once known as Britain's Finest Pleasure Steamer - to compile with modern maritime safety requirements.
It is among the biggest structural undertakings of the ongoing work.
TS Queen Mary, also known as the Glasgow Boat because of its links to the city, was meant to be a static heritage centre at Pacific Quay.
But after Princess Anne became Royal Patrol of the vessel four years ago plans changed and she announced last year the steamer would sail again on the Clyde. She visited the project again earlier this year.
Another patron, the late Scots actor Robbie Coltrane who is known across the world as gentle giant Hagrid from the Harry Potter movie franchise, dedicated his last years to the cause and helped raise £75,000 towards the restoration costs.
And big-screen great, Jurassic Park star Sam Neill is also a patron and has spoken of the importance of the ship's new lease of life.
TS Queen Mary is the last remaining turbine steamship built in Scotland. It became a national treasure in 1996 when she was listed on the UK's official historical ships register and is now the last of her kind in the world.
During the Second World War, the vessel transported King George VI and Queen Elizabeth, the Queen Mother plus US First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt.
And in 1946 the Queen Mother and daughters Princess Elizabeth and Princess Margaret sailed on the steamer from Greenock to join the Cunard liner RMS Queen Elizabeth for her first official speed trials.
The ship was turned into a hospitality venue in the 1980s with "drastic fabric alterations" and since her return to Glasgow in 2016 work has been underway to restore her to her former glory.
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