WELL-KNOWN in the industry for scrapping vessels, as well as boiler making and re-fitting, PC McLeod and Sons shipyard at the east end of the ferry pier at Alloa received the paddle steamer Juno to be broken up in the early 1930s, after a fairly illustrious career as an excursion boat and minesweeper.

On Friday, June 17, 1898, the paddle steamer Juno with her two distinctive side paddles, was launched.

She had been built by Clydebank Engineering and Ship Building, formerly J&G Thomson, which had moved to Clydebank in the 1870s.

The business was sold due to a slump in orders and bought by a consortium in 1897.

Juno was one of the last paddle steamers built by Clydebank Engineering before the yard was taken over by John Brown & Co in 1899.

She measured 245 feet (74.6m) long, 29.1 feet (8.8m) wide with a depth of 9.7 feet (2.9m). She weighted 592 tonnes with compound diagonal engines that produced 325 nhp (nominal horsepower). She reached a speed of 19 knots during her sea trials.

She was purchased by the Glasgow and South Western Railway Company of Glasgow when she was incomplete and still 'on the blocks.'

Juno began working life by providing daily excursions for holiday makers out of Ayr but the outbreak of war in August 1914 meant that she was about to become involved in the war effort.

On January 21, 1915, Juno was requisitioned as a minesweeper. She was assigned to the Firth of Clyde between Ardrossan and Troon then on the lower Firth of Forth based at Granton.

During this time she was re-named HMS Junior and was classed as an Auxilliary Paddle Minesweeper.

Following the cessation of hostilities she was returned to her owners in June 1919 and once again became leisure steamer Juno, but this time working out of Rothesay until the return of the rest of the fleet when she returned to Ayr. However, running the paddle steamer out of season proved expensive so it was decided she would be laid up off-season.

In 1923, her owners sold her and she was purchased by the London, Midland and Scottish Railway Company, Glasgow, who kept her until the end of the 1931 summer season when it was decided she was prohibitively expensive to run. The decision was made to scrap her.

The following year she arrived at Peter Campbell McLeod and Sons and was broken up.