Chairman of charity which owns Maid of the Loch stands down after 40 years

John Beveridge revealed this week that he has stood down as both chairman and a board member of the Loch Lomond Steamship Company (LLSC), the charity which owns the historic ship – and which he was instrumental in setting up in 1995.

Mr Beveridge told the Advertiser he remained the Maid’s “number one fan” – but that he had decided it was the right moment to hand over the responsibility of owning, running and restoring the ship to others.

“I stood down as chair of the charity in February and from the board in March,” he said.

John Beveridge has stood down as chairman and a board member of the Loch Lomond Steamship Company

“After three and a half years as chair and 26 working my socks off for the Maid I felt it was time to hand over to someone else.”

Mr Beveridge, though, has a link with the Maid that goes back far further than the LLSC’s formation.

“I was in there trying to save the ship in 1982 after she was taken out of service by Caledonian MacBrayne,” he said, “but she was bought by a private company who didn’t want to talk to me.

“But I got seriously involved at the point when it was almost literally sinking at the pier, with four or five feet of water inside the hull.

“I was a director of Dumbarton District Council at the time. I remember seeing people going on to the ship with cutting gear, apparently intent on stealing anything they could, and I thought ‘we have to do something here’.”

The Maid of the Loch as she looked in original condition in 1953, her first year cruising on Loch Lomond

He managed to persuade the council to buy the ship, and some of the surrounding land, when the Maid’s previous owners went into liquidation in 1992 and, three years later, to hand it over to the LLSC.

“We struggled for the first few years,” he said, “but gradually we’ve transformed it, and more and more people have begun to see what I’ve seen all along – that the Maid, as well as being a historic ship, is a huge potential asset to one of the key locations in all of Scotland.”

Because the River Leven has long been non-navigable for larger ships, the Maid was taken apart after being built at the yard of A. & J. Inglis in Pointhouse in Glasgow – the site today of the Riverside Transport Museum, and the same yard whose workers built the world-famous paddle steamer Waverley.

She was transported in pieces to Balloch, and reassembled there before being officially launched on March 5, 1953 and entering service two months later.

Decommissioned in 1981 as her owners, Caledonian MacBrayne, were forced to face up to the reality of a steady, and worsening, decline in the market for ‘day cruises’ in Scotland, the ship was subjected to more than a decade of neglect, decay and vandalism until her purchase by the then district council 11 years later.

The Maid of the Loch’s many supporters span the generations, as young fans Ross and Calum Meneely showed when our photographer Lesley Roberts caught up with them on board the ship in March 2018

“The Maid has been a huge part of my life which I’ve really enjoyed – I wouldn’t have done what I’ve done otherwise,” John continued.

“I’ll always be her number one fan. Nothing will stop that. I’m as full of enthusiasm for the ship as I’ve ever been, and I still believe completely in what she can do for the area – though it will take another major push to get her sailing again.

“But as with all things there comes a moment when you decide it’s time to stand aside.”

READ MORE: Maid of the Loch owners launch probe after 'slipping' operation goes wrong

Over the years the LLSC has managed to get some big names to throw their weight behind efforts to secure a successful, and sustainable, future for the Maid - most notably Lord Smith of Kelvin, who became a patron of the charity in 2018, and Sir Boyd Tunnock, owner of the famous confectionery firm, who took on the same role last October.

But it hasn’t all, if you’ll pardon the phrase, been plain sailing.

Among the stumbling blocks the charity has encountered along the way, none were greater than the announcement in September 2018 that the Heritage Lottery Fund had rejected an application from the LLSC for funding of £3.64 million which, it was hoped, would pave the way for the ship to return to service on the loch by the following year.

John admitted he and his colleagues at the charity were “devastated” at the HLF’s rejection - and John told the Advertiser at the time that the decision left the entire project “hanging in the balance”.

READ MORE: Maid of the Loch team 'devastated' as funds bid is rejected

But they knuckled down, and within two months of that knock-back received news that a £1 million funding package - most of it from the UK government - had been approved to help with the ship’s restoration.

That £1m funds deal paved the way for the ship to be winched out of the water for the first time since being decommissioned, but the Maid’s restoration rollercoaster ride suffered arguably its highest-profile dip in January 2019 when, with hundreds of people watching from the shore, the cradle on which the ship sat as it was hauled from the loch failed, sending the Maid sliding ignominiously back into the water.

The Maid was winched out of Loch Lomond for a hull survey in 2019 - but with hundreds of people watching on, the cradle on which the ship was sitting failed and she slid back into the water

Once again, though, John and his colleagues wasted no time getting back to work, and in October of that year, the Maid’s engines were fired up and the ship returned to steam, albeit statically, for the first time in 38 years.

Then, in the spring of last year, came Covid: in common with visitor attractions across Scotland, at a stroke the Maid was closed, its staff put on furlough and all work halted.

READ MORE: Maid of the Loch's engines fired up for first time in four decades

Again, though, John and his colleagues, and the Maid’s many supporters rallied round: a ‘virtual tour’ was launched, giving people around the world the chance, for a small fee, to enjoy a 1953 Loch Lomond cruise on board the Maid from the comfort of their own homes, and a crowdfunding appeal raised a vital £20,000 to get the restoration project back on course.

The Maid’s first visitors since lockdown were welcomed on board at the end of August, but an all-too-brief season drew to a close at the end of October.

Volunteers celebrate one of the many good news stories in the long battle to restore the Maid of the Loch and get her back in service

Earlier this month the Advertiser revealed that the Maid would not be open to the public in 2021 as the charity’s volunteers concentrate on essential repairs to the inside and outside of the ship.

Part of that repair work will see the ship winched out of the water and on to a brand new steel and wood ‘carriage’, partially funded by a £94,000 grant from Historic Environment Scotland following that January 2019 setback and currently nearing completion.

READ MORE: Historic ship won't reopen to public until 2022, say owners

But the LLSC is still hoping to hold events in some form during the course of this year, even if the Maid’s fans aren’t able to step on board the ship itself until 2022.

The charity’s new acting chair, Iain Robertson, said: “John has made a tremendous contribution throughout his years involved with the Maid of the Loch.

“If it weren’t for John and his colleagues who were involved in the founding of the charity, I think it’s fair to say the Maid would long ago have been lost to the community and Scotland as a whole.

“We’re incredibly grateful for everything he has done.”