Anyone who has taken passage in the world’s last seagoing paddle steamer, Waverley — on the Clyde, the Bristol Channel, the Solent or Thames estuary — owes a debt to the engineering genius and monumental perseverance of Ian McMillan.
The 1947 vintage paddle steamer, with her graceful raked twin funnels, continues to sail the British coastline each year, and it was McMillan who supervised the rebuild of Waverley which began in 2000. It was yet another triumphant chapter in the struggle for her survival, a saga that had begun in 1974 when she was acquired by the Paddle Steamer Preservation Society (PSPS) from Caledonian MacBrayne for a token £1.
In spite of his eminently Scottish name — his grandfather had originally gone from Greenock on the Clyde to South Wales in search of work — and his 20-year devotion to two Scottish vessels (the other being the motor vessel Balmora l) Ian McMillan was a Welshman through and through.
He was born in 1954 in Barry, the son of William McMillan, himself an engineer, and his wife Moyra, an amateur musician from whom he inherited a love of music. At school in Bridgend he showed the qualities of determination and leadership that were to distinguish his later life.
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The sea and ships fascinated him. He loved the Bristol Channel steamers he saw daily. As a boy he took passage in them as often as pocket money and spare time would allow.
Marine engineering was the only career for him. After studies at Southampton in the early 1970s he went to sea as an engineering cadet with BP. As part of this apprenticeship he was seconded to Kincaids at Greenock. It was here that he made his first acquaintance with the Waverley, turning out for the Saturday volunteer work parties that were part of the battle to preserve her. After several years at sea in oil tankers and after various other jobs he joined Waverley Excursions, the non profit-making company set up by PSBS to run Balmoral and Waverley.
His first assignment as an engineer was on the 1951 vintage diesel ship Prince Ivanhoe. By 1981 she was running Bristol Channel pleasure cruises. But on August 3 that year she struck an uncharted underwater obstacle that tore a 60ft hole in her hull. Severely damaged, she was beached by her captain in Port Eynon Bay on the Gower Peninsula. She was a dead loss.
Her demise affected McMillan deeply, but it did not divert him from his goals in ship preservation. He became superintendent engineer on Waverley and Balmoral, and a powerful force in the drive to preserve these vessels.
He supervised the 2000-03 refit of Waverley which gave her a new lease of life. This included boiler work, improved passenger accommodation and the restoration of her original livery. Above all his personality and enthusiasm for the project infused his fellow workers.
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McMillan’s skills were not just on the technical side. He also had a firm grasp of the company’s commercial activities. He became operational director and later chairman of Waverley Excursions. Somewhat heretically, in the view of some who knew both vessels, he confessed to having a “softer spot” for Balmoral than for Waverley.
McMillan stood down as chairman of Waverley Excursions in 2007 but he continued to interest himself in all aspects of the business. He and his wife Jane enjoyed holidays in France and Switzerland, where they divided their time between the Alps and the lakes. He particularly loved to be afloat in Swiss paddle craft.
He is survived by Jane, who is a civil servant in the Welsh Office in Cardiff, and by their daughter Sara, an insurance underwriter in the City of London.
Waverley’s ensign was flown at half-mast when news of McMillan’s sudden death was received by the company.
Ian McMillan, marine engineer, was born on May 3, 1954. He died on July 19, 2014, aged 60