Iona 1864

on May 31, 2015

When Master William Hutcheson performed the naming ceremony on the new Iona as she slid down the ways on 10th May, 1864, from the yard of J. & G. Thomson, it was the start of an era that lasted over 70 years. The new ship was built for Messrs. D. Hutcheson & Co. who would employed her on the “Royal Route” sailing from the Broomielaw to Ardrishaig. She was 255 ft long by 26 ft broad and had deck-saloons with alleyways around them that had been removed from her predecessor when that steamer was converted to a blockade-runner for the Confederates in the American Civil War. Compared with that steamer, the new Iona was 7 ft longer and six inches broader in the beam. The increased breadth of the steamer provided a little more space for passengers between the bulwarks and the deck saloons. Immediately after her launch, the hull was towed to Finnieston Quay where her engines, also...

Early Clyde Steamboats II

on Apr 27, 2015

In September 1812, hard on the heels of Comet, her first rival Elizabeth was announced. The following intimation was published in the Glasgow Herald of 25th September. “We are glad to have it in our power to inform the public that a gentleman of this city is at present erecting a flat-bottomed Steam-Boat at Port Glasgow, of 12 horse-power, under the superintendence of an able engineer, upon a much improved principle, both with respect to the quickness of sailing and the accommodation of passengers. It is to be so constructed so that neither wind nor tide will prevent its sailing at a certain hour–a circumstance which will be most beneficial to the public. The boat, we understand, will be ready to start in about three or four weeks.” The Elizabeth, was launched in November, 1812, and she began sailing on the Greenock station on 9th March 1813, again from the yard of John...

Early Clyde Steamboats I

on Apr 26, 2015

Henry Bell was born at Torphichen in 1767 and, after a solid but unspectacular education, he tried his hand to various professions with little distinction before returning to Glasgow in 1790 where he spent several years as a joiner. Towards the end of the century, Bell became interested in the application of steam to ship propulsion and was in contact with Symington who was experimenting at this time with the Charlotte Dundas on the Forth and Clyde Canal. Henry Bell To escape the squalour of urban life, many of the better-off Glaswegians were following the fashion set by the Prince of Wales of “taking the waters.” Favourite places for this practise were Largs, Gourock and the town of Helensburgh that had been laid down as a model town in the latter part of the eighteenth century by Sir James Colquhoun but had failed to attract any industry. In 1808, Henry Bell moved to the recently...

The Teetotal Steamer—Ivanhoe

on Apr 5, 2015

Drunkenness and unruly behaviour on the river steamers of the Clyde were problems that “respectable” working class folk had to deal with in the period leading up to 1880. In that year, a syndicate was formed by Mr. Alexander Allan of the Allan Line, Mr. George Smith and Captain James Brown, both of the City Line, Mr. Robert Shankland, of Greenock and Captain James Williamson to obtain and run a steamboat run on temperance principles. Captain James Williamson, one of three sons of Captain Alexander Williamson of the “Turkish Fleet” was to manage the company and was to command the new steamer Ivanhoe for nine seasons until he assumed management of the Caledonian Steam Packet Company. Drinking on a river steamer—frowned upon! The new steamer was to sail on one of the most attractive excursions from Helensburgh to Whiting Bay on the Island of Arran by way of Rothesay and the Kyles of Bute,...

Lord of the Isles—1877

on Mar 15, 2015

Lord of the Isles in her first season off Inveraray (George Washington Wilson) In the middle of the 1870s, the ducal seat of Inveraray was poorly served by steamboats. David Hutcheson provided the flagship Iona on the important tourist link with Tarbert and Ardrishaig, but the upper part of Lochfyne was relegated to the slow Inveraray Castle and Mary Jane which were mainly concerned with goods traffic and spent a whole day on the one way journey, returning the next, reminiscent of the 1840s. Indeed both steamers on the route had been built in that decade. Inveraray around 1865 In 1875, the Mary Jane was withdrawn and converted into the Glencoe for use as a tourist steamer on the west coast, leaving the Inveraray Castle to provide three sailings a week to Inveraray. Inveraray Castle (Robertson Gourock) The fastest route to Inveraray involved sailing to Lochgoilhead and then traveling by...

Columba

on Feb 27, 2015

  In her day, the Columba was a magnificent vessel and is perhaps the best known of the steamers that ever sailed on the Clyde. Launched from the yard of J. & G. Thomson at Clydebank on April 11th, 1878, she was over 301 feet long by 27 feet broad and 9 feet in depth, dimensions that were not exceeded for a century. She had a simple oscillating two-cylinder engine served by four boilers that propelled her at 18 knots on her daily schedule from the Broomielaw to Ardrishaig and back. While her engine room was rather old fashioned, in every other way, Columba reached the forefront of convention. Her saloons, fore and aft, were the full width of the hull providing excellent accommodation for her passengers, and her passengers ranged from the simple highlander to the elite of British society making its way to the shooting and fishing estates on the West Coast, to foreign tourists...