In Part 5, competition between the Castle Company and the Greenock Railway had led both to invest in the construction of new steamers. The initial three new vessels for the Castle Company were comfortable and fast, but failed to meet the speed of the Pioneer, built for the Railway. An attempt to remedy this with a new Windsor Castle proved to be a failure and she was replaced within a year by the Dunrobin Castle. In the meantime, the Railway Company’s Petrel, surpassed them all. In 1846, there were indications that a truce between the rivals might be possible. Messrs George & James Burns took over the Castle Company, and reached an agreement with the Greenock Railway whereby the Railway steamers were withdrawn. In February of the new year, 1847, the Railway Steamers, Pilot, Pioneer, and Petrel, were taken over by the new owners of the Castle Company. The Maid of Bute was sold for...

In Part 4, the opening of the Greenock Railway had a profound effect on the Castle Company as their main competitor on the Rothesay station was absorbed into a new company, sailing in connection with the railway trains. The steamers of the Castle Company were sold, and the new management had a positive effect, with new construction and a re-opening of the Arran sailings. “New boats” was the cry of 1844. “The Clyde.—From the following preparations for the coming summer traffic, we anticipate still farther improvements in the speed of our communications with the watering-places on the Clyde. We are informed that the Castle Company have ordered two new iron steamers, hull and machinery, from Messrs. Caird & Co., Cartsdyke Foundry, Greenock. The Greenock Railway Company have specifications in the hands of contractors for an iron steamer about the size of the largest river-boats,...

Another pair of articles from The Salt-Water Gazette of 1835, this time featuring the supposed writings of the pier porter at Helensburgh, Mr John Guy. John Guy was indeed, a real character, but the frequent references to the Classics and snippets of Latin and Greek suggests that this humorous piece was a spoof at his expense, written by someone else. It gives some idea of Glasgow humour of the time. Of Helensburgh; Its antiquity, grandeur, and Commerce:—Impartially treated on, by Master John Guy, Steam-boat Porter in that Ilk.—In commencing a subject teeming with magnitude and importance, such as the present, one is apt to get bewildered, and be at a loss what thing first to touch upon. In like manner, an urchin relieved for a season from pedagogued thraldom, and turned loose into Mr. Isaac Baxter’s emporium of taste, with a carte-blanche to put forth his hand and take a certain...

In Part 3, the Castle Steam-Packet Company sold off most their wooden steamer fleet, and replaced them with new iron steamers. There was new competition from the Bute Steam Packet Company on the Rothesay station and the Argyle on the Loch Fyne route. The loss of the Tarbert Castle in a storm left the company vulnerable, and the Arran connections were again discontinued. The lucrative trade through Tarbert to the west highlands and islands by the Maid of Islay was curtailed by the new route pioneered by the Brenda, and then the Shandon, connecting with a track-boat on the Crinan Canal. The imminent opening of the Greenock Railway posed a threat to the Clyde steam-boat services from Glasgow. If there seemed to be some optimism for the coming year among the owners and patrons of Bute Steam Packet Company and the Glasgow, Dunoon, and Kilmun Steam Boat Company, there was feeling of gloom...

I first came across the “Salt-Water Gazette,” when I bought a disbound volume from a book-dealer on speculation that it might contain something of interest. Published by Messrs James Hedderwick & Son, 43, Argyll Street, Glasgow, in weekly parts, on Fridays, over the summer of 1835, it was a one-year wonder of literary contributions and anecdotes to amuse the public as they travelled to and stayed at their summer resorts on the Clyde Coast. As was normal in such ventures, essays, poems, and letters were solicited and from regular correspondents and the readers, and if they were found of sufficient interest, they were published. There were a few serialized accounts, and the one presented here recounts a trip on the Arran Castle from the Broomielaw to Greenock, where the journey was broken to view the launching of a ship, and a meeting with friends and Mr Hedderwick. The...

In Part 2, the reorganization of the Castle steamers into the Castle Steam-Packet Company was noted with the trials and tribulations the company sustained in the face of the cholera epidemic in 1832. The intense competition provided by the plans of David Napier ended when Napier sold his Clyde steamer fleet in 1835 after the boiler of his steamer Earl Grey exploded at Greenock. In 1835, the Castle Steam-Packet Company could boast four steamers: Windsor Castle of 1832, Arran Castle of 1830, Dunoon Castle of 1826, and Inverary Castle of 1820, and continued to ply regularly between Glasgow, Greenock, Gourock, Dunoon, Rothesay, Loch Fyne, and Arran. Their major competitor for the Rothesay and Inveraray trade, David Napier, had offered his steamer fleet for sale, and future prospects for the Castle Company looked excellent. “Steamers for sale.—To be disposed of by public roup, within the...

In the late 1970s, when I returned to my alma mater in Glasgow to work, one of life’s little pleasures was to indulge myself in reading Scottish literature, trying to catch up on what I had missed by largely excluding the Literary Arts from my formal education. Coming from the Vale, I had already been disappointed with a smattering of Smollett; Scott, once the characters were formed, I found too predictable; Hogg, I enjoyed, though, perhaps persevered is a better description; Galt’s “Annals of the Parish,” and “Ayrshire Legatees,” were more to my taste. With my interests in the early development of steam on the Clyde, I was intrigued that Galt had written an account of trips by the Glasgow merchant Thomas Duffle down the Clyde in the Waterloo that formed the basis for “The Steamboat,” serialized in Blackwood’s Edinburgh Magazine in 1821, and published as a novel the following year....