Helensburgh Quay

on Oct 21, 2015

The coming of the railway to Helensburgh was met with great anticipation, not least among those who saw the prospect of improvements promised to the quay. The magistrates in the town entered into an agreement with the Dumbartonshire Railway Co. who were to provide the funding to upgrade the pier but the collapse in railway funding in the early 1850s meant that the project was delayed. The Dumbartonshire Railway realized that the costs would exceed their initial estimates and offered a lump-sum to the payment to the town who responded by taking the matter to the courts. The “pier at Helensburgh—one of the most beautiful watering places on the Clyde…is not only rough and uneven in surface, so as to be altogether useless to visitors as a promenade, and exceedingly inconvenient in passing to and from the steamers, but it is positively dangerous to land at in certain states of the weather.”...

To Rothesay

on Oct 4, 2015

After almost a decade in a partnership with Captain William Buchanan when they owned the Eagle steamer on the Rothesay route from Glasgow, Captain Alexander Williamson purchased the Sultan steamer in 1862 and set up on his own account. The Sultan had been built the previous year by Messrs Barclay Curle & Co. for Alexander M‘Kellar’s Holy Loch service and had a good reputation for speed and being an easy boat to handle at piers. Captain Williamson sailed her on the Rothesay station, calling at Hunter’s Quay and Greenock to make a connection with the Caledonian Railway. In her first season, Sultan left Rothesay at 7:40 a.m. to meet the 9:15 a.m. up train for Glasgow at Greenock, and then proceeded to the Broomielaw from where she departed on her return to Rothesay at 2:00 p.m. with a rail connection at Greenock leaving Glasgow at 3:00 p.m. Overnight her base was at Kamesburgh or Port...

Girvan to Ailsa Craig

on Sep 5, 2015

Visiting Ailsa Craig, the remarkable volcanic plug that rises from the seabed in the lower reaches of the Firth of Clyde, has been tradition dating back to the earliest times. With the advent of the steamboat, a trip around the island was an early feat to demonstrate the reliability of the vessels. Duchess of Hamilton rounding Ailsa Craig around 1905 Throughout the 1800s, passengers were landed briefly on the island from special sailings of steamers when the weather was amenable, but the main communication was with Girvan on the Ayrshire coast. Sailing coasters and fishing smacks brought not only tourists, but also transported the quarrymen to the quarries set up by the Marquis of Ailsa to supply curling stones to the world. Sailing smacks and yachts from Girvan landing visitors at Ailsa Craig Towards the end of the century, William Girvan, who was involved in transporting the granite...

Railway connections and racing

on Aug 23, 2015

When the Caledonian Railway took over the Glasgow, Paisley and Greenock Railway in August 1851, the relationship between the railway and the steamboat owners had reached a low point. However, matters on the water had also greatly changed with the withdrawal of Messrs. G. & J. Burns from the river trade and the proliferation of new ownership. In the following year, 1852, the Caledonian Railway made a determined effort to run its own steamers to the coast resorts and bring the revenue earnings of the railway closer to their potential. “We observe the Caledonian Company have advertised frequent trains to run on the Greenock section of their line after 15th April, which will afford great facilities to our citizens and to the inhabitants of Paisley who reside during the summer months on the coast, by means of these trains and the present steam vessels on the river, as also a superior...

Captain Alexander William Cameron

on Aug 8, 2015

The worsening economic climate in the early Edwardian years had its impact on the Clyde coast traffic. In 1907, the two south-bank railway companies, the Caledonian and Glasgow and South-western, entered into a pooling arrangement to rationalize some services and avoid costly duplication and in the next few years, a number of steamers were laid up and sold. Among these were the Vulcan and Viceroy of the Glasgow and Southwestern Co. and Marchioness of Bute, Ivanhoe and Madge Wildfire of the Caledonian. Madge Wildfire, surplus to requirements was purchased on 8th April 1911 by Captain A. W. Cameron, a retired ship captain residing in Dumbarton, for £3,500. A week later, he transferred ownership to The Vale of Clyde Steam Packet Co. Ltd, a private company that was registered on 13th April 1911. Captain Cameron was anxious to take advantage of the resurgence in popularity of sailings from...

