Marchioness of Breadalbane

on Dec 31, 2018

The Marchioness of Breadalbane, one of the more utilitarian members of the original Caledonian Steam Packet Co.’s fleet had a long and largely uneventful life of 45 years on the Clyde. She was best known in latter years on the Largs and Millport sailings from Wemyss Bay but also did duty on the Rothesay sailings from Wemyss Bay and Gourock as well as sailing to Loch Goil and the Holy Loch. This little article is mainly a photographic record of the steamer, similar to that of her sister-ship Marchioness of Bute. Of the two, the Breadalbane was the better vessel and she remained longer on the Clyde but like her sister, she too ended her days sailing on the East Coast. The article is interspersed with some newspaper articles that hopefully give some background to the photographs. “Port Glasgow.—Launch of a river steamer today.—Messrs John Reid & Co., Port Glasgow, launched from their...

Caledonian Postcards

on Dec 29, 2018

Postcards in the Edwardian era were a good form of advertising the merits of a company or the beauty of an area. The Caledonian Railway had produced cards for a number of years before the Caledonian Steam Packet Co. produced a series of beautiful cards in 1906 featuring their most important steamers and routes. For this, they went to Messrs William Ritchie & Sons Ltd., Edinburgh and the cards appeared as coloured collotypes in their Reliable series. Some of the cards were reissues of existing Reliable series views but most of the steamers and the Caledonian piers were new. The Reliable series had featured Caledonian Steamers in the past. One shown here, Galatea, was not featured in the Caledonian official cards as she was sold in 1906. Other steamers in service at the time but not featured were the Caledonia and Marchioness of Bute, service steamers that were not used on the longer...

Marchioness of Bute on Clyde and Tay

on Dec 2, 2018

On Tuesday May 6, 1890, Miss Maud Williamson, daughter of Mr James Williamson, marine superintendant of the Caledonian Steam Packet Company (Limited) gracefully named the new steamer Marchioness of Bute as she slid down the ways at the Port Glasgow yard of Messrs John Reid & Co. She was to be fitted with compound tandem engines by Messrs Rankin & Blackmore, Greenock, and was the second vessel launched that year for the Caledonian Company. Marchioness of Breadalbane and Marchioness of Bute were improved duplicates of the Caledonia, launched from the same yard the previous year, and they arrived just in time to allow the Company to take over connections from Wemyss Bay to Rothesay and Millport when the Wemyss Bay Company withdrew its service. It was just a month later that the steamer went through her trials on the sheltered waters of the Gareloch. “River Steamer Marchioness of...

L.M.S. Steamers Duchess of Rothesay and Duchess of Fife

on Nov 12, 2018

Of the four paddle-steamer duchesses built for the Caledonian Steam Packet Company between 1890 and 1903, Duchess of Hamilton, 1890, product of Denny Brothers, Dumbarton, was said by many to be the most successful steamer ever built on the Clyde, sailing on the prestigious Arran service from Ardrossan. She was slightly larger than the Duchess of Rothesay, built at Clydebank in 1895 and successor to the famous teetotal Ivanhoe on the Gourock-Arran service. In the new century, the paddle steamer, Duchess of Montrose, was built by John Brown’s in 1902, and her younger quasi-sister, Duchess of Fife, was built at Fairfield in 1903. Both were designed mainly for more mundane ferry duties, but the Fife turned out to exceed all expectations with her speed and comfort. War brought adventures for all four of the duchesses. The Admiralty commandeered all four of the vessels, Duchesses of...

The latter days of Duchess of Argyll

on Oct 13, 2018

The early service of the Duchess of Argyll from her launch in 1906 for the Caledonian Steam Packet Co. Ltd., to her incorporation into the control of the L.M.S. Railway in 1923, has been recorded earlier in two articles. The present essay is mainly a photographic account beginning in 1925 when the standard livery with buff black-topped funnels was introduced for the combined south-bank railway fleet. As one of the original Caledonian Steam Packet Company’s steamers, Duchess of Argyll was retained under their ownership that allowed greater flexibility in sailing to destinations in Loch Fyne, Kintyre and Lochranza than was possible for the former members of the Glasgow and South Western Railway that were under direct railway control. It was on the Arran route from Princes Pier by way of the Kyles that Duchess of Argyll was best known. In the middle of the 1925 season, however, there was...

Toward Pier

on Sep 28, 2018

“About 6 miles from Dunoon the district of Toward commences, and extends along the coast for a distance of about 4 miles. There is no village of the name; but about the centre of the district there is a chapel in connection with the Established Church (Rev. James Geekie). Close beside the church is Toward pier and lighthouse, and Castle Toward. Old Castle Toward was at one time the seat of the ancient family of Lamont of Ardlamont. It was purchased many years ago, along with Auchenvulline and other adjoining estates, by the late Kirkman Finlay, Esq., of Glasgow, who erected the present stately mansion, and is now the seat of his son, A. S. Finlay, Esq., late M.P. for Argyllshire. The view from Castle Toward is most magnificent. Situated on a rising ground, it commands a prospect of great extent, including parts of Renfrewshire and Ayrshire, the two Cumbraes, Bute, and the distant hills...

Hunter’s Quay

on Sep 8, 2018

When a Greenock merchant, James Hunter, acquired the Hafton estate from its original Campbell owners in 1816 he extended the existing Hafton House and began to develop feuing in the area. One of the early arrivals was James Ewing, then Lord Provost of Glasgow, who built the Castle House in Dunoon 1822. It was such gentlemen and their families that attracted the early steamboat traffic to the area. As in other coastal communities, feuing was encouraged by the provision of a pier and James Hunter provided one of the first on the Cowal shore in 1828. Hunter’s Quay was a stone built quay with a wooden extension where the steamboats could dock. Isle of Bute approaching Hunter’s Quay in 1841 The building of villas along the south shore of the Holy Loch and the Cowal shore of the Firth followed quickly afterwards. The location of the pier at Hunter’s Quay was protected from the worst of...

Pointing Porters of Rothesay

on Aug 18, 2018

The licensing and regulation of carters and porters was a feature of many municipalities around the Clyde, and the Burgh of Rothesay was no exception. The porters on Rothesay Pier were particularly famous for their “pointing” during the late Victorian and Edwardian period. They had a brief resurrection after the first world war but seem to have disappeared sometime during the 1920s. “No person shall be permitted to ply for hire as a Porter until licensed by the Trustees and furnished with a badge which must be constantly conspicuously affixed to his breast and his name painted on his barrow and all porters must be sober, steady and civil to every person and they shall not go on board the steamboat until called by some one of the passengers whose directions shall be immediately obeyed without waiting any other hire. No separate charge shall be made for letters and parcels or goods which...