MAID OF MORVEN 1824
- Owner: Donald E. Meek (View all images and albums)
- Uploaded: Mar 18 2010 12:56 PM
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- Category: Donald E. Meek's Gallery
This, folks, was how 'ferry-services' to the Hebrides began, away back around 1820 or so. I produced this pencil sketch of the 'Maid of Morven' to illustrate an article that I wrote concerning a Gaelic account of the ship by the Rev. Dr Norman MacLeod in 1829. It shows her off Morvern, as MacLeod describes her, bearing down on a little boat (the equivalent of the later 'red boats') with passengers waiting to go aboard for the voyage to the Broomielaw. The 'Maid' was tiny compared with today's 'Clansman'. The vibrations of the wooden 'Maid', suffering the effects of wind and wave and steam engine, were a good bit worse than those of the 'Clansman', and the facilities were not quite as 'porsh'. Even so, she took great men like Mendelssohn and Wordsworth and Joseph Turner to Staffa on cruises in the early 1830s. Count yourselves lucky with CalMac - an' dinna girn!
Debra