# "Sound of Seil"



## s10694

I normally post "Urban Exploration" items on another forum, but this post appears appropriate for a shipping forum.

It concerns the "Sound of Seil", which always appears in lists as "Scrapped at Garston, 1997". Some lists mention it as being converted into a crane barge. However, it is still there, at Garston (on the Mersey), at, what was the Blackbourne scrapyard. I work nearby, hence this exploration.

This was just a lunchtime wander from work. I'd spied a "ship like" shape on the horizon whilst looking further along the shoreline at the Speke Airport seaplane ramp from WW1, so it was worth a look, and what a find. 

What I could see, was the Garston shipbreakers yard, which is about here, and easily accessible from the shore line.

http://www.flashearth.com/?lat=53.342323&lon=-2.898707&z=19&r=0&src=msl

The yard obviously shut a long while ago. I recognised the type of ship as similar to the MV Farringford, which I was familiar with on the Hull Pierhead / New Holland ferry run, when I was at Uni.

After some research, I identified the major ship as the "Sound of Seil", which was a Glasgow Clyde ferry, and was fetched to Garston, to be converted into a crane barge, and was later (partly) scrapped. 

It was built in 1959 by the Ailsa yard at Troon for BR/s Southern Region for Isle of Wight service, then known as the "MV Freshwater", she then finished her days back on the Clyde from the early 1980s, used by Western Ferries as the "MV Sound of Seil"

First Sight:










The back is broken, note the crack in the side:










Looks like one half of the superstructure gone, was as far as the scrapping got (and that's in the gutter):



















Around the scrapyard:













































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## benjidog

Welcome to the site and thanks for the interesting photo links.


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## bert thompson

Welcome to this wonderful site
Great pictures
Best wishes
Bert.


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## K urgess

Welcome aboard from East Yorkshire.
Pity to see something like the Farringford in such a state. I used to use it regularly.
Explore this ship, join in and enjoy the voyage.


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## Gulpers

*Welcome*

s10694,

Thanks for posting the links.
I made many crossings of the Clyde on *Sound of Seil *between McInroy's Point (Gourock) and Hunter's Quay. (Thumb)


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## william dillon

Gulpers said:


> s10694,
> 
> Thanks for posting the links.
> I made many crossings of the Clyde on *Sound of Seil *between McInroy's Point (Gourock) and Hunter's Quay. (Thumb)


O.K., Ray, what was her name & was she worth it ??????????(Jester)


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## billyboy

Welcome aboard from the Philippines. Enjoy all this great site has to offer


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## R58484956

Greetings s10694 and a very belated welcome to you. Bon voyage.


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## StewartM

I've been down in the Liverpool area this week, so this morning I went to see if there was anything still left. Unfortunately, absolutely nothing left, not even wee bits and pieces lying around, so someone obviously did finally dispose of the remains. Looking the photos in the link confirms I was in the right place.


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## ben27

good day s10694,5th.oct.2008.05:52."sound of seil"just looking at this old thread.your photo links are a good record.i see today stewartm,today(p9)tells us theres nothing left of the wreck.great photo"s.have a good day.regards ben27


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## BarnacleBillMagazine

I used the Western Ferries service many many times during the 1980s and early 1990s to Hunter's Quay on the Clyde and frequently the ship we took was the Sound of Seil. It was and is a no nonsense service, I was always awestruck at the power of these ferries and the way they crammed in the cars. what killed off this class was the bloating in the size of family cars over the last 20 years. The newer ferries are considerably larger. This was a British Rail ferry built for the Lymington service to the isle of Wight in the 1950s at Troon, Western bought her in 1986 and must have run her most days for 10 years, dumped in the Mersey in 1997.
always sad


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