A New Lord of the Isles — 1891

on Dec 28, 2016

By the beginning of the 1890s, the general standard of facilities offered on-board the new railway steamers meant that the privately owned vessels were largely outclassed. This prompted the Glasgow and Inveraray Steam Packet Co. (Ltd.) to approach Messrs D. & W. Henderson & Co. with a view to replacing their aging tourist steamer, Lord of the Isles. The old steamer, built in 1877, had opened up the tourist traffic to Inveraray from where Oban and Loch Awe could be reached by coach. It had also popularized the Loch Eck tour, connecting Dunoon and Strachur by a combination of coaches and the steamer Fairy Queen on Loch Eck. This provided a round trip that encompassed spectacular scenery on the Loch Eck route and the route by water through the Kyles of Bute and up Loch Fyne and could be performed in either direction. The old Lord of the Isles (Adamson) The old Lord of the Isles...

Down the Water—and weekly chit-chat

on Apr 13, 2016

A strange little newspaper published on Saturday June 4th, 1887 was aimed at providing the public with a “pleasant hour in the wearisome tediousness of a steamship or railway journey” down the water. The editorial statement indicated that it was to be issued every Saturday morning at 47 Oswald Street, Glasgow  but that “owing to an accident, we are a little behind this week.” There are no advertisements in the first issue but they offered to carry advertisements at the rate of 1/6 an inch. Many of the articles have a strange feel for the most part and look to have been lifted piecemeal from an American publication although there are a few domestic “gems”: “Papa” asked a young hopeful the other day. “Is Queen Victoria’s other name Lize.” “No my son, why do you ask?” “Why, you know, I’ver just heard...

Columba

on Feb 27, 2015

  In her day, the Columba was a magnificent vessel and is perhaps the best known of the steamers that ever sailed on the Clyde. Launched from the yard of J. & G. Thomson at Clydebank on April 11th, 1878, she was over 301 feet long by 27 feet broad and 9 feet in depth, dimensions that were not exceeded for a century. She had a simple oscillating two-cylinder engine served by four boilers that propelled her at 18 knots on her daily schedule from the Broomielaw to Ardrishaig and back. While her engine room was rather old fashioned, in every other way, Columba reached the forefront of convention. Her saloons, fore and aft, were the full width of the hull providing excellent accommodation for her passengers, and her passengers ranged from the simple highlander to the elite of British society making its way to the shooting and fishing estates on the West Coast, to foreign tourists...