15.08.2025 - Royal Patron Celebrates a Special Birthday Friends of TS Queen Mary extend our congratulations and best wishes to Her Royal Highness The Princess Royal on the occasion of her 75th birthday. As our Royal Patron, we are especially appreciative of Her Royal Highness's invaluable support, advocacy, and steadfast commitment to the TS Queen Mary restoration campaign. FoTSQM
19.07.2025 - Dales Marine Special Event We were delighted to be invited by Dales Marine Services to their special hospitality afternoon at the Tall Ships Aberdeen event. Earlier this year Dales Marine did a wonderful job preparing and repainting TS Queen Mary’s starboard side, in preparation for our visit from Her Royal Highness The Princess Royal. We are looking forward to TS Queen Mary’s next trip “doon the watter” to complete the necessary structural steelwork repairs. FoTSQM
14.07.2025 - Summer Maintenance Update Our volunteers have been taking advantage of the recent hot weather and have been advancing the project to coat TS Queen Mary's new steel decks. The team, lead by Captain Mark Yeomans, have made extremely good progress on both the boat deck and promenade decks. In today's photos you can see the results of the hard work, and the incredible visual difference the final top coat makes to the plates (provided by Tata Steel UK). As always we are very grateful to AkzoNobel for donating the new paint coatings and to Aggreko for the on-shore power solution. If you would like to get involved with the painting work (or with one of the other jobs on board) please send an email to: [email protected] FoTSQM @followers #britishroyalfamily #engineering #maritime #photooftheday
15.06.2025 - Congratulations to John Watson CBE! We are delighted that one of our most generous donors, Glasgow businessman John Watson, has been recognised in the King’s birthday honours by being awarded a CBE for his services to education and charity. John has long been a supporter of the restoration of TS Queen Mary and his Watson Foundation has made several significant grants to the project, including lifeline funding during the Covid period. We are delighted that his philanthropy is being acknowledged in this way and we extend our sincere congratulations on this richly deserved reward. FOTSQM
09.06.2025 - The Princess Royal's Charities Forum We were honoured to participate in The Princess Royal's Charities Forum, hosted at Buckingham Palace in advance of Her Royal Highness' 75th birthday. The forum facilitated discussions on crucial topics, including challenges facing the charitable sector, maintaining public trust, and navigating the opportunities and risks of new technologies. Her Royal Highness' keynote address and a drinks reception brought an inspirational day to a close. Further details regarding the event can be found at: https://www.royal.uk/news-and-activity/2025-06-06/the-princess-royal-hosts-charities-forum-at-buckingham-palace FOTSQM
09.05.2025 - Spring Makeover Update Our volunteers have taken advantage of the good weather and have been hard at work on TS Queen Mary's new steel decks. Each plate takes about 1 hour to prepare and paint, and there are 53 to go on the boat deck! In today's photos you can see the hard work underway at the forward end of the deck. We are grateful to AkzoNobel for donating the new paint coatings. If you would like to get involved with painting (or with one of the other many jobs on board!) please send an email to: [email protected]. FoTSQM @followers #britishroyalfamily #engineering #glasgowlive #maritime #photooftheday
26.04.25 - Ship Ahoy! 2025. Scotland’s Maritime Heritage Exhibition Friends of TS Queen Mary is delighted to be among the organisations exhibiting at the annual 'Ship Ahoy!' Maritime Heritage Exhibition TODAY at Summerlee Museum of Scottish Industrial Life. Always a great family day out, entry is FREE and the exhibition (featuring a wide array of steamer models, displays, memorabilia and some fantastic raffle prizes) is open from 10:00 - 16:00. Summerlee Museum of Scottish Industrial Life, Heritage Way, Coatbridge, ML5 1QD FoTSQM @followers
18.04.2025 - TS Queen Mary's "Royal Makeover" Dales Marine Services attended in the first week of April to give TS Queen Mary a "Royal Makeover" in advance of the visit by Her Royal Highness The Princess Royal. The ship was first washed down by volunteers. The skilled team from Dales Marine Services carefully disc'd and prepared the steel, before applying a full coat of paint from stem to stern. In the coming months we hope to have the port side repainted also. You can see in today's photos the transformation that Dales Marine Services have brought about. We are grateful to AkzoNobel for donating the new paint coatings. FoTSQM @followers #britishroyalfamily #engineering #glasgowlive #maritime #photooftheday
16.04.2025 - Queen Mary’s Spring Clean The build up to last week’s wonderful Royal event at Glasgow Science Centre started early in the New Year, with Captain Mark Yeomans (our Head of Marine) overseeing an extensive “spring clean” of Queen Mary. Captain Mark’s team of volunteers undertook an enormous amount of work on board: - Every compartment of the ship was swept and cleaned - The mooring ropes were inspected and changed over as required - A new frame was built for the ship’s passenger gangway - A new winch was installed for the gangway - New lighting was installed throughout the ship - All of the ship's fire extinguishers were replaced - New CCTV was installed - A new temporary bulkhead was built at the aft of the prom deck - New handrails were installed on the prom deck to ensure safe access for our upcoming public tours - The starboard side was washed own in preparation for repainting - The new welds on the boat deck were cleaned and stripe coated - The bulwarks on the boat and prom decks were recoated. In today’s photos you can see a clean and tidy Queen Mary! You can also see our team of volunteers hard at work painting on board. We are very grateful to AkzoNobel for donating all of the new paint coatings. As always, we are also indebted to our fantastic volunteers for undertaking this huge task: Douglas Bell, Bruce Goucher, Andy McCallum, Clare Connellly, Mary Haigh, Barbara Craig, Maurice Dunbar and Andrew Ferguson. The spring cleaning continues, with work progressing on painting Queen Mary's boat deck and internal spaces. If you would like to come and volunteer please email us: [email protected]. All ages and abilities are welcome, and full training will be given (in addition to a paint brush!). FOTSQM
13.04.2025 - Her Royal Highness The Princess Royal Visits TS Queen Mary On 10th April we were honoured to welcome aboard TS Queen Mary our Royal Patron, Her Royal Highness The Princess Royal. Amidst glorious sunshine, Her Royal Highness visited the ship to see first hand the progress that has been made over the last 12 months, and also to meet the supporters, volunteers and funders involved in the restoration. On board TS Queen Mary all of our key partners for the next phase of the project briefed Her Royal Highness. - Alexander Marine Design outlined their work on the ship’s weight and stability, and the drawings and scopes for the completion of structural steel work repairs. - Seaglaze Marine Windows Ltd talked about their intensive work over the last two years completing the designs for the ship’s new windows and how they will be fabricated. - RMK Technical updated Her Royal Highness on progress with designing the ship’s main machinery and systems. - BAE Systems outlined the company’s planned package of support. - Tata Steel UK (represented by Chief Executive Officer, Rajesh Nair) briefed Her Royal Highness on their very generous contribution of steel for the ship’s decks. Her Royal Highness was also introduced to Yannis Calogeras (Marine CEO of Bureau Veritas - Marine & Offshore). We were thrilled to be able to share with Her Royal Highness a preview (kindly provided by WDC Creative) of what TS Queen Mary will look like once she is finished. Iain Sim (Chairman) said: “We were delighted to welcome back our Royal Patron to Glasgow for her fourth event in support of the charity. Our project to restore TS Queen Mary continues to gather pace with significant progress in the last year. We feel very privileged to have HRH The Princess Royal as our Royal Patron, celebrating as it does the ship’s important link with the Royal Family, for which the ship is renowned.” FOTSQM @followers The Royal Family
