©Glasgow Museums by permission www.glasgowlife.org.uk/museums/riverside
This magnificent painting by Robert Salmon, now in the Riverside Museum, shows the Broomielaw in 1832 with an American ship among the excursion steamboats and coastal sailing craft. A most striking feature is the funnel colourings of the steamboats. Were the funnels of some of the steamboats really striped like barber-poles? Most opinion is that this is an example of artistic license. Perhaps the stay rings of the funnels were painted in a contrasting colour to the main funnel colour. Robert Napier’s steamers had red funnels with a black top and the stay-rings painted black and from that beginning evolved the colours of Cunard and those of David MacBrayne. Other vestiges that extended into the photographic era can be found in the early colours of Keith and Campbell on the Holy Loch where the black funnels had white stay-rings and the Gareloch where the red funnels also had white stay-rings.
Garelochhead (Joseph Swan)
However, in addition to the Salmon painting, there is evidence in engravings dating around 1830 that bold colour contrasting funnels prevailed. These engravings also show that contrasting colours on funnels commonly were much broader than the stay-rings. The engraving of Garelochhead shows a steamboat with bold alternating colors that in contemporary coloured versions are red and white, reminiscent of the Keith and Campbell colours.
What could have led to such bold expressions of steamboat identity? The most obvious answer lies with the proliferation of steamboats on different routes connecting with passengers at ferrying points. With west of Scotland weather; rain, mist and fog on the river, easy recognition of a steamboat at a distance by its funnel was important. Even as late as the 1850s and 1860s there were complaints in the letters-to-the-editors columns that steamboats changing routes but not their funnel colors led to confusion.
Broomielaw (J Scott)
By the 1830s, there were a number of well-established colour schemes for colours. The original black of the Comet was carried on by the Clyde Shipping Co., and Messrs Burns. The Castle Company used a black funnel topped with black and a white band.
Castle Company Steamer at Rothesay (J Swan)
The Millport steamers had two narrower white bands on a black funnel while the Lochgoil Company had a red black-topped funnel with two narrow white bands interspersed with a black band. The Campbeltown Company had the black-red-black while the Dumbarton Company sported the black-white-black sequence.
Why then did bold striped funnel colours more or less disappear? The most obvious reason is that the company or companies that used them discontinued business. If the Keith and Campbell record is significant as a remnant of bold striping on the funnels, then perhaps some were steamers that sailed to the Gareloch and Holy Loch. This might in turn suggest a connection with the steamboats of Mr David Napier or Dr. John Stevenson both of whom were steamboat owners in the 1830s and whose steamboats had no direct surviving lineage.
Greenock