SS Sir Walter Scott glides away from Trossachs Pier, showing her new covered accommodation.
ALL: HUGH DOUGHERTY

THE unique 1899-built screw steamer SS Sir Walter Scott has returned for the 2009 season fitter and ‘greener’ than ever, following conversion to biofuel, writes Hugh Dougherty.

It’s a May Saturday, but Gordon Allan, director of the Sir Walter Scott Charitable Trust is well used to the vagaries of the Scottish summer and isn’t downcast at all as the rain cascades down at Trossachs Pier. “The crew tell me that the sun is shining at the other end of the loch at Stronachlachar,” beams Gordon. “It’s often like that here.”
And Gordon is right to be optimistic, for SS Sir Walter Scott is in fine fettle after a £1.4-million refurbishment programme which has included a new, covered passenger lounge, new decking and, above all, a conversion from solid to biofuel, making this Victorian shipbuilder’s masterpiece a green energy pioneer while keeping her character as a steamer.

Built by Denny Bros at Dumbarton, SS Sir Walter Scott, named after the Scottish novelist who put Loch Katrine on the map with his novel Lady of the Lake, has been popular with trippers ever since. Originally owned by the Loch Katrine Steamboat Co, then Glasgow Corporation, who, in 1859, tapped into Loch Katrine to provide clean water for an expanding industrial Glasgow, the 115-ton, 110-feet long ship passed to the former Strathclyde Regional Council in 1975, to West of Scotland Water (later Scottish Water) in 1996, and, finally to the trust in 2005.

“The fact that we have the ship today is a tribute to the previous owners,” said Gordon, “but we knew that she needed a great deal of work. Rain had penetrated through the decks and caused rusting of joints in the hull, so we had to re-weld and strengthen all of these, fit new steel decks, with traditional wooden planking on top, and overhaul the engine. The work was carried out by Clyde shipbuilders Ferguson of Port Glasgow, but the ship would never have been ready for season’s start at Easter 2009 if it hadn’t been for the dedication of the Friends of
Sir Walter Scott, the volunteers who support the trust.”

By far the most amazing piece of work is the conversion from coal-firing to biofuel, putting this Victorian maritime delight at the forefront of ‘green’ technology in the 21st century, still using her original 19th century three-cylinder, triple expansion steam engine. As Gordon Allan explained: “We decided to change over from coal. There were problems with sourcing good quality steam coal and we tried both Polish and Columbian coal without real success.

There are also good reasons for going ‘green’, as not only is the loch the source of Glasgow’s water, but it’s a Site of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI) and we’re within a National Park. Biofuel ticked all the right boxes for us and out went coal and ash handling. The decision to go greener and cleaner was the right one and the use of biofuel to fire steam boilers is something that the heritage movement can’t ignore.”
To prove the point, Gordon produces a bottle of the golden fuel, produced by Argent Energy of Motherwell. It’s recycled animal fat and used cooking oil, sourced from hotels and restaurants and this being the West of Scotland, chippies, which should ensure plentiful supplies for a long time to come.

Costing 50p a litre, this grade two fuel is burned in ‘Sir Walter’s’ two new Cochran ‘Wee Chieftain’ boilers, built in Annan near Dumfries. It burns at the rate of some four to five thousand litres a week (depending on loadings and headwinds) and the steam produced goes into the high and low pressure cylinders of the compact and sweetly running Matthew Paul engine.

And run it does like a sewing machine, thanks to the dedicated care of engineer Malcolm Styles, a steam man through and through, who served his apprenticeship with the Yorkshire Patent Steam Wagon Co. Malcolm runs up the engine without load for a few minutes before we leave the pier on the 1.30pm cruise and then, when the engine room telegraph rings down, the boat moves off majestically and almost silently, as power is taken up.

Malcolm, a former merchant navy marine engineer, is proud of his engine room. He’s had the engine out twice, stripped it, replaced a cylinder seal, and supervised the crankshaft being repaired. A small, specialist engineering company, Blane Engineering, a few miles away, makes most of the parts needed, and that keeps the engine running in tune. Larger jobs go to specialists in England.

“The coal meant stoking and smuts up on deck,” said Malcolm, as the boat settled down to her six to seven knots cruising speed, 110psi on the high pressure cylinder, a vacuum pump taking in water from the loch, putting it through a pre-heater before being injected into the boilers, and returning the condensate. “That’s why we don’t need a water tank on board,” smiled Malcolm. “The loch itself is our tank and supply. But the new boilers have made raising steam very easy. There’s pressure in them from the day before when you come to get started in the morning, and it’s just a matter of putting on the burners. There used to be delays with coal firing as you heated the boilers up over time, but now it’s very fast.
The only drawback though is that there’s no smoke from the funnel. There has been talk of fitting a smoke unit, but just in fun. The passengers like the cleaner boat and although they enjoyed the nostalgic smell of coal smoke, they didn’t like the soot and smuts.”

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