MV Maid of Argyll

MV Maid of Argyll was a passenger ferry of the Caledonian Steam Packet Company on the Firth of Clyde. She was the second of a quartet of passenger vessels ordered in 1951 to modernise the Clyde fleet, built by A and J Inglis of Glasgow and launched on 4 March 1953. She had a forward observation lounge, an aft tearoom, two masts and a single funnel above the central engines, and a landing platform above the bridge for use at very low tides. She was first based at Craigendoran with runs to Gourock, Dunoon, Innellan and Rothesay, and served as the Kyles of Bute and Tarbert Royal Mail ship from February to May 1970. After her last Clyde sailing on 12 September 1973 she was sold to Greek owners in 1974 and sailed as City of Piraeus and later City of Corfu, until a serious fire in 1997 ended her service. By 2002 she lay partly submerged and decomposing at her berth.