Toward Castle Murder

on May 26, 2015

In the waning months of the year 1828 Scotland was scandalised by the sordid revelations that accompanied the apprehension and trial of Burke and Hare for the notorious West Port murders in Edinburgh. In the midst of the trial a less well-celebrated murder came to the public’s attention. The suspect in this new case was also an Irishman. His downfall was the venue for his ultimate crime; on board the Toward Castle steam boat from which there was no escape. John Stuart was a 32 year-old unemployed blacksmith who had been living in the Newcastle area and decided to return to his native Ireland with his wife Catherine Stuart Wright. He made his way across the country and took passage in the Eclipse steam boat at the Broomielaw, bound for Belfast. Foul weather was encountered in the Kilbrannan Sound and the boat put in to Campbeltown to wait until the weather improved. There was some...

Kingston Dock

on May 23, 2015

As early as the 1830s, there were discussions of expanding the crowded Harbour of Glasgow to increase the quayage and accommodate more traffic. Plans for the construction of the first wet dock were put on a more solid foundation in January 1855 by J. F. Ure, the Clyde Trust’s Chief Engineer. The site chosen was the Windmill Croft, part of the Springfield Cotton and Printing Works. Construction of the wet dock began in the mid 1860s and opened at the end of 1867. The dock cost £155,000 and enclosed a surface of 5.5 acres with 13 ft depth at low water and provided 823.5 yards of quayage. The entrance was 60 ft across with swing-bridge. Todd’s Springfield Mill with the Croft beyond The eastern end of the dock is seen beyond the sheds of Windmillcroft Quay in this photograph taken from the tower of the Sailors Home around 1870. The view looks along West Street.  The early dredger,...

Early Clyde Steamboats II

on Apr 27, 2015

In September 1812, hard on the heels of Comet, her first rival Elizabeth was announced. The following intimation was published in the Glasgow Herald of 25th September. “We are glad to have it in our power to inform the public that a gentleman of this city is at present erecting a flat-bottomed Steam-Boat at Port Glasgow, of 12 horse-power, under the superintendence of an able engineer, upon a much improved principle, both with respect to the quickness of sailing and the accommodation of passengers. It is to be so constructed so that neither wind nor tide will prevent its sailing at a certain hour–a circumstance which will be most beneficial to the public. The boat, we understand, will be ready to start in about three or four weeks.” The Elizabeth, was launched in November, 1812, and she began sailing on the Greenock station on 9th March 1813, again from the yard of John...

Early Clyde Steamboats I

on Apr 26, 2015

Henry Bell was born at Torphichen in 1767 and, after a solid but unspectacular education, he tried his hand to various professions with little distinction before returning to Glasgow in 1790 where he spent several years as a joiner. Towards the end of the century, Bell became interested in the application of steam to ship propulsion and was in contact with Symington who was experimenting at this time with the Charlotte Dundas on the Forth and Clyde Canal. Henry Bell To escape the squalour of urban life, many of the better-off Glaswegians were following the fashion set by the Prince of Wales of “taking the waters.” Favourite places for this practise were Largs, Gourock and the town of Helensburgh that had been laid down as a model town in the latter part of the eighteenth century by Sir James Colquhoun but had failed to attract any industry. In 1808, Henry Bell moved to the recently...

Victoria on the Clyde—1847

on Apr 19, 2015

In 1847, the Clyde and Western isles steamboat services were in flux. The Greenock Railway had opened six years earlier in 1841 and had challenged the dominance of steamboat companies in providing transportation in the Clyde area. After attempting to attract the steamboat companies to provide ongoing connections with the railway at Greenock, the Railway Company had begun to run its own connections. The principal services to Rothesay and Lochfyne were at this time in the hands of the Castle Steam Packet Company, and in 1845, Messrs. G. & J. Burns, who had hitherto been associated with the Glasgow and Belfast trade, acquired a controlling interest in the Company and its steamers. The following year, they added the steamers of the Greenock Railway and achieved a virtual monopoly of the Clyde connections with the Western Highlands and Islands. The West Highland services themselves were...

The Allan Line

on Apr 6, 2015

To the south of the main channel of the Clyde behind Plantation Quay, lay Princes Dock where much of the Transatlantic Passenger Traffic from Glasgow originated. Construction of the Dock, originally called Cessnock Dock was begun in 1886 and completed in 1897. There were three basins. The North Basin was the berth of the Allan Line and the above picture by Brandon shows three Allan Line ships lined up alongside Shed A. The steamship in the foreground is the State of Nebraska, built by the London & Glasgow yard at Govan in 1880 for the State Line, but taken over with the rest of that Line in 1891 by the Allan Line. On the south side of the Basin alongside Shed B there is a U.S. Lines steamship with its narrower white band and what appears to be another Allan steamship, with a large sailing vessel nearest the entrance to the Basin. The tall chimney of the hydraulic pumping station...