Tod & Macgregor Shiplist

Notes:

          When new, she was used on Glasgow and Arrochar route. She originally had a double hull and a central paddlewheel.

¹[Clyde Passenger Steamers from 1812 to 1901, Williamson]

          The PS Alliance ran on the Caledonian Canal in July 1861, presumably on charter, until the PS Fairy was ready.

[West Highland Steamers, Duckworth and Langmuir]

          She was sold to William J Grazebrook in 1863 and given a new engine and sidewheels. He used her as a blockade runner in the American Civil War (10/1863-4/1864). She failed to make a successful run as she ran aground near Daufuskie Island, South Carolina on her first run in April 1864.

          She was was captured by boats from the South Carolina. Purchased from the prize court and taken into the USQD (United States Quartermaster's Department). Whilst at Hampton Roads she sunk the captured Blockade Runner Florida in an accidental ramming on 19th Nov 1864. She was sold on 20th February 1866 to private interests. Converted to a barge in 1890.

[Lifeline of the Confederacy, Stephen R. Wise]

          Kenneth Davies reports her as being wrecked off the New Zealand coast.

[The Clyde Passenger Steamers, Kenneth Davies]

The Story of the Alliance

It seems to have occurred to a Mr George Mills that there might be travellers who did not regard speed as the one and only desideratum, to whom a comfortable journey at a moderate pace would appear more attractive than to be drenched or stifled in a rush at breakneck pace for the sake of passing all competitors or saving a handful of minutes.

He accordingly applied himself to the designing of a vessel which, in his opinion, would provide accommodation for all weathers, far more comfortable than the Clyde service had ever known, and which, while not exceptionally fast, should yet possess a reasonable turn of speed. His design, in which all the conventions were completely departed from, was submitted to a number of wealthy Glasgow gentlemen in 1854 and met with considerable approval.

Mr. Mills was advised, however, to await the passing of the Limited Liability Bill, then before Parliament, and assured that as soon as that measure became law he would not lack support for his scheme of putting such a vessel on the river. Consequently, it was not till 1856 that the Clyde Improved Steamboat Co., Ltd. was formed and the experimental steamer Alliance laid down with Tod & Macgregor.

The following description of her, published at the time, shows how wide a departure she was from the ordinary type of steamboat on the river: —

“The vessel is so designed that it is equally the same which end of her goes first, nay, so constructed is a portion of her machinery that she may be made to go laterally or sideways like a crab, to back, to go ahead, or to turn round in her own length like a pivot.

Her shape is as follows: Let an ordinary Clyde steamer of say 140 feet long and 18 feet breadth of beam be taken, but with both ends alike, and be cut from end to end along the middle, each portion having one side built straight, so that it should form half a vessel. Let these two halves be placed at a suitable distance from each other, so as to allow a paddle to work in the trough formed between them.

The two parts are bound together, first with horizontal strips or braces below water at the line of the keel, and again at the deck by means of beams and knees, the whole decked over and forming a broad, firm platform with nothing protruding above it except the wheel, for the machinery, boilers, etc., will be placed in the hulls below the deck. Large saloons, with sides principally of plate-glass, will be placed on this platform and the whole decked over as a promenade. Two small paddles, one at each end, worked by the donkey-engine, will be used for manoeuvring at piers.”

The vessel was duly built, and on Saturday, 3^rd December, 1856, made a trial-trip down the river, but proved herself very slow. Mills had reckoned that she would steam fourteen miles an hour, but twelve was the utmost she achieved, and that only for a brief spurt, her average being far below even that modest figure. In manoeuvring she was found to be all that could be desired.

On the 4^th of April, 1857 (the Fast-Day holiday), the Alliance made her first trip with passengers to Garelochhead. She is said to have covered the distance in three and a quarter hours each way, no great performance, but considerably better than her trial-spin had given cause to expect, and as the day was cold and stormy, the comfort of her saloon was greatly appreciated. The Alliance made her next trip with passengers to Garelochhead on the Queen's Birthday holiday, Thursday, 21^st May, and on the following Monday commenced plying regularly on that route.

