MV Clansman (1964)
former ferry
MV Clansman was the second of a trio of hoist-loading car ferries built for David MacBrayne Ltd in 1964 and operated on the Mallaig to Armadale, Skye route for ten years. Converted to ro-ro operation, she operated on the Stornoway, Isle of Mull and Arran services. Underpowered and troubled by mechanical breakdowns, she was taken out of service after 20 years.
History
The Secretary of State for Scotland ordered a trio of near-identical car ferries for the Western Isles. Hall, Russell & Company of Aberdeen won the contract to build them, ahead of fifteen other British yards. The new ferries were initially owned by the Scottish Office and registered in Leith. They were chartered to David MacBrayne Ltd and were all equipped to serve as floating nuclear shelters, in the event of national emergency. This included vertical sliding watertight doors that could seal off the car deck immediately aft of the hoist, a positive pressure CBRN defence system, and decontamination sprinklers. Clansman, the second of the trio, was launched on 16 January 1964 and entered service on 5 June 1964.
To combat the limitations of hoist operation, Clansman underwent a nine-month refit at Troon from October 1972 to convert her to a drive-through ferry.
“MV Clansman (1964)” enters the record as former ferry. Crown Archives preserves that source wording while asking what Clansman, former and ferry can confirm, complicate or overturn.
Why this record matters
“MV Clansman (1964)” is worth following because a concise public description often conceals a longer documentary argument. Here, Clansman, former and ferry provides the most credible route into that argument.
The citation trail is more important than the brevity of the summary: it shows where individual claims can be examined in context. The source revision retrieved here is dated May 4, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q6719382. None of the 0 selected statements returned an explicit reference. The first chronological checks are 1964 and 1972.
The absence of detail may reflect summary conventions rather than a lack of surviving documentation. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.
How to read it
Use the entry as an orientation point, then follow its citations and revision history. Names, dates and institutional relationships should be checked against the original record.
- Subject orientation
- Search vocabulary
- Locating named sources
The closest primary source, responsible institution and strongest cited specialist reference.
Three-step research path
- Establish the record: confirm the title “MV Clansman (1964)”, its source revision and the description used here.
- Expand the search: follow MV Clansman (1964) primary sources, MV Clansman (1964) archive and Clansman research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
- Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.
Questions for further research
- Which source most directly establishes the central claim about “MV Clansman (1964)”?
- Which cited source is closest to the event, object or claim?
- Which institution is responsible for the underlying evidence?
Search terms from this dossier
This entry incorporates text from “MV Clansman (1964)” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.