Wednesday, January 14, 2004

STAFF at the Maid of the Loch paddle steamer got a shock when they returned to work in the new year - the ship didn’t look its usual self.

The maid’s bow was sticking out of the water more than usual and when staff boarded they discovered a water pipe had burst, allowing water to flow into the stern end of the hull.

Because the ship had been closed for a week, three or four feet of water had built up under the restaurant when it re-opened on January 3. One of the directors of the Loch Lomond steamship company John Beveridge said: “The weight of the water made the bow rise out of the water. “The burst pipe allowed water to get into the hull of the ship which is

where it is allowed to go to allow it to be pumped out.”

Firefighters were called and spent two hours pumping the water out — the ship does have its own pumps but they could not deal with the large volume of water.

It is thought that the cold weather over Christmas had caused the pipe to freeze and it burst when it thawed. The company’s aim is to get the ship sailing again but they need to raise one and a quarter million pounds because she needs new boilers and other work doing. The restaurant attracted 16, 000 visitors in 2002 and John hopes that figures for 2003 will reach 20,000. He said: “It’s quite impressive for a group which is all voluntary.”