Tod & Macgregor Shiplist

Notes:

          Used first on the Stornoway, thence on the Rothesay and Inveraray routes. Master; Arch. Campbell.

          Glencoe was a long lived, hard working steamer who had good seagoing qualities. She started life as a clipper bowed steamer with one funnel aft of the paddle boxes and two masts.

          It is said that she was built for the Castle Company and originally named Windsor Castle, but there is no trace in Lloyd's Register of her having ever borne that name. She may have been laid down with the intention of calling her the Windsor Castle, but the plan changed during construction.

           She was named Mary Jane, after the owner; Sir James Matheson's wife (Lady 'Mary Jane' Matheson),. She originally sailed from Glasgow to Oban, Tobermory and Lochalsh, also sailing from Stornoway to Lochinver.

          In 1851 she was acquired by the Glasgow & Lochfyne Steam Packet Co. and in 1857 she was sold to Messrs. Hutcheson, who retained her on the Loch Fyne run.

          From his hands, the steamer passed into the hands of D. Hutcheson & Co. and was placed on the Glasgow and Inveraray service, where she plied until 1875.

          She was renamed Glencoe when she was extensively modernised in 1875, then being lengthened and being converted from a clipper bowed, two masted flush decked steamer to a saloon steamer in the form shown in the picture. A saloon was erected on the after-deck and the bow became a slanting stem. She sailed on a number of West Highland routes and carried out a number of charters, including some for the Glasgow & South Western Railway and Caledonian Steam Packet Co. Above her dining saloon was a model of a golden eagle (a similar model being seen in PS Glengarry).

          After periods on the Oban-Fort William and Strome Ferry-Portree services Glencoe was employed principally on the West Loch Tarbert-Islay run until Pioneer was delivered in April 1905. This was followed by several years on the Mallaig-Kyle-Portree station.

          In 1880 ¹ her first steeple engine was replaced with a newer version.

          In 1915 Glencoe sailed for a time from Oban to the Sound of Mull and Tobermory, this being followed by a period of railway connection work on the Clyde under charter to Glasgow & South West Railway Company.

          Glencoe's principal service on the Clyde was between Ardrossan and Arron in Winter, though she appeared also on the Princes Pier-Dunoon run from time to time.

          In 1920 she was chartered by Clyde Cargo Steamers Ltd for the Glasgow-Inveraray cargo run.

          Glencoe ended up on the Portree Mail Service and she made her last run in 1931, eighty five years since her launch. She was broken up at Ardrossan and left the 1846 Premier as the oldest steamship in the world , with Premier lasting until 1938.

          Glencoe's second steeple engine was presented to the Glasgow Art Galleries and Museum. ¹
[Clyde River Steamers 1872-1922, Andrew McQueen]
¹ [Famous River Craft of the World, F. E. Dean]