MV Jupiter (1974)
MV Jupiter approaching Dunoon with passengers for the 2009 Cowal Highland Gathering.
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| History | |
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 United Kingdom
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| Name: | MV Jupiter |
| Namesake: | Jupiter and earlier vessels, MV Jupiter |
| Operator: | Caledonian MacBrayne |
| Port of registry: | Glasgow |
| Route: | |
| Builder: | James Lamont & Co, Port Glasgow |
| Yard number: | 418 |
| Launched: | 27 November 1973 |
| Maiden voyage: | 19 March 1974 |
| Out of service: | 12 October 2010 |
| Identification: |
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| Fate: | Scrapped in Grena, Denmark. |
| General characteristics | |
| Tonnage: | |
| Length: | 66.45 m (218 ft) |
| Beam: | 13.8 m (45 ft) |
| Draft: | 2.41 m (8 ft) |
| Depth: | 4 m (13 ft) |
| Installed power: | 2 × Mirrlees Blackstone 4SCSA 8-cylinder diesel engines, 1000 bhp each |
| Propulsion: | 2 Voith Schneider propellers, one at each end of the hull, on the centreline |
| Speed: | approximately 12 kn (22 km/h) |
| Capacity: | 531 passengers, 38 cars |
| Crew: | 10 |
| Notes: | |
MV Jupiter was a passenger and vehicle ferry in the fleet of Caledonian MacBrayne in the Firth of Clyde, Scotland. She was the oldest of three "streakers" and the third River Clyde steamer to bear the name 'Jupiter'. Her open car deck was accessible by stern and side ramps ro-ro. She entered service in 1974, and operated the Gourock to Dunoon crossing for much of her career. In 2006, she became the oldest vessel in the CalMac fleet and continued in service with them until 2010. Jupiter was sold for breaking in 2011.
MV Jupiter was the first of a new generation of car ferries built in the 1970s to serve the routes on the Firth of Clyde. These ships came to be nicknamed the "Streakers" because of their greater speed (compared to what had served the area’s routes previously) and superb manoeuvrability (due to her novel propulsion units, which greatly reduced loading and unloading times at each end of her route).
Jupiter incorporated a large open car deck towards the stern, with enclosed passenger accommodation and services towards the bow across three decks. Her design was of the roll-on/roll-off type (but not drive through), with cars driving on via either the stern ramp or via one of the ramps amidships that lower to port and starboard respectively.
The ship housed two passenger lounges, one with a cafeteria. There was crew accommodation on the upper deck.
The ship sports a “flying bridge”, an additional deck directly above the main bridge with platforms extending to port and starboard to allow crew better views of the ship’s approach to piers during docking manoeuvres. The flying bridge was not an original feature of the Jupiter; it was an innovation integral to the design of younger sister ship MV Juno (launched in September 1974) that was felt so useful it was retrofitted into Jupiter during her first annual refit.
Alongside her younger sister ship, MV Juno, and the third “streaker”, MV Saturn, Jupiter operated the Upper Firth routes from the mid 70s. Jupiter primarily operated the Gourock to Dunoon crossing on the upper firth. For much of her first decade of operation, the phrase "Gourock-Dunoon Ferry" was emblazoned on her hull. Following government rule that the Calmac Gourock-Dunoon service was to be limited to one sailing per hour Jupiter was displaced and operated peak services between Ardrossan-Brodick to assist the ageing vessel operating that service until 1984. She also operated the Wemyss Bay to Rothesay route slightly further downriver from Gourock, regularly from 1986.
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