The west highland services of Messrs G. & J. Burns devolved to Messrs David Hutcheson & Co., in February 1851. The primary steamboat sailing from Glasgow to Oban, Skye, Gairloch and the Outer Hebrides by the Mull of Kintyre was the Duntroon Castle, dating from 1842. The replacement for the Duntroon Castle was Chevalier, launched in March 1853, and a great improvement on the older vessel. She came from the new Clyde or Cessnock Bank shipyard at Govan, set up by Messrs J. & G. Thomson, and was the second vessel that they had built for the west highland service of Messrs Hutcheson.
“Glasgow and Highland Steamers.—There was launched on Thursday, from the building-yard of Messrs James and George Thomson, Clyde Bank, a beautiful paddle steamer, the Chevalier, the property of Messrs David Hutcheson & Co., of this city, and intended for the trade between Glasgow and the Western and Northern Highlands. Her dimensions are—Length aloft, 170 feet; breadth, 22 feet 6 inches; depth, 11 feet 6 inches.”—Glasgow Sentinel, March 26, 1853
The new ship was a welcome addition for the highland and island communities that she would serve.
“Inverness, and shipbuilding at Glasgow—The Glasgow Herald of Friday gives the following account of a new steamer which has been built for the Highland trade:— “There was launched yesterday from the building-yard of Messrs James and George Thomson, Clyde Bank, a beautiful paddle-steamer, the Chevalier, the property of Messrs David Hutcheson & Co., of this city, and intended for the trade between Glasgow and the Western and Northern Highlands. Her dimensions are—Length aloft, 170 feet; breadth, 22 feet 6 inches; depth, 11 feet 6 inches. We understand that this vessel is to be fitted up for the sleeping accommodation of nearly fifty cabin passengers, and that her decorations will be of very superior character, and quite in accordance with those of the Mountaineer, Dolphin, Pioneer, and the other vessels so well known in the Highlands under the same management. She will be propelled by two oscillating engines, of the collective force of 180 horse, and will be on the station about the end of April. We congratulate the public on this additional means of visiting the Western and Northern Highlands, and of bringing them still nearer to our own city.”
“This is but one of the hundreds of splendid steamers annually sent forth the great ship-building yards of the western metropolis. Yet it is little more than twenty years since a gentleman, now all but a constant resident Inverness, along with five others, commissioned the first steamer that ever was built on the Clyde above Dumbarton and Port-Glasgow. That gentleman is our worthy and enterprising friend Captain Peter Turner of the Caledonian Canal steamers. In December 1831, Captain Turner and his five friends contracted with Messrs R. Barclay and Co. of Glasgow to build the steamer Inverness, intended to ply between Inverness and Glasgow, and with Mr Napier to make the boilers and engines. Before this time the splendid establishments of Greenock, Port-Glasgow, and Dumbarton monopolised the whole steamship-building trade of the Clyde, and such were the difficulties of carrying out the order for a steamer at Glasgow that the Inverness, though a small vessel, capable of passing through the Canal, was not finished till May 1832. The start once given, orders poured into Glasgow rapidly enough. In January 1832 a rival party contracted for the making of the Staffa, and a month afterwards the Antelope was built for the Belfast station. Our great iron steamship builders commenced their career also in connection with the rising trade of our port. The firm of Todd and Macgregor began to make machinery for steamers in 1833. The first engine they constructed was for the Rob Roy, but such was the insignificance of their works at that time that they were obliged to apply to other parties to make the boilers. This steamer was started and commanded by Captain Turner, and continued, we believe, till utterly worn out, to ply upon the Caledonian Canal station. The gallant Captain too, though has long discarded the simple Rob Roy, and now commands of the fleetest and best equipped boats in the kingdom, is, we are glad to say, still upon his favourite station, as active and obliging as ever.
“Meantime, Todd and Macgregor have been achieving wonders in the way of ship-building. They were the first to give confidence to the public in iron steamers, and they now reap the benefit of their skill and enterprise, for they are now building, if not the largest at least the longest iron steamer in the world. What marvels has not Glasgow worked in the way of steamship building since the day the Inverness was ordered! Witness the Chevalier, launched on Thursday last, any one the splendid vessels owned by Messrs Hutcheson &. Co. The Chevalier, we believe, has been expressly built for the Sound of Mull, Skye, the West Coast of Sutherland, Ross, and Inverness shires’ trade.”—Inverness Courier, March 31, 1853
Chevalier from a pen and ink drawing
“The Chevalier is handsomely molded vessel, with great breadth of beam, so as to insure greater steadiness motion, combined with capability of carrying cargo. Upwards of 30 passengers can be accommodated in the cabins, besides a handsome saloon for day use. There are two oscillating engines, with two sets of valves each, so as to balance the cylinders upon their gudgeons. The framing is a model of simplicity and strength. It is expected that the Chevalier will be ready for work early next month, when she will take the place of the Duntroon Castle in David Hutcheson and Co.’s splendid line of West Highland steamers.”—Greenock Advertiser, April 26 1853
Duntroon Castle before she came under Hutcheson control
In May, it was announced that she would sail up the western seaboard as far as Thurso on a fortnightly basis.
