Lord of the Isles heading up the River Clyde with Dumbarton Rock in the distance With the exception of the Broomielaw and Bridge Wharf, photographs of pleasure steamers at the piers on the River Clyde are quite rare. In latter years, the usual stopping places were the piers at Partick, Govan, Renfrew, Bowling, and, for a brief period, Dumbarton. This article provides some background on the piers and the photographs I have of them. In the early years of steamboat traffic on the river, a journey might begin at a ferry point where the passengers would be rowed out to the passing steamboat by the ferryman. Common points on the river where there were ferries were at Govan; at the mouth of the Kelvin; at the “Water Neb,” the mouth of the Cart at Renfrew; at Dunglass point; and at the West Ferry crossing to Dumbarton. Boarding or disembarking a steamboat from or onto an open rowing ferry-boat...