Photo: Graham Wilson

Naming ceremony for latest ship to enter Calmac fleet
The new mv ARGYLE will be christened at Rothesay on Friday

The latest addition to the Caledonian MacBrayne fleet, MV Argyle, the sister ship of MV Bute, will be named at Rothesay on Friday (May 4).

The new ship, which arrived on the Clyde on Sunday from the Gdansk shipyard where she was built, is currently undergoing final preparatory work prior to the naming. The formal naming ceremony will take place at Mid-day in Rothesay Bay by Tish Timms, wife of Peter Timms, Chairman of CalMac Ferries Ltd. The new vessel is then scheduled to take up service later on Friday, to assist with the volume of traffic expected to attend Bute’s Jazz Festival.

Speaking in advance of the naming, Mr Timms said: “It is always a significant event when we introduce a new vessel to the fleet and to a particular route. Wemyss Bay to Rothesay now has two of the newest ships we operate and when the shore infrastructure is complete, I have no doubt that we will be in a position to offer an excellent service. The increased capacity and flexibility this brings will be of enormous benefit to Bute. I am sure that as we enter these challenging times as a company, the work we have done to provide a first class service to the island of Bute will be welcomed and appreciated.”

As in the case of her sister ship, the new MV “Argyle” will also be the seventh ship on the Clyde to have the name. The first one was a paddle steamer built in 1815 which was sold on after a matter of weeks in the Clyde. Of more significance however was the “Argyle” which, though built for Captain Duncan Stewart in 1866, was sold within a fortnight and partially replaced the “Bute” and “Kyles” for over twenty years on the services out of Wemyss Bay. She was owned first by the Wemyss Bay Steamboat Co. Ltd and subsequently by Messrs Gilles and Campbell – and was sold around the time the Caledonian SP Co. took over the route in 1890.

MV Bute entered service on the Wemyss Bay to Rothesay service on July 11, 2005. CalMac believes that MV Argyle will be just as successful and concludes a very important stage in the Company’s fleet renewal programme for the service and support we provide to the communities on the Upper Clyde.

The new vessel is more or less identical to MV Bute at 72 metres long and 15.3 metres breadth, with a load draft of 3 metres. She will carry 60 cars and 450 passengers on CalMac’s busiest route, and has two lifts for customers with impaired mobility.

The increased capacity will open up the island of Bute to many more people, and make the Central Belt more accessible to island residents.