“Increase of Steam Accommodation.—Our advertising columns this week contain two important announcements from the firm of Messrs Hutcheson & Co., Glasgow. The first is, that the comfortable and commodious boats, appropriately called the “Swift Steamers,” will be put upon the Inverness and Glasgow station in the course this month. The second is, that the splendid new ship Chevalier, of which we lately quoted a description from a Glasgow paper, is to ply upon a line not hitherto occupied by any steam company—namely, between Glasgow and Thurso. The Chevalier will make a weekly voyage to Stornoway and the Western Isles, and a fortnightly trip to Thurso, calling at all the intermediate ports of any consequence. We have thus steamers completely circumnavigating our Scottish coasts, and this last addition which completes the chain, is by no means the least important. Though the fat cattle and other stock shipments for this season have already been made, we trust that the Chevalier may conduct a large traffic in fish and other exports from the West Coast; whilst to tourists and sportsmen, the convenience having a direct steam communication between Thurso and Glasgow on the one hand, and between Thurso—or the Orkneys—and Leith on the other, will, we trust, be heartily appreciated. It may here be mentioned, with reference to the statement made by Culbokie at the Inverness County Meeting on Saturday, that a memorial has already been entrusted to Lord Reidhaven for presentation to the Canal Commissioners, to have four piers or jetties erected on the line of the Canal—one at Foyers, one at Temple, and one at Invermoriston on Lochness, and one at Invergarry on Loch-Oich. This would be a very great convenience to the passengers by the steamers, and to those making shipments of goods; for at present all the traffic of this line has to be shipped by boats, and often under great disadvantages. The expense of these erections would only amount to £2000, and it is calculated that a clear revenue might be obtained of upwards of £400 a-year.”—Inverness Courier, May 5, 1853
Greenock Advertiser, June 3, 1853
The Chevalier was not one of the swift steamers. The swift steamers carried passenger traffic from Glasgow to Ardrishaig, connecting with a track-boat on the Crinan Canal and a subsequent steamer to Oban which was reached within the day of leaving the metropolis. Skye and Inverness were reached the following day. The mails were carried but no large cargo.
Instead, the Chevalier carried passengers and cargo from the sundry west highland and island ports, providing an economic life-line to the small communities. The travel by Chevalier was therefore more leisurely and the timetable was flexible. She would leave Glasgow on Thursday morning and return from Stornoway on Monday Morning.
Tragedy struck on the night of Friday November 24, 1854, when the vessel ran aground in calm conditions in the Sound of Jura. Initially it was thought that she could be refloated but the tidal range was not large to allow her to be eased off the rock. A storm at the beginning of December caused her to break up and she was declared a total wreck.
“Accident to the Steam-ship Chevalier.—We regret to learn that this fine vessel, on her passage from Glasgow to the Highlands, ran upon a rock in the Sound of Jura on Friday morning about four o’clock. The steamer Islay, which promptly came to her aid, arrived here on Saturday morning, bringing some of the passengers and a portion of the cargo; the remainder of the passengers were all safely landed upon the small isles of Jura. Steamers have been despatched to her assistance; and, should the weather continue moderate, it is expected she will be got off.”—Glasgow Herald, Monday November 27, 1854
“Wreck of the Chevalier steamer.—We regret to say that this fine steamer, belonging to Messrs Hutcheson and Co., and employed in the West Highland trade, was thrown away upon a well-known conspicuous rock in the Sound of Jura, at an early hour on Friday morning. The Chevalier sailed from Greenock on Thursday afternoon, bound for Portree, Loch Inver, Stornoway and other ports in the West Highlands, which Messrs Hutcheson and Co. have opened up by their splendid line of steamers. She had rounded the Mull of Kintyre, and was proceeding through the Sound of Jura early on Friday morning, when, at four o’clock, during the mate’s watch, the steamer was run right upon the Skerrie Erin, or Iron Rock, a well-known reef, upon which there is a large beacon erected. The night was fine, the sea calm, and the weather clear; so that it would appear as if the grossest neglect and carelessness on the part of those on board could have led to such a catastrophe. The rock is flat, and it unfortunately happened that, with the full force the steam, the Chevalier was driven so hard aground that she stuck fast, and, at once began to fill the forward compartments destroying the goods they contained. As soon as it was ascertained that the steamer was hard and fast on the rock, one of the boats was manned, in which some of the more timid passengers proceeded to Port-Askaig in Islay, so as to meet with the Islay steamer on her passage to Glasgow. In this they were fortunate enough to succeed, and about eight o’clock the Islay came to the wreck, and took off the rest of the crew and passengers, and brought them back to Glasgow where they arrived on Saturday afternoon. A part of the cargo was also saved by the Islay. It is fortunate that the weather was so fine, and the sea calm, or it is possible that many lives might have been sacrificed to what appears to be a most culpable carelessness. We trust a rigid investigation will take place into this apparently inexcusable wreck, and that the guilty parties will be severely punished; because, really the recklessness with which life and property are jeopardised and lost has become so fearfully frequent of late as to call for some stringent measures to diminish it. It in vain that shipowners spare no expense in building and fitting out their splendid vessels, when such recklessness is displayed by those necessarily entrusted with their property and the lives of passengers. Should the weather continue moderate it is expected that the Chevalier may be got off, as steamers have been dispatched to her assistance.
