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...

Captain William Buchanan’s Eagle

on Mar 10, 2022

There can be few steamers that are so completely associated with an individual owner as Captain William Buchanan’s Eagle of 1864. The ship was the second of the name with Buchanan associations. The first Eagle, built in 1852 by Messrs Denny at Dumbarton for the Glasgow and Rothesay service they had inherited from the Messrs Burns when they disposed of their Clyde fleet, was purchased the following year by Messrs Alexander Williamson, William Buchanan and John Cook. Captain Buchanan thus had his first command of a river steamer. The partnership broke up in 1862 when Captain Buchanan, John Cook and James Davie purchased the steamer and the following year sold her as a blockade runner, earning a considerable premium on the sale that allowed them to order a new vessel. The new vessel, larger and more powerful than the first, was launched in April 1860, and through the following weeks, her...

Buchanan Steamers

on Jan 3, 2016

The early years of Captain William Buchanan’s career as a steamboat owner on the Clyde have been documented in the articles dealing with W. F. Johnstone, Railways and Racing, and Early Arran Steamers. Captain Buchanan’s steamers carried a black funnel with a white band, a remnant of their origins with the Castle Company’s steamers. The hulls and paddle boxes where black providing a rather utilitarian look. The Eagle of 1864 is a good place to start the remainder of the story. From the yard of Messrs Charles Connell & Co., she was an impressive vessel with two funnels forward of her paddle boxes but her engines, by Messrs Henderson were too powerful for her hull and her early career involved many adjustments, including lengthening the hull by 16 feet in 1866. Eagle at the Broomielaw around 1866 (Annan) Nevertheless, the Eagle was a reliable steamer and earned...

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...