Upper Deck

THE UPPER DECKS

The upper deck is where you board Balmoral and are welcomed by our crew.

Balmoral was built as a combined car ferry and a passenger excursion vessel. During the weekend she operated the Southampton to Cowes Ferry Service for Red Funnel, and in the summer season she took on passengers and cruised the Isle of Wight and along the coast to Swanage, Bournemouth and Portsmouth. For this, she needed her good turn of speed and also lounges and covered accommodation. She was the flagship of the line for many years, and was well known and loved by generations of travelers, both on business and holiday. In total over 2 million people have traveled on her.

STERN DECK AREA CAR DECK SUN DECK

Cars were accommodated at the back of the ship. They entered through side doors and were then maneuvered into position. About ten cars could be carried and it was always a rather fraught time as vehicles were driven on and off by their owners ! When the ship was used for cruising, the car deck became an open space for passengers and was a sun trap on a hot day, sheltered from the wind and beautifully secluded. This is shown on the left hand drawing above as the red area.

When Balmoral was used on the Bristol Channel by P & A Campbell Ltd between 1969 and 1980, the car deck became known as the 'Sun Deck' , the side doors were welded closed and the deck provided with a large number of folding aluminum chairs that became prize possessions of passengers during the voyage. As she was designed to have the additional weight of vehicles at the stern, when running unladen, her propellers were slightly too high in the water and tended to draw in air and spin rapidly without biting into the water. (This is known as cavitation and can also happen if the propeller spins so fast that it fails to grip the water.) This resulted in the engines over speeding and a lot of vibration as well as a loss of efficiency. On the calm water of the Solent it was not very noticeable, but in a force six coming up the Bristol Channel from Ilfracombe it certainly was, and she was fitted with two very large blocks of steel right at the back of the car deck. These weighed around ten tons and lowered the stern of the ship sufficiently to ensure that the propellers stayed under water in all but the roughest conditions.

Balmoral on the River Avon - the sun deck full of passengers ... and the propellers just under the water ! You can see her bow is well down in the water and the stern high. The car loading doors are marked. There were two doors on each side of the ship.

Looking towards the stern from the enclosed part of the car deck in 1975 - it is now a comfortable and well appointed restaurant !

The lady with the yellow top is standing in what is now the galley !

When the ship was rebuilt by Waverley Excursions in 1986, it was decided that the car deck could be made into a large restaurant and if this was decked over, no passenger space would be lost. This was done, the galley removed from the front of the forward lounge and installed at the back of the new restaurant. The original 'poop' deck which is the rearmost part of the ship was kept as it was, but the area above the new facility was turned into a wide and spacious deck with a large amount of space for passengers. This feature is a superb feature of the ship. At the same time the after deck house was rebuilt into a larger purser's office and a store for life jackets above.

A rather cluttered upper deck with one of the lifeboats and a buoyant seat that could be used as a life raft. This photograph taken at Ilfracombe in 1975 when the ship was operated by Campbells.

Contrast with this spacious deck after the rebuild. The ventilators marked with the star are the same ones !The lifeboats are gone and two emergency dinghies are in their place. The photographer would have been standing in mid air before the rebuild - the car deck was below the camera !

At the time the rebuild was undertaken, the lifeboats were removed and replaced with two inflatable rescue dinghies. Each has a crane to lower it into the water ( called a davit ) and while they look identical, the starboard one is made form ordinary steel but the port one was obtained from a ship breakers and was used on a minesweeper. It is thus made of non magnetic stainless steel ! You may be thinking why no lifeboats on a passenger ship? The white containers on racks above the upper deck hold inflatable life rafts, while all the free standing bench type seats are actually life rafts that will float. The two original lifeboats could only hold a small number of passengers and would have taken a long time to fill and launch. Those not able to get a seat in a boat would have needed to use the rafts until help arrived.

Some of the many life rafts fitted to the ship. ( model shown on right).

As she is today, Balmoral has secure, safe and modern life saving equipment which is very quick to launch and can hold everyone on the ship. She also, of course, has lifejackets for everyone.

MIDSHIPS

This is where many passengers like to be during coastal trips. There is easy access to the lower deck and plenty of seating. There is also the funnel casing. The engine room is directly below the funnel and acts like a gigantic central heating system. The whole structure becomes warm and on a cool day is a very popular place to be !

The engine room casing is always a popular place to sit !

BRIDGE DECK

Passengers are not allowed on the navigation bridge but can visit the area behind the wheel house on some voyages. This is a superb observation platform as it is the highest point on the ship. It is accessed by the traditional wooden steps ( companionways ) with brass treads and steel railings. It is features like this, wooden windows, specially made seats and brass fittings that make Balmoral unique - the finishing touches by craftsmen of a bygone age.

FOREDECK

This is another vantage point for watching the coast as the ship cruises along. The view is unimpeded and there are a number of seats. In this photograph, taken when the ship was laid up for the winter, you can see the interior of the seats that are designed to become life rafts in an emergency. The higher steel sides of the bow section deflect the wind and make the area another sun trap for passengers.

A dual purpose piece of equipment. There are a number of traditional seats, this one is on the foredeck. The underside comprises two life floats. In an emergency these float and can be use by anyone swimming as a safety device until help arrives.

Here they are without the seat tops !

The red handles on the ventilators operate a flap inside the pipe to cut off the air in the event of a fire in the area below.The top section of each pipe turns through 360 degrees so that it can be adjusted to face into or away from the wind as necessary.

HOME