“All the cargo of the Chevalier has been saved, and mostly in good order.
“We regret to learn that all hope has been abandoned of getting this fine steamer off the Iron Skerry Rock. She was run so far up on the shelving rock, and the rise and fall of the tides are so small in Sound of Jura, that it is impossible to apply the ordinary means for floating the steamer. It is an extraordinary fact, and one not creditable to the Commissioners of Northern Lights, that there is not a lighthouse on the west coast, between the south end the Mull of Kintyre and Lismore, at the entrance of the Linnhe Loch and Sound of Mull; so that all our coasting trade through the Sound of Jura, and between the Small Isles, must be conducted, even in long winter nights, without the guiding aid of lights.”—Glasgow Sentinel, December 2, 1854
“Wreck of the steamer Chevalier. We regret to learn that this fine steamer, so well known to tourists on the west coast of Scotland, went to pieces in the gale of Tuesday last, on the Iron Skerry Rock, in the Sound of Jura. It appeared that after the Chevalier was so unaccountably run upon the rocks during the night of Friday on the preceding week, hopes were entertained that she would be got off, as the weather continued moderate; and the crew accordingly remained with her to render every assistance. She was attended by the Conqueror, tug steamer; but, as this vessel ran short of coals, she sailed up to the depot at Crinan for a supply. Meanwhlile, the gale of Tuesday came on, which rolled a tremendous sea into the Sound of Jura, and, as the tug could not return, the crew on board the Chevalier were left to themselves, with their small boats only, and at a distance of three miles from the shore—a position sufficiently uncomfortable, if not rather alarming. Under the influence of the storm, the vessel began to open up; the waves were washing over the deck, and the crew, who had been burning blue lights to attract attention, was placed in a very perilous position. At this moment the Islay steamer providentially entered the Sound, and Captain Kerr, discovering the condition of the crew of the Chevalier, steamed to the spot, and, with much difficulty, took them all on board, after a delay of three or four hours. The Islay came into the Sound of Jura by mere chance. Her usual course is outside the Island of Jura; but as the sea had become very wild, the captain thought he would find smoother water inside Sound and he accordingly arrived just in time to remove the Chevalier’s crew. The Chevalier was almost new and valued at about £14,000. The mate, a man called Simpson, who was in charge of the vessel when she run upon the rock, in a calm night, has been taken into custody, and is now in Inverary jail. It is so far in the man’s favour, that he was attending to his duty, and had two men employed on the look-out at the time. It is believed that during the haze of night, when the Sound was e obscured by the loom of the land, the beacon or perch at this spot was mistaken for a vessel under sail, where it was presumed, of course, there would be plenty of water. No blame can be attached to Captain Rankine—an able and anxious sea- man—who had retired for needed rest, after carrying the vessel round the Mull of Cantyre. Still, when we remember the manner in which the Myrtle was stranded on the Isle of Sanda on a fine evening, and the Eclipse was dashed upon the Gantocks on the broad daylight of a summer day, we are entitled to call in question either the honour or the capacity of a certain portion of the Clyde seamen who have been placed in responsible situations. Why do not the Inverary authorities apprehend the man who cast the Eclipse ashore? It is well known where he may be got.”—Glasgow Herald, December 4, 1854
The wreck was set for sale the following year.
Greenock Advertiser, July 31, 1855
What was left of the Chevalier fetched just £135, a sad end to a fine vessel.
“The wreck the iron steamer Myrtle, 212 tons register, as she at present lies under water the Sound of Sanda, was sold at Glasgow by Messrs Laughland Brown on Thursday for £5. The portion of the working parts of the engine and materials saved from the wreck brought about £400. On the same day Messrs Laughland & Brown sold the wreck of the iron steamer Chevalier, 199 tons register, as she at present lies on the Iron Rock, in the Sound of Jura. The first bid was £5, and, after some competition, the wreck was knocked down at £135.”—Greenock Advertiser, August 7, 1855