Dublin and Glasgow Steam Packet Co
of 71 North Wall, Dublin
1836 The company was established.
1850 John Black and Co ceased to be partners in the Dublin and Glasgow Steam Packet Co[1]
1872 The company was registered as unlimited on 31 January. [2]
‘Cross-Channel and Coastal Paddle Steamers’ by George Frank Burtt
THE company maintained a passenger and cargo service between the two ports indicated by its title. The principal particulars of the paddle steamers owned are given in the table on page 270.
The LORD GOUGH was re-boilered in 1869, and the LORD CLYDE (II) in 1870. The DUKE OF LEINSTER in 1880 was re-engined and re-boilered by Messrs. A. and J. Inglis, Glasgow, who fitted her with compound oscillating engines. The h.p. cylinder was 42 in. diameter and the l.p. cylinder 72 in., the stroke of the pistons being 84 in. The n.h.p. was 396. She was later sold to the Dublin and Manchester Steamship Co. and finally finished with the Dublin firm of Stewart and Lowen. Messrs. Inglis also re-engined and re-boilered in 1881 the DUKE OF ARGYLE, with similar engines to the DUKE OF LEINSTER.
In 1862, the company sold the HAVELOCK and the HERALD and they departed for American waters to be employed as blockade runners, and orders were given to Messrs. Caird and Co. of Greenock for two new paddle steamers to replace them; these two new vessels were christened LORD CLYDE and LORD GOUGH.
The LORD CLYDE was put into service in September, 1862, and as consort for her until the second vessel was completed the company chartered the VANGUARD, which was an iron-built vessel and was one of the earliest owned by the company and, while regarded as one of the best constructed vessels of her time (1843), she had been sold when larger and faster vessels were required.
In October, 1862, the LORD CLYDE created a new record by making the run from Greenock to Dublin in 12 hours 15 minutes, the previous best passage having been made by the HAVELOCK in 1859 when she did the trip in 13 hours 10 minutes.
Although a very successful steamer, the LORD CLYDE worked on the service only until May, 1863, as being a fast boat the company received an advantageous offer for her and she followed the two earlier steamers across the Atlantic, where it was recorded that all three were remarkably successful in their exciting mission.
The VANGUARD was employed only a few months as her owners sold her to an East Coast firm and, until the LORD GOUGH was put on the station in June, 1863, the service was maintained by various odd steamers chartered as opportunity offered.
On her maiden trip, the LORD GOUGH made the run in 12 hours 16 minutes, just one minute slower than the record trip of the LORD CLYDE.
When the first LORD CLYDE was sold, an order was given immediately for the building of a similar vessel and this new vessel - which also bore the same name, LORD CLYDE - was constructed with such celerity that it was launched in October of the same year and put into service in January, 1864.
A few months later the EARL OF CARLISLE was added to the fleet and she again lowered the record for the passage by making the run in 12 hours 4 minutes.
These three paddle steamers were sisters: they were schooner rigged and had bowsprits, clipper bows and figureheads, also two black painted funnels placed aft of the engines. It needs but little imagination to picture these handsome vessels passing down the Firth of Clyde with the Scottish hills as a background.
In December, 1864, the EARL OF CARLISLE was in collision with the steamer GUY FAWKES off Greenock, resulting in the loss of four lives.
In 1866, the company, desiring to increase their weekly sailings from four to six, placed an order for another steamer similar in design and dimensions to the three previous vessels. Named the EARL OF DUBLIN, she was launched in 1866 and took up the running in March, 1867. On her maiden trip, she beat the EARL OF CARLISLE’S record by nine minutes, completing the journey in ii hours 55 minutes.
Unfortunately, this was her only opportunity of proving her speed as on her second trip she ran ashore at Ballyhalbert, County Down. Luckily, no lives were lost, passengers and crew being safely landed, but the vessel itself was less fortunate. Although not very seriously damaged at the onset, a storm came up before she could be refloated with the result that the hull was so badly strained that she was given over to the underwriters. The wreck was put up for sale by auction at Belfast and purchased by the well-known shipbuilders, Messrs. Harland and Wolff. Engines and boilers were taken out and the forward and aft portions of the hull salved. The vessel was in due course rebuilt and lengthened some twenty-five feet, the engines meanwhile being thoroughly overhauled by their makers, Rankin & Blackmore, and in the summer of 1868, the reconstructed vessel left the shipyard looking as serviceable and handsome as ever.
To replace the loss of the EARL OF DUBLIN, the company purchased one of three paddle steamers that belonged to a Liverpool firm that had traded between Liverpool and Dublin and had gone out of business the previous year. The vessel purchased, named the GREAT NORTHERN, was rather larger than the existing steamers but after minor alterations had been carried out to make her more suitable for the service, she commenced running as the MARQUIS OF ABERCORN.
With her new owners her career was not long, for on the 17th May, 1869, she was in collision with the same company’s steamer LORD GOUGH off Port Patrick and sank with two hundred head of cattle aboard. The LORD GOUGH sustained comparatively little damage and took off the passengers and crew without loss from the wrecked steamer.
To make good the loss of the MARQUIS OF ABERCORN, the company decided to purchase the old EARL OF DUBLIN, reconstructed as already mentioned but, most probably with a view to hiding her identity from travellers of a superstitious turn of mind, when she made her second appearance on the service it was under the name of the DUKE OF EDINBURGH. However, if it was surmised by her owners that a change of nomenclature would change her ill-luck, they were doomed to disappointment as before she had been running five months, this ill-fated steamer was in trouble again and on this occasion became a total wreck.
The catastrophe occurred in the early morning of 19th January, 1870. Whilst returning from Dublin in a fog, she ran at full speed on to the shore of Ailsa Craig. Attempts were made to refloat her and she was moved about twenty feet, but it was found that she was so badly holed that she would sink if further attempts were made to get her ofl. Before anything could be done to patch her, bad weather set in and she broke in half amidships, the stern portion sinking. It is curious that tliis steamer was re-purchased to replace the vessel which was bought to make good her own loss.
The last two paddle steamers purchased by this company were the DUKE OF LEINSTER, bought in 1870 to replace the DUKE OF EDINBURGH, and the DUKE OF ARGYLE, bought in 1873.
Ships
- PS Vanguard
- PS Havelock
- PS Herald (II)
- PS Lord Clyde
- PS Lord Clyde (II)
- PS Lord Gough
- PS Earl of Carlisle
- PS Earl of Dublin
- PS Duke of Leinster
- PS Duke of Argyle
- PS Guy Fawkes
- PS Marquis of Abercorn