In the Post Office Directory for Glasgow for 1838-1839 there is an intriguing entry referring to a steamboat James Gallacher of 25 tons, listed as sailing to Dalmuir. Who was James Gallacher and why was there a steamboat carrying passengers to Dalmuir? To add to the intrigue, in “The Fouling and Corrosion of Iron Ships” (1867) by Charles F.T. Young, the James Gallacher is claimed to be none other than the Aglaia, built by David Napier in 1827 and reputed to be the first iron steamer. Young notes that Aglaia had an iron bottom, and wooden sides above water, and that her dimensions were; length, 62ft 8in; breadth, 13ft 0in; depth, 4ft 6in; gross tonnage, 49 and 36/94 tons. Is there really a connection between the Aglaia and the James Gallacher?
In 1826 Napier had purchased the estate of Glenshellish at the north end of the Loch Eck and built Kilmun pier to which he ran his Clyde steamers, opening up the Loch Eck route to Inveraray. Placing the Aglaia on Loch Eck and a further steamer, Thalia, on Loch Fyne formed part of the connecting links on this new route. Almost a decade later and after a series of negative incidents on the Clyde, including an explosion in the steamer Earl Grey, Napier offered his fleet on the Clyde for sale in 1835. This included the small iron steamer at that time lying in the River Eachaig. It is certainly possible that it was purchased to become the James Gallacher but this outcome is not without controversy. Napier’s biography indicates that Aglaia sailed on Loch Eck for many years before being replaced. In “David Napier and the Kilmun Connection,” Ann Millar cites a report from the “Cowal Watchman” in 1878, coinciding with the date when the steamer Fairy Queen was placed on Loch Eck. The report recounts that the Aglaia did not leave Loch Eck but “some malicious person scuttled her.” The date of the scuttling is not reported but was apparently substantiated by the recovery of a stern-post from a boat by some fishermen. A malicious scuttling might well have taken place. David Napier was not a popular figure in the neighbourhood.
Loch Eck around 1830 with Aglaia in the distance in an engraving by Joseph Swan.
A number of Napier’s steamers, including the Kilmun and the repaired Earl Grey were purchased by the North British Steam Navigation Company managed by Hugh Price and in June, 1836, were advertised to continue to run to Kilmun where a coach connected with Strachur. There is no mention of the Aglaia on Loch Eck but a steamer was shortly promised for the link between Strachur and Inveraray. In July, the steamer, Strachur was advertised. Initially it connected Inveraray with Strachur but in the middle of the month, an additional connection between Inveraray with Cairndow and a coach to Tarbet on Loch Lomond was offered.
The ferry across Loch Fyne was not without competition. Also in mid-July, a new steamer, Argyll, connected with the Lochgoilhead route coach at St. Catherine’s. It seems likely that the new route to Cairndow was an attempt to stem this opposition. At any rate, the venture seems not to have been very successful as the Loch Lomond connection, an early sailing from Tarbet, was withdrawn before the end of the season. The Lock Eck route apparently fared little better as the steamer Kilmun was offered for sale the following year along with the rights to Kilmun Pier.
The Strachur’s tenure on Loch Fyne was short-lived and she was advertised for sale on June 7, 1837, when lying at Glasgow above the bridges. The description is significant:—“She is well adapted for a ferry or passage boat across rivers or arms of the sea, or for tracking vessels, having good accommodation for passengers and goods; she is iron-built, almost forty tons burden, and having lately undergone a thorough repair, is, with her machinery in the best order, and ready for working at an hour’s notice.” The upset price was £350. Was this little iron steamer the Aglaia?
Charles Todd and his partner Samuel Higginbotham were cotton spinners who conducted their business at Springfield on the south side of the Clyde, just downriver from where Windmillcroft Quay was later built. In 1837, Todd had also recently embarked on a new enterprise at Dalmuir, a soda works where he was manufacturing sulfuric acid and bleaching powder. Around June of that year, Todd purchased a steamer to facilitate the transport of goods between Springfield and Dalmuir and renamed the little steamer after the works manager at Dalmuir, James Gallacher. It seems likely that this was the Strachur as the dates match very well.
