Elegant lady of the waves comes home
The Western Lady III, (pictured) one of the Bay's major maritime landmarks for 60 years, has been saved from being auctioned off at the 11th hour by a local ferry company, which plans to spend tens of thousands of pounds restoring the ship to her former glory.
Along with the Western Lady IV, the Western Lady III was withdrawn from service in Tor Bay in 2006 because of increased maintenance costs and changes in landing stage facilities.
A year later it was sold to a firm in Bournemouth, Dorset, for continuing use as a passenger ferry.
Locals bid a fond farewell to the historic ship when she left the Bay for what was presumed to be the very last time in July 2007.
But thanks to a twist in the tale worthy of an Agatha Christie novel, the vessel is now in the hands of the Greenway Ferry Company.
The company bought the ship on Monday and is planning to bring her to Brixham today for a brief stop-over before heading down to a Cornish boatyard for a major refit.
The plan is to then bring her back into service in mid-July, taking passengers from Torquay and Brixham to Dartmouth and Agatha Christie's former home at Greenway.
The Western Lady III, which the company is planning to re-name, will undergo a full refit programme over five years during the winter months in a bid to fully restore her as a heritage ship.
Operations manager Helen Meacock said: "About 18 months ago I spent the weekend in Bournemouth and I went to see if I could find her, and I had a brief conversation with one of the partners who had bought her.
"Then last Friday an elderly lady came up to me and handed me a phone number which she said I had to ring urgently.
"She had been looking everywhere for me, in Torquay, Paignton and Brixham.
"I don't know who she was but she said she was from Dorset.
"Anyway, I rang the number and I spoke to one of the partners who had bought her. He explained the situation that the boat had been impounded by the Maritime and Coastguard Agency and asked me to go and see her.
Helen went up to Poole Harbour on Monday to see the Western Lady III with Greenway Ferry Company bosses Will Ford and Ross Prowse and skipper John Ford.
"She was moored up against wasteland and in a sorry state," she said.
"It took us until 11pm to find all of the partners, who had become very fragmented, and to agree a price to purchase the vessel and pay off some of her debtors.
"After we found out what had happened to her we knew she had to come home where she belongs because she's part of Brixham and part of our heritage.
"We all have an attachment to her. Will worked on her, as did his mum and dad and our engineer.
"We had been told by the Poole harbourmaster that if we didn't purchase her by Tuesday and inform him first thing in the morning, he would arrest her and she would be sold at auction so we had to act very quickly to make sure that didn't happen."
Helen refused to say how much the company paid for the ship, but said the ferry was in 'tens of thousand pounds worth of debt,' which they have now cleared.
"The most important thing for us at that time was getting her back to Brixham.
"She had been out of service for over a year and has deteriorated badly.
Comment on this story