MV Isle of Lewis

Isle of Lewis was built by Ferguson Shipbuilders in Port Glasgow on the Clyde and entered service in July 1995. When constructed she was largest ship ever built by Ferguson's.[3] Her crossing time of around 2 hours and 45 minutes improved upon that of her predecessor, MV Suilven, by at least 45 minutes.

With increasing traffic on the crossing, there was speculation that Isle of Lewis might be replaced by a larger vessel. In September 2013 the freight vessel Clipper Ranger was chartered to relieve pressure on the route. On 10 June 2012, it was announced that a new £42 million replacement ferry was to be built in Germany.[4] The new 116 metre long ROPAX ferry was named Loch Seaforth and is capable of continuous operation, with a capacity for up to 700 passengers, and 143 cars or 20 commercial vehicles. Loch Seaforth entered service in mid-February 2015 and took over both passenger and freight duties on the route.[5] Since moving to the Barra service in March 2016, Isle of Lewis has been relegated to the role of Stornoway relief ship each October when Loch Seaforth departs for overhaul, with a second relief ship taking care of overnight freight traffic, owing to Isle of Lewis' inability to carry certain hazardous cargo due to her fully enclosed and sealed car deck.

In June 2015, to assess her future deployment, Isle of Lewis undertook a tour of major terminals for berthing trials, with varied results. She called at Lochmaddy, Castlebay, Oban, Craignure, Brodick, Ardrossan, Troon, Campbeltown, and Tarbert between 4 and 9 June. No immediate decision was announced. Major work would be required to offset her stern ramp to starboard instead of to port, for her to operate on routes including Mull and Arran. Such adjustments would not prevent her returning to Stornoway for relief work, as both Stornoway and Ullapool harbours now have full-width linkspans.

In September 2015, it was announced that the Isle of Lewis was to become the Oban–Castlebay vessel from the following summer, thus allowing MV Lord of the Isles to commence daily return sailings between Lochboisdale and Mallaig.

Isle of Lewis was on duty at Oban and Castlebay in 2017 when she undertook a series of special sailings between 4 and 6 June to transport those travelling to attend the funeral of Eilidh MacLeod, a Barra schoolgirl who died in the Manchester Arena bombing. As a mark of respect, the Isle of Lewis was shown with her CalMac pennant, along with the Barra flag, at half mast.[6]

A history of the Isle of Lewis by Mark Nicolson was published by The Islands Book Trust on 31 July 2016, in time for the 21st anniversary of the vessel's inauguration in 1995.

Isle of Lewis is a further development of Isle of Mull and Caledonian Isles' design with a fully enclosed car deck. The car deck is accessed by bow and stern ramps, the latter being offset from the centre of the ship to accommodate the linkspan in Ullapool. The bow ramp is a folding design that is watertight and further protected by a conventional upward hinging bow visor. The bow ramp was originally off-set to suit Stornoway's original linkspan until new facilities opened in April 1997. During an overhaul at Greenock in 2016, the bow ramp was changed to be off-set to port in order to prepare her for her new role as the summer Barra ferry, to make berthing in Oban easier.

There are three lanes to port and two to starboard of the central casing. A hydraulically operated mezzanine deck along each side can be raised or lowered according to traffic requirements. Two stairways from the car deck bring passengers out in the entrance square on deck 4, where the passenger gangways enter.[1]

The entrance square houses the information desk and gift shop. Forward is a large cafeteria overlooking the bow and occupying the full width of the ship. Aft are a designated dog area and a truckers' quiet lounge, with the reclining lounge and bar at the stern. Deck 5 houses the observation lounge at the bow, crew accommodation further aft and an open promenade deck stretching down both sides of the ship. Four stairways lead up to the open top deck, where seating is available.[1]

The upper works of the ship are completed with two raked funnels in red and black company colours and two buff coloured masts. The smaller mast is on top of the wheelhouse and carries the twin radar scanners and radio antennae, while the larger mast is mounted aft on the promenade deck, carrying antennae and the house flag. During the winter refit in 2009, the funnels were fitted with angled exhaust extensions on the funnel tops to direct engine exhaust away from the decks. They were later removed during her 2019 overhaul. The ship carries a fast rescue craft and two large motor-driven lifeboats, one to port and one to starboard, with a set of automatically deploying inflatable life rafts. The two large lifeboats were replaced in 2019 with new inflatable life rafts.

Isle of Lewis spent the majority of her career operating between Ullapool and Stornoway and until April 2015, had hardly sailed on any other route. She endured some treacherous seas crossing The Minch, some of the most exposed waters around the British Isles. Tidal constraints from her 4.2 metre draught make her unsuitable for full-time use on other routes. Her ramps not being suitable for many of the linkspans around the CalMac network further reduces her versatility.

