A history of a famous tall ship and her global travels featured in a fascinating talk recently.

At the March meeting of the Opportunities in Retirement Group, members were delighted to welcome Mr Allan Blackwood, speaking on ‘The Story of the Glenlee, Glasgow Riverside Museum’s Tall Ship’.

This ship was built by Anderson Rodger in Port Glasgow and launched in 1896. She set sail for her maiden voyage to Liverpool and then loaded with general cargo to Portland, Oregon. She traded as a tramp ship for 23 years carrying cargo from Cape of Good Hope to Australia via Cape Horn, changing ownership twice and being renamed Islamount.

In 1919 she was bought by the Star of Italy Shipping Company and renamed Clarastella. At this time she was repaired and fitted with two diesel engines. Later she was bought by the Spanish Military Navy School and used as a sail training ship for many years. Again she was renamed Galatea. She remained in Spain for more than 47 years but after this time she was in such poor condition it was decided to scrap her until she was rescued by naval architect Sir John Brown and brought back to the Clyde.

Most of the ship, apart from the hull, had to be stripped and rebuilt and she was then given back her original name Glenlee.

After sailing round the world six times and round Cape Horn sixteen times the Glenlee is now berthed at Glasgow’s Riverside Museum as a tourist attraction offering educational programmes and events including exhibitions.

The next general meeting will be held on Thursday 6 April in Clark Memorial Church Hall at 2pm when members will be entertained by the OIR Drama Group. Please note this meeting is on Thursday not Wednesday.

* The OIR is the over 50s group have a full programme of activities, whether you want to learn new skills, meet new people, or keep active. Age is very much just a number.

Membership is around 600, drawn mostly from Largs, Skelmorlie, Wemyss Bay, Fairlie and West Kilbride.

The organisation exists to encourage interesting activities for those who have retired, or who may be thinking about it. Most activity groups depend on the initiative, skills and voluntary contributions of individual members.

Activities include, art, bridge, calligraphy, carpet bowls, cycling, dancingm drama, hill walking, Italian, country dancing, digital photography, badminton and computing. For more details, go to www.oirlargs.org.uk