The Courier & Advertiser (Angus and Dundee)
Last ferry to make crossing of Tay became Hollywood star
Vessel featured as the Popeye Barge in film starring Robin Williams
She made history as the last ferry to make the Tay crossing in 1966.
The MV Scotscraig then went on to become a Hollywood movie star 40 years ago.
The ferry, which was the fourth of its kind to be built in Dundee in 1951, featured as the Popeye Barge in the live action version starring the late, great, Robin Williams.
She was the 14th ship to operate the service since sail and oar gave way to steam in 1821, which only stopped with the opening of the Tay Road Bridge in 1966.
Dundonians used the Fifies as a way to escape the smoke of the city and take a trip to the kingdom countryside.
The Scotscraig was built for the Dundee Harbour Trust for the ferry crossing to Newport.
The Scotscraig was the fourth Caledon-built ferry for the route and was launched during “Dundee-made
Week”, in May 1951, by Mrs FJD Buist, the wife of the convener of the Tay Ferries Committee of the Harbour Trust.
Diesel-engined and Voith-schneider propelled, the Scotscraig was built with large vehicular capacity and room for 800 passengers.
The debate between ferry and road bridge was already well under way, with the first plans drawn up for a new span before the First World War, using the base of the first rail bridge.
Numerous campaigns for a bridge were launched over the years before a Tay Road Bridge Committee was set up by the council, resulting in its eventual opening in 1966.
By then, there were just three boats left, the BL Nairn, the Abercraig and the Scotscraig, although the Fifies were still in daily use, leaving Dundee and Newport half-hourly on their 20-minute crossings.
The last ever Tay ferry crossings took place in the shadow of the new road bridge, with special tickets available for five shillings.
On August 8 the flag-decorated Scotscraig, escorted by the lifeboat Robert, picked up a Newport party of 200.
Back at Craig Pier another 500 boarded and at 6.30pm, the ferry pulled out into the river with the RNVR Band aboard playing Bonnie Dundee.
Passengers sang The Old Hundredth and the Rev Dr HM Bartlett read the lesson.
Jets and a helicopter from Leuchars flew overhead.
The passengers sang Auld Lang Syne and on the final return to Dundee there was dancing on deck.
The ferry boats then returned to Victoria Dock shortly after the bridge opened to await their fate.
The BL Nairn was scrapped after the bridge opened.
Abercraig and Scotscraig were towed to Portsmouth by a German tug in 1968 before being moved to Malta where sideloaders were more suitable for some of the island-to-island routes.
Dundee historian Norman Watson said: “Although long gone, the Tay Ferries were one of the first railwayferry services in the world.
“They deserve their place in Dundee’s wonderful maritime history.”
In 1980 the Scotscraig moved to Anchor Bay just a couple of miles from Mellieha in Malta, after nearly 200 workers spent seven months to construct Sweethaven Village for the production of the live-action musical feature film Popeye.
Principal photography commenced in January 1980 and part of the film was made on the Scotscraig, which was billed as the Popeye Barge.
After the production cost rose beyond $20 million, Paramount ordered director John Altman to wrap up filming and return to California with what he had.
The film-set village was abandoned so the locals of Mellieha reclaimed it as a Popeye theme park, and it remains there to this day.
The vessel ingloriously sank in 1981 and was then given another starring role as an underwater wreck off the island’s coast and became a tourist attraction for scuba divers and marine film producers.
The Abercraig was finally broken up in Malta in 1995.