More Sunday Steamers

on Aug 3, 2015

The pioneering Sunday Steamer, Emperor, began sailing in 1853 amidst strong opposition from the Scottish Sabbatarians. The opposition culminated in the “battle of Garelochhead” and an ensuing court case that raised an interdiction against Sunday sailing. At the end of 1853, the Court refused to grant the interdict and so Sunday sailing could continue. In the new year, 1854, the Emperor began to sail in mid March with a celebratory visit on March 19 to Row and Garelochhead and a week later to Dunoon and Kilmun. With a court judgement in its favour, the future on Sunday sailing seemed assured. On April 12, 1854 the Scotsman reported that two additional Sunday steamers would sail that season but they did not make an appearance. Much of the animosity had died down but there were still crowds of Sabbatarians, admittedly smaller than the previous year, to greet the steamer at the piers she...

The Battle of Garelochhead

on Aug 2, 2015

Broomielaw in 1850 (Sam Bough) The Emperor was advertised to return to Gareloch-head on Sunday, the 21st August 1853. The local landowner and owner of the pier, Sir James Colquhoun was determined to prevent the steamer from landing passengers and the resulting “battle of Gareloch-head” has become one of the most notorious events of the time. Most of the Scottish newspapers covered the event and several accounts are given here to sample the differing points of view. “On Sunday the pier at Garelochhead was barricaded to prevent the landing of the passengers by the Emperor steamer, and in addition a number of the inhabitants armed with sticks assembled with the evident intention of resisting any attempt which might be made. Those on board of the steamer laid hold of a quantity of potatoes and turnips which they plentifully distributed among those on shore, and after effecting a landing,...

The Sunday Steamer

on Aug 2, 2015

The rise in the Evangelical movement that led to the disruption of the Established Church in Scotland in 1843 had a marked influence in the political and social structure of the country for many years afterwards. The lot of the working man in the larger cities, and especially in Glasgow held little relief from endless toil and grim accommodation and well-intentioned efforts to improve these conditions were aimed at curtailing the availability of the great evil of alcohol and preserving the Sabbath, the one day in the week when no work was expected. The culmination of the efforts against alcohol was the Forbes-Mackenzie Act of 1853 that closed public houses at 11:00 p.m. on weekdays and all day on Sundays, though hotels were allowed to serve bona fide travelers on that day. The preservation of Sunday as a day in which no work was expected had a long history in the country. Sir Andrew...

William Sloan & Co., Ltd.

on Jul 25, 2015

The origins of firm of William Sloan and Company go back to 1825 when William Sloan, the nephew of the chemical manufacturer, Charles Tennant, began transporting the company’s products under the title of the St. Rollox Shipping Company. In later years the main routes of the company linked Glasgow with Belfast, Swansea and Bristol. The funnel colour was black with a distinctive white band and for many years was a familiar sight in the Glasgow harbour.  The steamers were named after rivers around the British Isles. The steamers had limited passenger accommodation. Sloan’s steamers sailed from the south side of the river at Windmillcroft Quay. The upper river with a collection of Sloan’s steamers The steamer Medway was built by Charles Connell & Co., Glasgow in 1886, and was sold in 1926 to Turkish owners. Sloan’s Medway at Windmillcroft with Burns’ Alligator at the Broomielaw In...

The Princess Alice Disaster

on Jul 7, 2015

While not strictly a Clyde matter, the wreck of the Princess Alice on the Thames involved a steamer that was built on the Clyde and served on the Clyde before she was sold to owners on the Thames. The steamers Kyles and Bute were built for the Wemyss Bay Railway and Steamboat Co., by Caird & Co., in 1865. A third sister, the first to leave the ways in 1864, had been purchased by the Confederate States to run the blockade, named Hattie. The Kyles and Bute were almost 220 ft long and over 20 ft in breadth and had narrow deck saloons with alleyways around them. They were a great improvement on the other ship, the Largs, of the Wemyss Bay Company and indeed, with the exception of the new Iona and the Chancellor, there were few other saloon steamers on the Firth. Bute (McQueen) The Wemyss Bay Company provided service to Rothesay and Millport from Wemyss Bay in connection with their...