Todd’s Mill at Springfield from Glasgow in the Forties
It was almost exactly a year later, on Thursday 14th of June 1838, the James Gallacher or James Gallocher as she is also known gained notoriety when her boiler burst at Renfrew Wharf with fatal consequences. An account appeared in the “Glasgow Herald” the following day:—
“About five o’clock on yesterday afternoon as the James Gallacher steamer, which sails between Glasgow and Dalmuir works, stopped to land passengers at the Railway Wharf at Renfrew, the boiler burst, and the steam having rushed into the cabin, all the passengers below were severely scalded. The following are the names and particulars ascertained of the persons injured, viz. :—Chas. Jennings, a seaman belonging to the Puella of Holyhead, Wales, not expected to live. Mrs Lachlan, Dalmuir, not expected to live; and her child, an infant, died an hour after. James Leckie, Kilpatrick, dangerous. Charles M‘Lean engineer, Dalmuir, dangerous. Morgan Jones, a seaman belonging to the Puella, lying at Dalmuir, face scalded, and back hurt after jumping overboard. A woman and a boy scalded, who were taken home, names unknown.
“All the others were carried up to Mr Woodrow’s Inn, where every possible attention was paid by Mr and Mrs Woodrow, assisted by those who happened to be present at the time. Medical aid was also sent for to Renfrew, but only one surgeon being got, the railway carriage set off to Paisley for more assistance, and several Paisley and Glasgow surgeons, who happened to be there at the time, came immediately down, and rendered every possible alleviation to the unfortunate sufferers. How the accident occurred has not been ascertained, but, except a rent in the boiler, the vessel is very little injured. In justice to the regular steam-vessels on the Clyde, it is but fair to mention that the James Gallacher is a small strange-looking vessel, and not known at all in the river as one who carries passengers: her business having been understood to be merely to convey goods for a private company, not even touching at the usual steam-boat quay.”
On the following Monday, there are further details of what transpired with the victims over the weekend:—
“In our last we announced the melancholy loss of life which took place, in consequence of the bursting of the boiler of the James Gallacher steamer, at Renfrew Wharf. Since then Charles Jennings, the seaman and Mrs. Lachlan, (whose child was also scalded to death,) have both died in great agony. The man, James Leckie, whom we reported as dangerous, is not expected to live. At the time of the accident, there were a great number of people on the wharf, who rendered the most prompt aid in extricating the sufferers from their painful situation. This was accomplished with considerable difficulty, in consequence of being unable to approach the unfortunate individuals without the most imminent danger of being injured by the scalding fluid. The screams of the sufferers, and their attempts to leave the vessel by the small cabin windows, were frightful in the extreme. Ultimately the whole of them were got out, more or less scalded, or otherwise hurt. A woman, whose name is unknown, was scalded about the face and hands, and a boy of the name of Gallacher was also scalded in several parts of the body, but neither of them so severely as to be unable to be conveyed home on the night of the casualty. Morgan Jones, the other boy, was but slightly scalded, but he had several of his ribs fractured, and his back hurt, in attempting to make his escape overboard by the cabin window. The utmost praise is due to Mr. and Mrs. Woodrow of the Railway Inn, for the ready manner in which they threw their house open for the accommodation of the sufferers and their relatives, as well as for the personal assistance which they rendered. These parties, along with Dr. Pattison, sat up the whole of the night, and gave their patients every assistance in their power. Misses Pattison and Hutcheson of Renfrew were no less indefatigable in rendering every possible alleviation to the unfortunate sufferers. From the number of people on the wharf at the time of the accident, had the steam rushed upwards instead of the direction which it took towards the cabin, the consequences would have been more disastrous and fatal.
“It is somewhat singular that while those in the cabin suffered so much, all the people who were on the deck at the time escaped without injury. As a proof of the quantity of steam and the intense heat that was in the cabin, we may mention that after Mrs Lachlan’s child had been removed to the inn, and when in the act of being stripped, its clothes were so very hot as to burn severely the hands of a man who took them off. How the accident occurred has not yet been clearly ascertained, but the boiler, we are told, was an old one, almost worn out, and had been repeatedly tinkered. With the exception of a rent in the boiler, the damage done to the vessel is very trivial. The crew consisted of only three individuals—the captain, steersman, and engineer.