Over the years, Isle of Lewis has called at other stations for a variety of purposes. During her delivery voyage to Stornoway, she called at Ardrossan on 26 July 1995 to collect supplies. During the visit, she was formally handed over to her new owners. The next day, 27 July 1995, she carried out berthing trials at Uig, Lochmaddy & Tarbert respectively to assess her suitability should an emergency arise there - testing her bow ramp at Uig, her bow and stern ramps at Lochmaddy, and her bow ramp at Tarbert - before proceeding for trials at Ullapool and Stornoway later that day.

On 19 April and 31 May 1998, she called at Lochmaddy to carry out two charters with Ministry of Defence traffic to and from Ullapool, suffering a breakdown on the first charter that required repairs lasting four weeks. On 28 November 1998, whilst returning from an overhaul at North Shields, Isle of Lewis made a maiden call at Stromness, Orkney to 'show the flag' as CalMac were bidding for the contract to operate the Northern Isles services instead of the then-incumbent P&O Scottish Ferries. It is worth noting that until the appearance of MV Hebrides, Isle of Lewis was the flagship for CalMac, hence the reason she was the vessel selected to promote CalMac's interest in the Northern Isles franchise.

On 11 November 2008, whilst operating a temporary passenger-only service between Stornoway and Ullapool during a period when the Ullapool linkspan was closed for maintenance and the regular freight vessel was stormbound at Stornoway, Isle of Lewis called at Uig to retrieve stranded freight traffic bound for Lewis.

On 3 April 2015, Isle of Lewis carried out a special sailing from Uig to Lochmaddy to assist Finlaggan, which was covering the route whilst Hebrides was on winter relief duty. This was an historic day for Isle of Lewis, her first passenger sailing on a CalMac service other than her regular Stornoway-Ullapool roster. This was followed by special sailings between Tarbert and Lochmaddy on 19 and 20 June following breakdown of the Sound of Harris ferry.

From 20 April to 18 May 2015, Isle of Lewis operated a temporary service for vehicles and passengers from Stornoway to Uig whilst the 42-year-old linkspan at Ullapool was replaced with a new two-lane design that improves loading and unloading. Clipper Ranger ran a freight service from Stornoway to Uig in addition, and required to have her stern ramp modified for this. Loch Seaforth ran from Stornoway to Ullapool as normal, but on a passenger-only basis. The linkspan works were completed early, on 15 May, although it did not reopen for business until 18 May as planned. Isle of Lewis then carried out a series of special sailings between Oban and Castlebay between and 24 and 27 June - in response to strike action by RMT union members of CalMac on 26 June which caused severe disruption across the whole network. One of Isle of Lewis' special crossings included a 0046 from Oban to Castlebay on 27 June to transport runners to the annual 'Barrathon' marathon, 'saving' that event from cancellation as a result of the disruption caused by the strike.

Following a breakdown of MV Hebrides on 28 July 2015, Isle of Lewis took over on the Uig Triangle, allowing Hebrides to sail to Stornoway for repairs to her propulsion unit. The larger vessel took this unusual duty in her stride despite having to work by the available tide at Uig owing to her deeper draught. Hebrides was able to return to service early on 30 July, although Isle of Lewis remained on the triangle for the remainder of the day to clear any backlog of traffic, and returned to Stornoway following an extra sailing from Lochmaddy to Uig.

In early 2016, Isle of Lewis relieved on the Scrabster - Stromness route for NorthLink whilst MV Hamnavoe sailed for her refit. This was a reciprocal arrangement after MS Hildasay provided cover at Stornoway during the dry-docking of Loch Seaforth.[7]

In March 2016, Isle of Lewis began a new phase of her life, serving Oban and Castlebay on Barra year-round, which allowed MV Lord of the Isles to commence a daily return service between Lochboisdale and Mallaig, thus ending South Uist's direct link to Oban. With Isle of Lewis' deployment there, the Isle of Barra receives a daily dedicated service.[8][9] These summer arrangements, announced by Transport Scotland, are likely to be a stop-gap until the new MV Glen Sannox is commissioned at Arran, and Hull 802 is commissioned on the Uig-Lochmaddy/Tarbert services. On her first official day on the Barra service, 25 March 2016, Isle of Lewis completed all of her sailings in spite of an amber alert of adverse weather and swell conditions.

• Caledonian MacBrayne fleet

Wikimedia Commons has media related to MV Isle of Lewis.

• MV Isle of Lewis on www.calmac.co.uk