Killarney—Langlands Cruises

The venerable company of Langlands had its founding in the early days of coastal steam navigation when, in 1836, Mr. Matthew Langlands became the Glasgow agent for the Glasgow & Liverpool Royal Steam Packet Company. The company had an extensive interest in coastal trade around the shores of Britain and also briefly participated farther afield in the trans-Atlantic trade. As M. Langlands and Sons Ltd., they provided a regular service between Liverpool and Glasgow and in addition ran a series of cruises to the Clyde and West of Scotland with a number of well-appointed screw steamers. The black funnel with two white bands and black between was well known on the Clyde.

Princess Royal on the Clyde

The first to be illustrated is the Princess Royal, the fifth of the name for the company. Built in 1876 by the London & Glasgow Engineering and Shipbuilding yard in Govan, she was involved in the Glasgow to Liverpool service. She was sold in 1901.

Princess Louise at Oban, August 14, 1913

Princess Louise was built by Messrs D. & W. Henderson of Patrick in 1888. She survived the first world war and was sold to the City of Cork Co. in 1925. She was broken up at Port Glasgow in 1929.

Langlands Steamers at West Coast Ports, Princess Maud at Oban and Princess Alberta at Fort William

Fisherman and nets at Fort William with Princess Maud in the background

Princess Beatrice

The popular cruises to the Clyde and West Coast involved a number of neat steamships. Princess Beatrice was a product of D. & W. Henderson’s yard in 1893 and was a very successful ship. Shortly after the company was taken over by Coast Lines in June of 1919, she was sold to the Carron Company and renamed Avon.

Langlands Advertising Cards

Princess Victoria was built by W. B. Thompson & Co. Ltd. at Dundee in 1894 and was a particularly fine steamer used in the West of Scotland cruises. She had a narrow escape when she scraped a rock when taking the southern channel through the Kyles of Bute. She was torpedoed off the Mersey on 9th March, 1915,

Princess Victoria

Princess Victoria in Oban Bay

Princess Victoria at Oban

Princess Maud came from the yard of Napier and Miller in 1901. She had accommodation for 140 in her cabins.

Princess Maud

Taken over by the Admiralty as H.M.S. Princess Maud in May 1916, she served as a fleet messenger. After her return to the Company in February 1918, she was torpedoed off Northumberland on the 10th of June of the same year, and foundered.

Princess Alberta

Princess Alberta came from the Caledon Shipbuilding and Engineering Yard in Dundee in 1905 and served with the company until she was requisitioned by the Admiralty as the fleet messenger, H.M.S. Princess Alberta. She served in the Mediterranean and was mined and sunk in the Aegean on February 21st, 1917.

Princess Royal

The sixth Princess Royal was also a Caledon Yard product from 1912. She was sunk by a torpedo off Cornwall on May 26th, 1918 while on Company Service.

Aboard the Princess Royal

Princess Royal in Loch Melfort

Killarney on the Mersey

Langlands and Sons Ltd. was taken over by Coast Lines in 1919 and the surviving steamships were renamed. Cruising to the West Coast of Scotland resumed in 1931 when the company acquired the steamship Magic from the City of Cork Company and renamed her Killarney. Dating from 1893 from the yard of Harland and Wolff in Belfast, she was an impressive ship with two thin funnels that were painted yellow complimenting a grey hull. Hailed as a “Steam Yacht” was a popular and well known vessel but did not sail after the second world war began in 1939.