Loch Lomond Steamboats in Mid-Victorian Years

on Jun 1, 2023

A previous article details the development of the Lochlomond Steam-boat Company to 1855. At that time, the Company had two steamers, Prince Albert, built in 1850, with a flush deck, and Queen Victoria, built in 1852 to incorporate the engines of the old Waterwitch. She had a raised quarter-deck that gave her better saloon accommodation. On the Loch itself, there were piers at all the calling places. The route ran from Balloch to the Inverarnan Canal, where connections with coaches to Perthshire and the north were made. At Tarbert, there were coach connections to Inveraray, Oban and the west, and to Arrochar where the Dumbarton steamers called to provide a circular tour from Glasgow. At Inversnaid, there were connections with the Trossachs tour and Loch Katrine. That year, a consortium of interested hotel proprietors and the Lochlomond Company shared the cost of a new steamer, Rob Roy,...

To Inveraray by the Loch Eck Route

on May 1, 2023

It was David Napier, one of the pioneers of steamships on the Clyde, who opened up the route to Inveraray by Loch Eck and Strachur. In 1827, he placed the iron-bottomed Aglaia on Loch Eck and the old Marion from Loch Lomond, renamed Thalia, to sail between Strachur and Inveraray. In 1829, he introduced steam carriages on the connecting roads from his pier at Kilmun to the foot of the Loch and from its head to Strachur. The steam carriages were quickly withdrawn as too heavy for the road surfaces, but the route proved popular with coaches instead of the steam carriages, and the whole road along the side of Loch Eck was improved at this time. At the end of the season in 1835, Napier sold his steamboats on the Clyde and moved his enterprise to London. Among the steamboats sold was the Aglaia, and her subsequent adventures on Loch Fyne as Strachur, and on the Clyde as the James Gallacher...

Wartime on the Cameron Estate

on Apr 5, 2023

After war was declared on September 3rd, 1939, the local authorities in the Vale of Leven got into action. The invasion of Poland had highlighted the dangers to the civilian population of bombing from the air, and measures were immediately put in place to safeguard lives and property. Notable public buildings such as schools, the labour exchange in Leven Street, the Henry Brock Hospital, and the police station in Hill Street were surrounded by sand-bags. Alexandria Police Station in Hill Street (Ian M‘Caffary, Vale Memories and Banter) Shops had strips of paper glued to their windows to prevent shards of glass flying in the event of a bombing. The blackout was enforced; and kerbs, lamp-posts and telegraph poles had reflecting stripes painted on them to aid walking and driving in the dim lighting that was allowed. However in February 1940, new restricted gas lighting was introduced at...

Marchioness of Lorne of 1891

on Mar 2, 2023

By the summer of 1890, the Caledonian Steam Packet Company had established a strong position in capturing the bulk of the daily traffic to the Clyde coast. Frequent service from Gourock and Wemyss Bay to Rothesay, Millport, Dunoon, Cowal and the Holy Loch piers with fast and comfortable steamers brought a positive response from the public. In the lower Firth, the service to Arran from Ardrossan by the new Duchess of Hamilton was a great improvement on the opposition’s Scotia. However, the Duchess was a summer butterfly, laid up for the winter, and the provision of a steamer capable of withstanding the rigours of the winter crossing was high on the priority list for the Company. In October, the order was placed for a steamer that was quite a revolution. The hull was constructed by Messrs Russell & Co., of Port Glasgow. She was of similar dimensions of her quasi-sisters built the...

Fairlie Pier

on Feb 6, 2023

The village of Fairlie, just south of Largs, lies in the shelter of the Cumbraes and was long a summer resort of wealthy Glasgow merchants and lawyers who built villas on the hills behind the row of fishermen’s cottages that fronted the beach. The feudal land-owner was the Earl of Glasgow whose Kelburn Castle is the major estate in the district. Fairlie was a ferry call by the Millport and Ayr steamboats, but traffic was never sufficient to merit the construction of a pier until the Glasgow and South Western Railway planned a branch-line to Largs. Kelburn Castle Apart from fishing, boat building by the Fife family began at Fairlie at the beginning of the nineteenth century. The boatyard produced fishing boats and small trading sloops and smacks, and, for more wealthy clients, yachts and cutters. In 1814, an early steamboat, Industry, came from the yard of John & William Fife, and...

