ing ower the funnel, and near puttin' out the fire on us, and wad do sae if the smoke dinna keep it frae coming doon.""

The wrecks, however, don't count more than two or three altogether. The Mars, an old Largs steamer, went ashore in a gale after her engine broke down; and the Lady Gertrude took the rocks at Toward Point, due to a like cause, her ribs remaining for long, showing at lowwater gaunt and grim; the Eclipse managed to run her

Collisions

self ashore on the Gantocks reef, off Dunoon. are also of rare occurrence, although occasionally at times such an accident occurs when two boats are trying to take a pier in a hurry. And as a good many accidents have nearly happened in like situations, due not only to the rivalry of the steamboat captains, but to the desire for speed and rapid transit on the part of the passengers, steps have been taken to erect proper signalling arrangements, somewhat after the railway system, under the charge of the piermaster, whose duty will be to

signal which steamer has the right to approach the pier. This racing between rival boats has for long been indulged in, when opportunity offered; but as the danger from explosion may now be regarded as eliminated, due to improved materials and construction of boilers, and also to Board of Trade loaded safety-valves, the risks are very slight to the passengers. The boats being skilfully handled keep quite clear, unless when approaching a quay, when by coming too near each other they may rub some of their paint off, or get the side-planks of a paddle-box crushed in.

During an early competition for passengers on the river, and consequent low fares, a story is told of a fishwoman who intended travelling to Greenock by the Albion (which was a kind of luggage boat carrying passengers), shortly after the Earl Gray was blown upin 1835. The would-be passenger asked the captain if it was true that he carried passengers for sixpence. He said, “Yes.” But," she replied, “is there nae fear o' bein' blawn up?" "Oh, no," said the captain; "we canna afoard to blaw ye up for sixpence."

Many of the Clyde river-steamers have wandered far from their early home, and found final resting-places on foreign shores and beneath the ocean waves. From the very earliest Clyde-built boats went off to England and France, to ply on the rivers there; this was only what might have been expected, from the fact of the Clyde being the birthplace of steamboat navigation. At certain times they departed, like some of the finny tribe, in shoals; thus about 1856 a number of our finest river steamers were sold for service on the Australian rivers,

some of them coming to grief on the way. Again, during the American Civil War, blockade-runners were much in request amongst the smart steamers of the Clyde. Curiously enough an old Clyde steamer, after acting as a blockade-runner, has now managed to get to the great lakes of North America, plying between Toronto and Niagara, on Lake Ontario.

Unfortunately the splendid river service of steamers is accompanied by much troublesome smoke and falling soot. Possibly the "haystack" boiler commonly used accounts for this, as the heated gases from the furnace shoot quickly through the various uptakes to the funnel. The stoke-holes are also necessarily limited, and we can hardly expect the stoker to remain longer below than necessary, hence his tendency to shovel in a good quantity of coal at a time and then ascend to the deck for a smoke himself. In the old days it was considered the proper thing to have a long pennant of black smoke streaming from the high and narrow funnel. Possibly as the early steamers were called by some the "reek boats," the association of smoke and the power within were closely identified.

STEAM SHIPPING.

As in making the Clyde a navigable river there were many eminent names, connected with the works, brought forward from time to time, so in the special and leading industries on its banks, both in ship-building and engineering, there are many names which have become household words, and will be honoured in the future as in the past.

Henry Bell, whose monument stands beside the old fort of Dunglass, overlooking the river which his enter

prize has rendered famous amongst the rivers of the world as the cradle of European steam navigation, started his Comet in 1812. Bell was a clever, enterprising man, and appears early to have turned his attention to steamship propulsion, as in 1800 he tried some experiments in this direction, and in the same year laid his plans before the Admiralty, but without a successful issue. Lord Nelson, however, thought differently, and with a deeper insight into the future than his colleagues, said: "My Lords and gentlemen, if you do not adopt Mr. Bell's scheme other nations will, and in the end vex every vein of this empire. It will succeed, and you should encourage Mr. Bell." The practical success was indeed very soon shown in America, where Fulton, with a native-built boat and a Boulton & Watt engine, started the Claremont on the Hudson, and it was not till about five years later that Bell managed to get his long-cherished scheme accomplished.

The Comet, begun in 1811, and launched in 1812, has several well-known names associated with her, as she was built by John Wood, of Port-Glasgow, "the father of all that is best in the style of our ships, and truest in the practical application of science in the ship-building trade of Great Britain."1 David Napier, afterwards so celebrated in connection with the development of the steamship industry of the Clyde, made the boiler. Bell's Comet, after undergoing various changes, was wrecked off Craignish, on the west coast, in October, 1820, and the engine was afterwards recovered and finally placed in the Museum at South Kensington, London. Bell was on

1 Mr. Robert Duncan's Presidential address, Inst. Engineers and Ship-builders in Scotland, session 1872-73.

board the Comet at the time of the disaster, as he had gone especially with the view of getting subscribers for a bigger and more powerful boat. This was now gone into vigorously, the West Highland lairds coming forward readily, and in 1821 Comet No. 2 appeared, which, after plying for some time to Inverness, was sunk by collision with the steamer Ayr, off Gourock, on 20th October, 1825; upwards of seventy people were lost in this disaster. The vessel was afterwards raised and many valuable articles recovered.

Henry Bell was born at Torphichen Mill, near Linlithgow, on the 7th of April, 1767; he died at Helensburgh on the 14th November, 1830, and was buried in the churchyard of Row, in the neighbourhood.

That the early attempt by Bell had all the elements of after success in it, appears from the following statement drawn up by well-known early Clyde engineers:

"Glasgow, 2nd April, 1825.

"We, the undersigned engineers in Glasgow, having been employed for some time past in making machines for steam vessels on the Clyde, certify that the principles of the machinery and paddles used by Henry Bell in his steamboat the Comet in 1812, have undergone little or no alteration, notwithstanding several attempts of ingenious persons to improve them.

Signed by Hugh and Robert Baird, John Neilson, David and Robert Napier, David M'Arthur, Claud Girdwood & Coy., Murdoch & Cross, William M'Andrew, William Watson."1

Professor Rankine also remarks, in speaking of this introduction of steam power: "Since that period the advancement of steam navigation has consisted not so 1 Life of Henry Bell, by Edward Morris.