Island Life Magazine Ltd October/November 2011 | Page 57

ON THE WATER

national importance’.
Waverley is also the only operational ex-Railway
steamship in Britain, coming to the end of
her commercial life in 1973, when even the
deficit-financed Caledonian MacBrayne could
no longer afford to operate her. They made the
wonderful gesture of “selling” Waverley to the Paddle
Steamer Preservation Society for £1.
There have even been calls for Waverley to be
treated in the same manner as the likes of the Mary
Rose, HMS Victory and HMS Warrior. But of course
the difference is that the Waverley is still a working
paddle steamer. So she is a unique survivor, but this
has been a make-or-break summer for her due mainly
to the huge hike in fuel costs and a few bad summers.
In the early 1970s when all remaining coastal
paddle steamers other than Waverley had been
withdrawn from service as uneconomic, the fuel
she used cost about £12 per ton. That meant, on
average, Waverley’s fuel cost was then about £120 per
day.
Today fuel costs over £500 per ton, and the daily
fuel cost is about £5,000. Waverley uses fuel at about
£8.40 per minute, and needs to generate at least
£16,000 every day she operates just to stay afloat. Put
another way, passengers paying £30 for their day out
are paying for three and a half minutes of fuel!
The next few months will determine whether
Waverley will be weaving her way back around the
Island in 2012.
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