A brush with Samuel Walters

on Jan 4, 2023

I recently had occasion to re-examine some of the cartes-de-visite that I accumulated over the years by the renowned marine artist Samuel Walters. He was very active in the middle of the nineteenth century. Most of his work is focused on the Mersey, and I had not paid much attention to the subject matter, but I decided to do a little more research as I have to hand the biography, “Samuel Walters—Marine Artist,” by A. S. Davidson, published by Jones-Sands, Coventry, in 1992. I will return to the reasons for my renewed interest towards the end of the article, but will begin with an incident that I knew little about. One of the cdvs features a painting of the barque, Lotty Sleight that exploded in the Mersey on January 15, 1864. The explosion created a sensation on Merseyside and a quick reference to Samuel Walter’s biography, reveals that the photograph of the painting was registered...

Corrie Ferry

on Dec 21, 2022

A few miles north of Brodick on the Island of Arran is the village of Corrie. Strung out along the rocky coast with no natural bay but there are natural inlets where at one point a jetty and at another, a quay, provide some shelter for fishing boats and trading craft. For many years there was a trade in lime from mines in the vicinity. The village is particularly picturesque and early attracted visitors as the most direct route for ascending Goat Fell, the tallest peak in the Arran mountains. The early steamboats to the Island, belonging to the Castle Company in the 1820s, sailed from Glasgow and Rothesay for Brodick and Lamlash and would have passed along the shoreline close to the village. It seems likely that passengers for Corrie would have been landed there by ferry, either from the ship’s boat or from a wherry setting out from the shore. Like the rest of the Island, the village...

Port Bannatyne

on Nov 17, 2022

Kames Bay in Bute, and its associated Castle, appear early in the written history of Bute, coming into the ownership of the Bannatyne family before the fifteenth century. In the late eighteenth century, James Bannatyne is recorded to have been laird with a benevolent attitude to his tenants, but doing little to improve the estate beyond the planting of trees. He died in 1786, unmarried, and the estate passed to his nephew, William MacLeod, an advocate in Edinburgh, who became Lord Advocate in 1799. William took a more active interest in the estate and improved the roads through statute labour, and also, in 1801, built a stone quay. However, William, or Lord Bannatyne as he was called, was living beyond his means, and in 1810 the estate was sold to James Hamilton, another Edinburgh advocate, who began selling off many of the assets. James Hamilton died in 1849 and in 1854, his son, Rev....

Our River Steamers—1887

on Nov 5, 2022

The following article was serialized in “The Evening News” in the summer of 1887, the year before the Great Exhibition in Glasgow of 1888. It contains the reminiscences, memories and results of conversations of an unknown author who had a deep interest in the Clyde and its steamers. It was the intention of the author to publish the work as a small booklet but as far as I can discover, no such booklet was produced. There are eleven articles that appeared on successive Saturdays. The newspaper received many “Letters to the Editor,” and these are collected in the twelfth article, together with the author’s responses. Some point out errors of fact in the article, and there are undoubtedly many of them. I have corrected a few that are elaborated in the letters, but otherwise the text is left as it appeared in the newspaper. The drawn illustrations are also those contained in the original...

Steamboat Traffic on the Clyde—Article VIII

on Nov 3, 2022

“Steamboat Traffic on the Clyde “Article VIII “After much desultory talk, and not a little gossip, by devious and hitherto unfrequented ways, we have reached the concluding paper of this series. Before bidding a final adieu to our public, we may as well disburden our memories of a few stray facts which we did not mention in their natural place, as they have only recently come to our knowledge. Not the least interesting of these relates to the first comet and may be accepted as authentic:—Among the passengers who were bold enough to embark on board Bell’s little steamer on her first regular trio was a certain Glasgow merchant, Mr Bryce, formerly of Parkhall, the estate now possessed, we believe, by Mr Michael Connal, of this city. Mr Bryce would hardly have ventured on board if he had not been almost forced to do so by Henry Bell, an intimate friend of his. The first...