I’ve a special liking for the work of the Wishaw photographer, Charles Reid whose photographs of animals, both domestic and wild are delightful. This unusual photograph entitled “Gulls” brings to the fore a sight that was at one time very familiar on the river and estuary of the Clyde; the modest hopper. Designed to take the spoil from the dredging of the river and harbour, hoppers were self-propelled and took the place of mud punts that continued in use until the 1880s and beyond. Mud punts had sufficed when the dredged material was used as fill on the river banks, but with the widening of the river, it was necessary to move the material over much greater distances.
The first of the hoppers came from the yard of Messrs William Simons & Co., Renfrew, in 1862. The vessel could be filled with spoil and then sail to the dumping ground in deep water where the bottom of the hold opened to release the cargo.
Hopper No 1
There were two main dumping grounds, in Loch Long, and at Garroch Head where the Clyde Sewage boats also released their cargo.
Initially there was a fleet of fourteen hoppers, numbered 1-14 built between 1862 and 1871. Four more were added in 1877, and a further four in 1893 bringing the total to twenty two, each successive design with more carrying capacity than the one before. The new century saw replacements in the aging fleet with numbers increased to twenty-eight. The last four were built in the 1950s and 1960s.
The to-and-fro of hoppers off the Cloch
Hopper No 3 at Erskine Ferry
Hopper No 9 heading up river with a Clutha
Hoppers laid up in King George V dock around 1930
Hoppers in Bowling Harbour around 1950 with the coaster Ardchattan
Hoppers in Queen’s Dock around 1960
The humble hopper, with a number and no name was commemorated in a famous poem by J. J. Bell:
The poem celebrates the original No 10 that was built in 1868 by Messrs Simons & Co., at 144 ft and 110 net tons. At the time the poem was written she was nearing the end of her life and was replaced in 1912 by a new No 10 from the yard of Messrs Lobnitz & Co., Renfrew, 200 ft in length and 333 net tons.
The hopper is jealous of the Nathaniel Dunlop, one of the Clyde Pilot boats built at Greenock by Messrs George Brown & Co., in 1904, and replaced by Cumbrae from the same builders in 1936 as the main vessel in the piloting fleet.
Nathaniel Dunlop (Robertson)
Cumbrae (Robertson)
As traffic in the upper river declined, much of the hopper fleet was sold or scrapped in the 1960s and 1970s.
There were two hoppers that did have names. Hopper No 19 and No 21, built in 1893 were taken over by the War Office in 1917 and sold to the US Navy, becoming U.S.S. Nenette, and U.S.S. Rin Tin Tin respectively.
U.S.S. Nenette
They were uses to carry returning troops to transports at Brest in 1918 and were taken across the Atlantic. The names come from the names of raffia dolls that were popular with French children.
John F. Riddell, “Clyde Navigation,” John Donald, Edinburgh, 1979.
Brian Patton, “The Glasgow Navy—the ships of the Clyde Navigation Trust, Part 3: the dredgers and hoppers,” Brian Patton, Foulden, 2016