I RECENTLY carried an image of the Cunard liner RMS Queen Elizabeth when she entered Inchgreen dry dock for a refit in December 1965.

Transatlantic services by sea were losing passengers to the airlines and the Queen Elizabeth and sister ship Queen Mary were subsequently replaced by a single vessel – the Queen Elizabeth 2, more commonly known as the QE2.

Built by John Brown at Clydebank, as were the Queen Elizabeth and Queen Mary, the QE2’s fitting-out was completed at Inchgreen dry dock.

The QE2 is pictured – escorted by the paddle steamer Waverley – leaving from Greenock Ocean Terminal after her first return to the river of her birth in July, 1990.

Dating to November, 1968, my other image shows the QE2 anchored at the mouth of the Holy Loch, prior to entering Inchgreen dry dock, and the Canadian Pacific liner Empress of England.

Greenock Telegraph:

It is a photograph of significance as the Empress of England was making the final Clyde call of the line’s UK to Canada service.

She continued on the transatlantic run for another year before being sold to the Shaw Savill line and renamed Ocean Monarch.

Canadian Pacific liners had been a familiar sight at the Tail of the Bank for many years. Passengers were brought out from Greenock by tenders.

Returning to the QE2, she was the last liner built on the Clyde and is now a floating hotel in Dubai.