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Ferries of every description have criss-crossed the Firth of Clyde for centuries, from small passenger-only craft to large ships carrying lorries and buses. None, however, can compare with a ferry service which plied the waters in 1965. For these particular ferries didn’t float — they flew.

They were hovercraft. When they were introduced by Clyde Hover Ferries, the company claimed it was operating the “world’s first year-round scheduled hovercraft service”. Painted in the colours of a Glasgow Corporation bus of the time —orange, white and green — the hovercraft sailed (if that’s the right word) between most of the large resorts in the Firth, and were an immediate sensation. People came to Dunoon, Largs or Miliport, not to go on board, but to gawp as they rode up on to the beach and discharged their passengers.

Some made a hovercraft trip as a morning or afternoon excursion, paying the princely sum of one pound for a “sail” round Great Cumbrae from Largs. Some even used them for their intended purpose — as a ferry. More than one early morning com­muter travelled from Tarbert to Gourock on one before catching the train into Glasgow.

The man behind it all was Peter Kaye, an entrepreneur who lived on Little Cumbrae. He was already the managing director of an Edinburgh company called Highland Engineering when he founded Clyde Hover Ferries in 1964. The first that the general public learned about his intentions was in the Glasgow Herald of 5th December 1964, when it announced that Clyde Hover Ferries had been in touch with various coastal burghs about suitable landing sites.

Then, on 6th January 1965, in the same newspaper, Mr Kaye announced that “. . . the Westland SR.N5 hovercraft which we have bought will go out from Tarbert on 1st June.” He went on to say that he was in no doubt that most of the passenger and low-density freight services, not only on the Clyde, but on the west coast of Scotland, would be undertaken by hovercraft within the next 10 years.

In the event, demonstration trips from Finnart (carry­ing VIPs) began on 18th June, followed by “trips round the bay” out of Largs on 26th June. The first regular service began on 3rd July from Largs to Mill-port, using, not an SR.N5, but the much larger SR.N6, which could take up to 38 passengers, and cruised at 50 knots.

One man who possibly knows more about the ferry service than anyone else is Bill Clements, one of the original hovercraft pilots. Now retired, he lives in Gourock, his house looking out across the Firth Of Clyde.

“They didn’t call us pilots,” he told me. “They called us hovercraft commanders. I’m really a master mariner, but in those days the Department Of Transport hadn’t decided whether a hovercraft was a ship or an aeroplane. Eventually they decided it was an aeroplane, and told us it would give us a special dispensation if we became qualified, which we did. There were four commanders at the time, which eventually rose to seven, and we all trained on Loch Fyne.

“We had no facilities. Peter Kaye owned a hotel in Tarbert called The Castle, close to which was a boatyard. So we operated out of the hotel, and trained in upper Loch Fyne. We had a complaint from the Duchess Of Argyll that we were making too much noise, so we had to come farther down the loch!”

There was just one SR.N6 to train on, though when the service was up and running, there was a fleet of three plying the waters. Then it was reduced to two, and finally one. A crew consisted of one pilot and a hostess, of which there were six. So popular was the notion of a hovercraft ferry on the Clyde that over 200 women applied for these six jobs.

I asked him if being a commander was good fun. “You’d better believe it!” he replied. “You drove these things by the seat of your pants. And all the passengers were impressed. Commuters caught the Gourock train from Glasgow, and we’d pick them up and take them home to Tarbert on a Friday. On a Monday it would be the reverse — we’d take them from Tarbert to Gourock. They could be in Glasgow in two hours, whereas if they had gone by road it would have taken them three or four.

“The first morning run consisted of leaving Tarbert at 7.00a.m. then going to Rothesay, Dunoon and finally Gourock, which was reached by eight o’clock. The second run was a reverse of this. Our later runs would take us to Dunoon, Rothesay, Largs and Millport, with sometimes a quick call at Wemyss Bay. I used to take Larry Marshall out to Rothesay from Wemyss Bay and bring him back at night. He was doing a series of shows at the Winter Gardens.

“One of the most peculiar, but short-lived, runs was from Tarbert to Portavadie, where there was no flat beach. A farmer, therefore, allowed the hovercraft to come in off the water and on to one of his muddy fields. The trip cost all of 30 shillings.”

But what about regular river traffic? How did it take to a hovercraft scooting about? “It never bothered us. We were so fast we kept out of its way —“ Suddenly Bill stopped, and a broad grin spread over his face. “Mind you — there’s just one wee aside I’ve got to tell you about.

“After a while, we got to be quite famous, and Hughie Green came up to see us at Tarbert, along with Monica Rose. We took him out on the hovercraft, and because he was an air pilot, we let him take the controls. We were roaring down Loch Fyne at about 40 knots, and I noticed a submarine coming up the loch, so I told Hughie to gently turn the hovercraft away, as we didn’t want to go across its bow.

“Now to do this, you’ve got to bank the hovercraft, just like an aircraft. So there was Hughie very gingerly trying to turn and bank it, with the submarine getting closer. I started shouting, ‘Come on, Hughie, get it round!’ We were nearly up the conning tower sideways before he managed the manoeuvre! A film of it happening was on Hughie’s TV quiz show ‘Double Your Money’.”

The first spot of serious bother came in September 1965. Largs Town Council insisted that Clyde Hover Ferries should pay dues for using the shoreline. The Provost at the time, Councillor Miller White, thundered in the Scottish Sunday Express of 14th September: “As the hovercraft company are not prepared to pay for the use of the shore, and as they have made no attempt to negotiate payment, they should not be allowed to use the beach.”

He went on to say that the town council had shown a willingness to co-operate, but had to draw the line at subsidising the service.

It was a peculiar stance to take, as that part of the beach invariably used by the hovercraft — between high and low tide — wasn’t owned by the town council at all. It was owned by the Crown, which in turn had leased it to British Rail. And Clyde Hover Ferries paid five shillings to British Rail every time it landed there. So there was no question of it getting “free use of the beach”.

Clyde Hover Ferries considered that Largs Town Council was “trying it on”, and called its bluff. It withdrew the Largs service, opting instead for Wemyss Bay. It was a short-sighted move by the council, which never really appreciated the tourism possibilities offered by the hovercraft. Other places, however, did appreciate the opportunities. “Millport Town Council were only too pleased to see us bringing people in,” said Bill. “Mind you, there was one lady who lived on the west side of Kames Bay, and she complained to the boss about her ornaments vibrating on her mantelpiece as we came in. That was the only real complaint from Miliport we ever had.”

Everywhere else — Dunoon, Tarbert, Gourock, Rothesay and Wemyss Bay — posed no problem. Originally, it had been intended to make Helensburgh a port of call as well (and the poster above announcing the service included the name of this town), but there was no suitable landing spot.

I asked Bill if there were ever plans to take the hovercraft right up the river and into Glasgow. “Yes, but speed restrictions would have been a problem,” he said. “You were only allowed to do 5 mph on the river, and to make our service viable, we had to do at least 50 knots.”

According to a story in The Herald of 9th February 1965, there was even a plan to link the Clyde resorts with Abbotsinch Airport (which was then under construction) using the hovercraft. The idea came from Mr Read, the airport direct