Tod & Macgregor Shiplist

Notes:

          Used on the Glasgow & Inveraray route, under master Donald Currie.

          Inveraray Castle was fitted with the then recently invented steeple engine, one of the many practical ideas of that remarkable genius, David Napier. With her red funnel abaft the paddles, her two masts and fiddle bow, she was a graceful old craft.

        Along with her consort Mary Jane, she maintained a daily service between Glasgow and Inveraray, the two boats sailing on alternate mornings and each making only the single journey in the course of the day. The hour of departure from either end was six o'clock in the morning and it was often late in the evening when the boats reached their destination.

          Both goods and passengers were carried and a lot of time was put off loading and discharging at the more important piers such as Dunoon, Rothesay and Tarbut. There was an old-world lack of hurry about their methods and a two hour stay at Rothesay was not an uncommon occurrence, while their progress under steam was of a leisurely description.

          The passenger fares by these boats were not extortionate, for we find the Inveraray Castle advertised during the Glasgow Fair holidays of 1879 to carry excursionists from Glasgow to Inveraray and back for four shillings in a cabin and two shillings in the steerage. The advertiser is careful to state that return halves of tickets are not available by the Columba or Iona. These low fares doubtless proved a great boon to Highland people employed in Glasgow, enabling them to enjoy a holiday at home, for at that period labour was not remunerated on any generous scale.

          For the whole of her long career the Inveraray Castle was employed on the Glasgow-Inveraray station, except for a single season in the late fifties, when owing to the closure of the Crimean Canal, goods from Glasgow destined for Oban had to be sent around the Mull of Kintyre and she was placed for the time on that route.

          After fifty years' service she ceased sailing and lay for more than one season in Bowling harbour, eventually finding her way into the shipbreakers' yards.

[Clyde River Steamers 1872-1922, Andrew McQueen]

          A sad story from Glasgow was the sinking of the Clyde Street ferry-boat at the end of November 1864. The boat left the ferry-steps loaded down almost to the gunwale just at the Inveraray Castle was passing. The steamers paddles, which were of the old, non-feathering pattern, set up a considerable wash, which capsized the ferry-boat. The exact number of lives lost was never ascertained with absolute certainty, but it was not less than nineteen. The affair caused considerable sensation, and rules were established for restricting the number of passengers allowed on board ferries.

          Another story relates to the attempt to tow the Lady Gertrude of rocks at Rothesay after her reversing gear had failed. This occurred on 13th January 1877 in a gale, which effectively blew her past the pier, hitting it, and onto the rocks beyond. The Inveraray Castle was unable to shift her, in spite of the use of a hawser. the Lady Gertrude eventually broke her back and became a total loss.

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

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