But whether it was owing to her unorthodox shape or her lack of speed, the public evinced no excessive desire to travel by her. Efforts were made to arouse some enthusiasm by means of newspaper articles extolling her attractions, the light and airy character of her saloon and the facilities she afforded for promenading in all sorts of weather. She was described as “not only the most comfortable, but the most luxuriously comfortable boat that was ever sailed on business or pleasure.”

As for speed, it was asked, “How many of the thousands who travel by river from Glasgow to Greenock ever do so for purely business purposes?” and the writer declares, “It is not so much speed that such travellers want as comfort.” And, besides, he contends that the idea current that the Alliance is a slow boat is scarcely justified, as “she makes her run to Greenock in two hours, and there are very few boats doing it in less time.” He claims for her that she is economical to work, and expresses his confidence in her success and his belief that patronage will be found not merely for one, but for half a dozen boats of her class.

But the “thousands who travel” did not display the same enthusiasm as the writer of the articles. The craze for speed was deeper-seated than Mr. Mills had supposed, and the Alliance’s many attractions failed to reconcile the public to her lack of this essential. Though perhaps the aversion, springing from conservatism, which recoiled from her bizarre model, might have disappeared in time, the indignity of being passed on the river by old craft long ago due at the shipbreakers was an unpardonable failing.

The claim for economical working, too, might have been accurate had the Alliance been allowed to crawl along at her own impossible pace, but to drive a vessel of such design even at twelve miles an hour involved a ruinous expenditure of fuel. So unprofitable did the boat prove that at the end of her second season the Clyde Improved Steamboat Co., Ltd. went into liquidation.

Repeated attempts to sell the steamer proved abortive. She was offered for sale by auction no less than six times during the months of January, February and March, 1859, the upset price, originally fixed at £4,500, coming down gradually to £1,500, but even then the offer found no takers. The liquidator then advertised her for charter by pleasure parties and others, and eventually got her let for the Sunday trade, but even in that last refuge of the destitute and incompetent she was not a success, and at the end of the season was completely withdrawn from the service.

She did not appear in the advertisements of 1860, but in July, 1861, plied for a short time on the Caledonian Canal, and those who are familiar with the present scale of fares on that route will learn with surprise that half a crown sufficed to carry the passenger from Inverness to Banavie in the second cabin of the Alliance, while the payment of an additional half-crown entitled him to all the comforts of the first saloon.

Her next appearance was on the Mersey, but with no better fortune, until, after being laid up and vainly offered for sale, she was eventually picked up for blockade-running and sailed for Nassau in August, 1863. It is notorious that a slow boat was often more successful than a swift one in that occupation, and the experience of the Alliance seemed to bear this out, as she made several trips before being captured at Savannah in April, 1864, and doubtless proved a profitable ship to the speculator who bought her.

The next word we hear of the Alliance is from a New Zealand paper, the “West Coast Times,” in the autumn of 1865. It seems that, after falling into the hands of the Federals, the steamer was taken to New York and there put up for sale by auction and knocked down to a Boston firm, who made considerable alterations on her and sent her out to Melbourne, Victoria, where she traded for a short time.

Then a discovery of gold was made on the west coast of New Zealand, causing the usual rush to the district, and the Alliance was sent thither to secure a share of the traffic. As the “Three-funnelled, covered-decked paddle-steamer New Zealand” she was set to ply between Dunedin and the gold district. She made one very successful double journey, but on her second trip went ashore at the entrance to the harbour, broke her back and went to pieces. Her passengers were successful in escaping, but a large portion of her valuable cargo was lost.

Thus ended the eventful, if somewhat inglorious, nine year career of this interesting but unsuccessful steamboat. This first Clyde saloon steamer had no lack of variety in the experiences of her short lifetime. The pity is that for the purpose for which she was designed the Alliance was a failure, and that the ingenuity and courage of Mr. Mills brought him nothing but disappointment.

¹[Echoes of Old Clyde Paddle-Wheels, Andrew McQueen]