Caledonian Steam Packet Company : an illustrated history /Alistair Deayton.

A history of the Caledonian Steam Packet Company Limited (CSP). Founded in 1889 as a subsidiary of the Caledonian Railway to operate steamer services on the Clyde from terminals at Gourock and Wemyss Bay, the company grew steadily, commencing services from Ardrossan in 1890, purchasing the steamer Ivanhoe in 1897 and in 1906 the company's first turbine steamer, Duchess of Argyll. During the First World War the entire fleet was taken up by the Admiralty. In the 1920s the CSP absorbed the steamers of the Glasgow and South Western Railway, and in 1935 the fleet of Williamson-Buchanan Steamers. In the 1940s the CSP took over the running of the Kyle of Lochalsh-Kyleakin car ferry service. In 1948 the railways were nationalised, but the CSP continued as the operator of the railway steamers on the Clyde. The remaining steamers of the London and North Eastern Railway were absorbed in the fleet, together with the Loch Lomond steamers. In the 1950s car ferries and motor vessels, the Maids, were added to the fleet, together with a larger car ferry for the Arran service, the Glen Sannox, in 1957. On 1 January 1969 the CSP left railway control and became part of the Scottish Transport Group which owned fifty percent of David MacBrayne. Further expansion included the purchase of the Bute Ferry Company in 1969. On 1 January 1973 the CSP and David MacBrayne Ltd were merged to form Caledonian MacBrayne Ltd. The book includes a fleet list and is illustrated throughout with black-and-white and colour photographs and illustrations.