Historic paddle steamer Waverley reveals record takings as 2025 bookings open

Classic Clyde-built vessel gears up for sailings across Britain from May

Operators of the historic paddle steamer Waverley have lifted the lid on the scale of the task involved in the ship's annual round-Britain tours as they gear up for its 50th anniversary season since being saved for preservation.

Tickets went on sale this week for some of the 78-year-old vessel’s first 2025 Scottish sailings, with more than 1,000 sold in three days for trips from Oban to the Inner Hebrides in May.

Waverley departing from its berth beside Glasgow Science Centre | Waverley Excursions

Bookings then opened on Friday for summer sailings on the Clyde from Glasgow from May 16, to be followed by those for day trips which will stretch round the coast of England and Wales from the Mersey to the Thames estuary until October.

Meantime, Waverley was transferred to dry dock in Greenock in the first week of April for its annual overhaul, as this drone footage by The Scotsman audio visual specialist John Devlin shows.

Key staff have revealed at a presentation in Glasgow the complexity of the operation, with some of the day trips on the Clyde having up to 25 journey options for passengers embarking/disembarking en route.

They said the huge popularity of the steamer had seen more than 2,700 people travelling on different legs of one excursion last year around islands in the Bristol Channel.

Waverley leaving Glasgow on its first sailing of the 2024 season | John Devlin/The Scotsman

Meanwhile, a new daily revenue record of nearly £90,000 was notched up on an excursion in London last October that had sold out six months in advance, when the date was announced.

Waverley has a large and loyal fan base - more than 100 supporters packed a hall in Glasgow on Thursday for the presentation. But despite such successes last year, when some 160,000 passengers were carried, its operators again stressed the need for people to keep booking trips to keep the steamer in business.

Paul Semple, general manager of Waverley Excursions, which operates the vessel, told supporters: “We need the support to keep this story going.

“The Waverley story has almost no end. What is needed to keep this ship in service can only happen when people sail on her.

“This is the 50th anniversary of her first sailing in preservation.

“Who on the first sailing back in 1975 could ever have thought that she’d still be paddling - but it’s thanks to you good folks.”

Child tickets will remain at £1 this year to encourage families to book trips, while dogs are allowed on board for journeys up to three-and-a-half hours “otherwise they get a bit uncomfortable”.

Waverley dwarfed beside a cargo vessel in Falmouth harbour in Cornwall in 2024 | Waverley Excursions

Mr Semple said more than £1 million was being spent on this winter’s annual refit of the ship, around a third of it on new burners for the boilers, along with “quite a bit of steelwork”.

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Tickets are due to become available for trips from North Wales and the Mersey on Friday, February 28, for the Bristol Channel on Friday, March 7, and the south coast and south west of England on Friday, March 21. Booking for trips in London and the Thames Estuary is due to open in mid-April.

Captain Dominic McCall, Waverley’s senior master, who has been in command of the ship for the last three seasons, said the timetable was determined by attracting enough passengers to maintain revenue. He said: “The key thing is the ship must make money.”

But Chief Purser Andrew Comrie highlighted the popularity of some trips.

He said: “One-off cruises in particular can sell out in a matter of hours. In 2023, when Waverley was returning to places like Llandudno [in North Wales], the Bristol Channel and calling at Warrenpoint [in Northern Ireland] for the first time, these sailings sold out very, very quickly.”

Waverley's Chief Purser Andrew Comrie | Waverley Excursions

Captain McCall highlighted both the impressive speed and tricky quirks of paddle steamers like Waverley - the world’s last sea-going such vessel.

While it normally cruises as 13 knots (15mph), the ship has reached 21 knots (24mph) while assisted by the tide through the Gulf of Corryvreckan, known for its notorious whirlpool, off Jura.

Waverley Excursions

By comparison, fellow Glasgow-built ship Shieldhall, which operates trips from Southampton, has a top speed of 13 knots.

The captain said when the two vessels sailed together, Shieldhall had to steam at “full ahead” while Waverley powered down to between “slow” and “dead slow” to match its speed.

However, Captain McCall said Waverley could also be tricky to manoeuvre, such as reversing out of a berth.

He said: “It is quite pernickety as to which way it will go when it goes astern - it will go the way it wants to go, generally, so the easiest way to go out is bow first.”

Other challenges include Waverley only being able to dock at some ports and piers at high tide, which is a particular challenge in the Bristol Channel, which has the second largest tidal range in the world after the Bay of Fundy in Canada.

Mr Comrie said it was hoped that Waverley would again be able to call at Helensburgh if the campaign to restore its pier was successful, as it had generated “a great deal of income and several hundred passengers every time she was there” until 2018. The ship was also once based at nearby Craigendoran.

The launch of this summer’s season will come less than a week before the 50th anniversary of Waverley carrying its first passengers under preservation, on May 22 1975.

The ship had been gifted the previous August for a nominal £1 by CalMac to the Waverley Steam Navigation Company, which was set up by the Paddle Steamer Preservation Society.

In 1973, CalMac had withdrawn the steamer from service, after it had operated cruises in the Clyde and ferry services since its maiden voyage to Arrochar in 1947.

The success of the last two seasons follows a series of major challenges triggered by sailings being halted during the Covid pandemic, soaring fuel prices and a shortage of steam engineers.