“In must prove so far consolatory to the absent friends of the sufferers, that no pains were spared in alleviating their distress. The medical aid, as we have shown, was prompt and highly efficient, and every thing which humanity could dictate was done. The Railway Manager, besides sending the engine off express for medical assistance, sent it off a second time in the evening to Paisley to procure a supply of cotton for the use of the sufferers. The accident is said to have been attributable more to the insufficiency of the boiler than to any carelessness on the part of the engineer. As this, however, has become a subject of legal enquire, we shall not at present say more.”
Renfrew, Sunday, June 17.
“The old man James Leckie, from Kilpatrick, died last night at eleven o’clock, and at the request of his wife and daughter who were present, a coffin was immediately procured, and by the kindness of Mr. Gallacher, who has shewn the most anxious and unwearied attention throughout the whole of the melancholy business, the body was removed to Kilpatrick in a wagon, his carriage also taking down the afflicted relatives. Mr Gallacher’s own son, who is mentioned above as being scalded, was apparently recovering on Saturday, and Charles McLean, who was reported dangerous, was doing well on Saturday. Besides those we have mentioned as being most attentive to the sufferers, it would be unfair to omit Provost Stewart and Mr. McDonald, both of them elders of the parish church—the latter of whom prayed with the dying man Leckie in the most fervent and affecting manner not 10 minutes before he breathed his last, and both joined in prayer with the relatives and others present after the body was put in the coffin. The deaths altogether are now four, viz., Mrs Lachlan and her child, Charles Jennings, and James Leckie.”
Perhaps the explosion of the James Gallacher would have escaped much notice had it not been for a similar explosion of the Hull steamer Victoria on the Thames on the same day when five were killed. Reaction from the public was swift. A week later a letter to the Glasgow Argus raised the issue of boiler safety. It concluded with “The steamers on the Clyde, and indeed throughout Great Britain, have long been famed for their safety; and the bursting of a boiler on board any of them was considered almost an impossibility: that the late untoward events should have militated against them, is to be regretted, but it is hard that all should suffer for the errors of one individual; for we are enabled to state that the machinery and boilers of those steamers which have lately exploded with such awful consequences—namely, those of the Earl Grey, the Victoria, and James Gallacher—were manufactured and planned by one individual.” The boilers and machinery of the first two named were products of David Napier, suggesting that the James Gallacher was also originally equipped by Napier.
The subsequent inquiry into these and other mishaps reveals more details. The James Gallacher set out from Glasgow about four in the afternoon and arrived at Renfrew shortly before five. Her crew comprised the master named Scott, the pilot or steersman, 24 year-old Edward Stevenson and engineer, a young lad of 17 by the name of William Martin. Also on board was James Gallacher himself. He was travelling to Renfrew with his eldest son, nine year-old James, and two girls who were going to school in the town. The steamer had stopped to pick up a passenger at Renfrew Ferry at which time the master had removed one of the three weights on the safety valve, the normal practice, and the steamer was blowing-off steam from that point until she arrived at the Wharf a little downstream. While the engineer, who also served as the fireman, was engaged with the engines and the steamer came alongside with the first lines ashore, the boiler burst below its water line and there was a rush of steam and scalding water that forced the boards between the boiler and the entrance to the cabin, injuring those inside. The only escape was through the cabin windows.
The boiler had recently been repaired with a steel plate and the boiler-maker reckoned the boiler was older than the steamer. It was apparently common practice to re-use boilers. For example, the ill-fated boiler for the Earl Grey had been taken out of the Liverpool and North Wales steamer St Winifred and dated to 1823, nine years older than the steamer. There is no record of the origin of the boiler of the James Gallacher. Crucial evidence came from the engineer in charge of Todd & Higgenbotham’s steam engines. When the steamer was first purchased a year before, he had inspected the boiler and provided just two weights for the safety valve, calculated so that boiler pressure would not exceed three and a half pounds per square inch. At some intervening time a third weight had been added. This caused the spindle of the safety valve to bend and prompted the engineer to replace two of the weights with lighter ones removed from the Caledonia steamer. However, the pressure, even with just two weights in place was five pounds per square inch, too great for the ageing boiler.
Although the evidence is circumstantial, a case can be made for connecting the James Gallacher with the Aglaia. Iron construction must have been uncommon in small second-hand steamers at the time and the Napier connection was echoed not only in the contemporary Glasgow newspapers but in more technical works the following year. As for the steamer, apart from her boiler she was little damaged by the explosion and it is more than likely that she found further employment. Under what name and circumstance only further research may tell.