WHEN it comes to the Clyde steamers, Douglas Davidson has so many memories to draw upon.
Mr Davidson, now 76, is one of the people interviewed for a BBC documentary, to be screened tomorrow night, on Scotland's, and Britain's, love affair with the coastal vessels.
A highlight of many Britons' seaside holidays between the 1820s and early 1960s and were seen as the "peoples' liners."
The BBC 'Timeshift' documentary tells the story of the excursion steamers that plied the Clyde, taking thousands of Glaswegians 'doon the watter' to the holiday hotspots of the Clyde Riviera, from Victorian times to the early 1970s.
Mr Davidson, who lives in Innellan, near Dunoon, said: "Most of my experiences came when I was very young, in the 1940s, 50s and 60s.
"During the war I lived with my grandmother in Dunoon and we kept our flat in Glasgow and we used to travel to and from the city on the steamers, mainly the Queen Mary and, I think, the Lucy Ashton. We always hoped we would travel on the Queen Mary, as she was plush, and big, and fast.
"She still had some of her pre-war grandeur. People thought of her as a liner rather than as a steamship on the Clyde.
“The Queen Mary and the Lucy Ashton were the two main vessels at the time - many of the others were used for coastal defence during the war. In fact, the original Waverley was sunk during the evacuation of Dunkirk in 1940.
"Going on steamers was a common trip at the time," Mr Davidson added. "There was nothing extraordinary about it.
"For me, it was mainly about the sound of the ship's whistle, the noise of the piers, the rattle of carts carrying goods, the gang-planks crashing back down.
"I was very young at this time, but I remember the strange people you sometimes met. I remember seeing, when we arrived at the other side of Gourock, seeing Italian prisoners-of-war from north Africa being unloaded. They were still in their desert uniforms, which stuck in my mind."
Mr Davidson, whose home overlooks the picturesque Firth of Clyde, describes the current Waverley - the world’s last sea-going paddle steamer - as "superb, just magnificent. It's a major attraction, quite unique in the world, and it should be boosted as far as possible in tourist literature."
Tomorrow's documentary, which is narrated by actor Steven Mackintosh and directed and produced by Robin Toyne, also talks to Duncan Graham who, while still a student teacher, landed his "dream job" working as an assistant purser on the Clyde fleet for five summers in the 1950s.
Said Mr Toyne: "Each ship, wherever it sailed, had a dedicated following, almost in the manner of football teams. They gave their passengers, whatever their budget, the trappings of an ocean voyage despite rarely venturing out of sight of land."
* The documentary is aired on BBC4 tomorrow at 9pm.
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