Tod & Macgregor Shiplist

 

Yard No.:

 87

Name:

 KELPIE

Year:

 1857

Description:

 Paddle Steamer

Webpage:

 

Picture:

 

Tonnage:

 307

Length:

 191¹

Width:

 18¹

H.P.:

 100

Type:

 Iron. Steeple engine¹

Customer:

 P. M'Gregor for the Glasgow & Rothesay route.

Fate:

 Sank while entering Nassau harbour in December 1862³

Points of Note:

 Plied the Clyde from 1857 - 1858² 

Date of Launch:

 

Notes:

          Used first on the Glasgow to Largs, then the Millport & Arran route. Master; Dugaid Weir.

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

 

          The building of the Spunkie and Kelpie created an undoubted sensation on the Clyde river. Until they were sold for the more exciting work of blockade running they certainly infused vitality into the traffic on the firth. Employed chiefly in the Largs and Millport trade, they were among the last of the well-finished type of flush-deck steamers, with steeple engines and haystack boilers, which were run on the motto of that period - "speed regardless of expense".

[Clyde Passenger Steamers from 1812 to 1901, Williamson]

 

          The Kelpie was purchased by William Dargan in 1859 when he was making his second bid for the Shannon traffic, immediately after the opening of the railway to Foynes. 

 

          The Kelpie was certainly a good buy, for her first few months she carried 14,000 passengers between Foynes Pier and Kilrush and her takings (£80 per week) accounted for 30% of the total revenue of the Limerick & Foynes Railway company.

 

          In September 1862 she was sold as a blockade runner, an occupation in which she was lost later in the same year.

[Irish Passenger Steamship Services, D.B. McNeill]

²[Echoes of Old Clyde Paddle-Wheels, Andrew McQueen]

³[Lifeline of the Confederacy, Stephen R. Wise]

ª[Railway & other Steamers, Duckworth & Legmuir]