Old Travel Blog Photograph Launching Lusitania Clydebank Scotland

Old travel Blog photograph of the launching of the Lusitania ocean liner in 1906 at the John Brown and Company Shipyard in Clydebank by Glasgow, Scotland. This Scottish shipyard built many notable and world famous ships including RMS Lusitania, HMS Hood, HMS Repulse, RMS Queen Mary, RMS Queen Elizabeth and RMS Queen Elizabeth 2. At its height, from 1900 to the 1950s, it was one of the most highly regarded, and internationally famous, shipbuilding companies in the world. The sinking of the Cunard ocean liner RMS Lusitania occurred on Friday, 7 May 1915 during the First World War, as Germany waged submarine warfare against the United Kingdom which had implemented a naval blockade of Germany. The ship was identified and torpedoed by the German U-boat U-20 and sank in 18 minutes. The vessel went down 11 miles off the Old Head of Kinsale, Ireland, killing 1,198 and leaving 761 survivors. The sinking turned public opinion in many countries against Germany, contributed to the American entry into World War I and became an iconic symbol in military recruiting campaigns of why the war was being fought.



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Old Travel Blog Photograph Launching Aquitania Clydebank Scotland

Old travel Blog photograph of the launching of the Aquitania ocean liner on 21 April 1913, at the John Brown and Company Shipyard in Clydebank by Glasgow, Scotland. This Scottish shipyard built many notable and world famous ships including RMS Lusitania, HMS Hood, HMS Repulse, RMS Queen Mary, RMS Queen Elizabeth and RMS Queen Elizabeth 2. At its height, from 1900 to the 1950s, it was one of the most highly regarded, and internationally famous, shipbuilding companies in the world. Aquitania sailed on her maiden voyage to New York on 30 May 1914. Aquitania was the third in Cunard Line's " grand trio " of express liners, preceded by RMS Mauretania and RMS Lusitania, and was the last surviving four-funnelled ocean liner. Shortly after entering service, World War I broke out, during which she was first transformed into an auxiliary cruiser before being transformed into a troop transport and a hospital ship, notably as part of the Dardanelles Campaign.



All photographs are copyright of Sandy Stevenson, Tour Scotland, and may not be used without permission.

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Old Travel Blog Photograph Launching Queen Mary Clydebank Scotland

Old travel Blog photograph of the launching of the Queen Mary ocean liner on September 26th, 1934 at the John Brown and Company Shipyard in Clydebank by Glasgow, Scotland. This Scottish shipyard built many notable and world famous ships including RMS Lusitania, HMS Hood, HMS Repulse, RMS Queen Mary, RMS Queen Elizabeth and RMS Queen Elizabeth 2. At its height, from 1900 to the 1950s, it was one of the most highly regarded, and internationally famous, shipbuilding companies in the world. Queen Mary sailed on her maiden voyage on 27 May 1936 and captured the Blue Riband in August of that year; she lost the title to SS Normandie in 1937 and recaptured it in 1938, holding it until 1952 when she was beaten by the new SS United States. With the outbreak of the Second World War, she was converted into a troopship and ferried Allied soldiers for the duration of the war.



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Old Travel Blog Photograph Clan MacDuff Motel Fort William Scotland

Old travel Blog photograph of the Clan MacDuff Motel by Fort William, Scotland. Historically, this area of Lochaber was strongly Clan Cameron country, and there were a number of mainly Cameron settlements in the area. The town grew in size as a settlement when the fort was constructed to control the population after Oliver Cromwell's invasion during the Wars of the Three Kingdoms, and then to suppress the Jacobite uprisings of the 18th century. Fort William is now a major tourist centre, with Glen Coe just to the south, Aonach Mòr to the east and Glenfinnan to the west, on the Road to the Isles.



All photographs are copyright of Sandy Stevenson, Tour Scotland, and may not be used without permission.

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Old Travel Blog Photograph Druim Pass Strathglass Scotland

Old travel Blog photograph of Druim Pass in Strathglass, in the Highlands of Scotland. In 1801, William, the 24th Clan Chief of Chisholm, began the clearances in Strathglass. In the period of one year, half of the clan were evicted. Many left for Canada and Nova Scotia. After William's death, his son was still a minor; but his wife Elizabeth continued with the evictions for one sole purpose, to pay for her son's, the future 25th Chisholm, education at Cambridge. Bishop Chisholm had pleaded with her to end the evictions: " Oh! Madam, you would really feel if you only heard the pangs and saw the oozing tears by which I am surrounded in this once happy but now devastated valley of Strathglass, looking out all anxiously for a home without forsaking their dear valley; but it will not do, they must emigrate ! " She promised the tenants, who had gone to her for help, to come up with a solution. But she never did. Two sheep farmers, Thomas Gillespie and William MacKenzie, had convinced her that she should continue with the “improvements” to her land. The evictions continued with the Cambridge educated son, Alexander. He followed in his parents’ footsteps and totally depopulated Strathglass. It was said that only one Chisholm remained. Bard and poet in the old Gael tradition, Donald Chisholm, wrote these words: " Our chief is losing his kin! He prefers sheep in the glens, and his young men away in the camp of the army ! " A man of the time described Alexander as wanting nothing so much as to replace all his people, " his family from the beginning of time," with sheep. And, unfortunately, it was true.



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