Robert Salmon at the Broomielaw

on Oct 31, 2016

©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...

Clyde Industrial Training-Ship Empress

on Oct 19, 2016

 Towards the close of 1868, a number of philanthropic Glasgow gentlemen came together to try to address the problems in the city with “destitute boys found homeless and parentless in our streets.” The organization was called “The Clyde Industrial Training-Ship Society,” and it had the object of the establishment and maintenance of a training-ship on the Clyde, under the provisions of “The Industrial Schools Act,” for boys coming within the meaning of that Act. The training-ship would provide the necessary instruction for lads who had a liking for the sea and, when they took up employment, improve the character and efficiency of merchant seamen. They applied to the Government for a suitable ship and set about raising the funds to bring the ship to the Clyde and convert it to its new purpose. The Government provided the Cumberland, a three-decker built at Chatham in 1842 and she was...

North British Steamers

on Feb 28, 2016

The North British Railway Company had taken over the Helensburgh Railway in July 1866, a subsidiary, the North British Steam Packet Co., formed to run steamer services with their new well-appointed saloon steamers Meg Merrilies and Dandie Dinmont, immediately pressured the Helensburgh authorities for improved steamboat accommodation and a railway connection with the pier. The failure of this initial venture to attract a greater portion of the coast trade with steamers so obviously superior to those on other routes with the exception of the Iona must have been a tremendous blow to those involved. At the end of the season, Meg Merrilies and Dandie Dinmont were laid up in Bowling and offered for sale. The former was sold in 1868 to Turkish owners. Meg Merrilies Dandie Dinmont was moved to the Forth and tried on ferry services there. Her deck space was unsuitable for the requirements of...

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.”...

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...