The first battalion Grenadier Guards, upwards of 700 strong, commanded by Lieut-Col Barclay, arrived here on Thursday last, from Dublin, and have since proceeded by canal, in Messrs Pickford’s fly-boats, to London.
Gore’s Liverpool General Advertiser
14 August 1823
Posted in Canals, Extant waterways, Foreign parts, Ireland, Passenger traffic, Sea
Tagged canal, Dublin, fly-boat, Grenadier Guards, Liverpool, London, Pickford, soldiers
There are few promenades more interesting and attractive than the marine parades of our town. George’s Dock Pier presents a delightful and ever-varying panorama, bounded to the westward by the Welsh mountains slumbering in their mists, and behind by the lofty piles of warehouses and mansions, overtopped by the gigantic spires of St George, St Michael, and St Thomas, the cupola of the Exchange, and that of St Paul; while the beautiful village of Everton, with its princely villas and gothic-towered church, scarcely visible through the cloud of smoke that hangs over the town, rises in the back ground.
The “Yo heave ho!” of the seaman, or the curling rush of water from vessel’s bow, mingle with the distant roar of commerce, and the stroke of the shipwright’s hammer. On the opposite shore, the fields of Cheshire appear like a coloured map; and Birkenhead (with its embowering trees), Woodside and Seacombe, and numerous hamlets and villas, smiling in the sunbeam, entice many an idle wight to step into one of the ferry boats that constantly ply to and fro.
The Mersey, studded with innumerable vessels of all descriptions, from the puny skiff to the stately East Indiaman, extends from north to south for many miles, and presents a continual shifting of marine scenery, as vessels glide up or down with the tide, or stretch across its sunny surface; some, amidst the shout of the boatman and the rude ejaculation of the pilot, setting sail for a far distant land; others returning portward, freighted with the riches of America or of India. Here a long-absent party landing amidst the welcomes and thick-coming inquiries of their friends; there some luggard wight alternately waving farewel to his friends who linger on the pier, and exhorting the speed of the rowers, who waft him towards some vessel already sailing on her outward voyage.
In such a scene, the actors experience emotions of the most opposite nature. Some oppressed with a silent, pensive regret, on leaving the land of their fathers, perhaps for ever, for some darkling and precarious prospect of ameliorated condition; others bounding with gladness, on returning from hardships and perils, to the place of their affections, and the security of an independent home. The sublime communion of nature and art which this noble inlet of the ocean thus presents, rouses, in the contemplative mind, a thousand speculations; and the charms of the picture are heightened and enriched by the delicate and fresh touches of the pencil of fancy.
Since the improvements made of late years in our naval architecture, the superiority of our vessels, both in speed, comfort, and safety, over those of our ancestors, has, in a great degree, rendered a voyage to sea a matter of much less gravity and portent than it was wont to be. In their days, the adventurer on the stormy deep deemed it incumbent upon him to settle his worldly matters by testament before he embarked for the colonies of Virginia or Pennsylvania — adding, frequently, thereto, if the clouds were murky, a codicil in favour of some pious or charitable institution, by way of appeasing the wrath of the elements.
We manage these things with more economy in the nineteenth century. Such are the despatch, comfort, and regularity of our packet-ships, that the fine gentleman and his lady (who durst formerly scarce venture upon Winandermere in a good boat in the month of June) make it a matter of perfect indifference, on the score of time, comfort, and safety, whether he spend a couple of months at the lakes in Cumberland, or in a tour through the Highlands of Scotland; or take a trip, in the same time, to Long Island, and thence to sun himself for a fortnight on the banks of Lake Ontario. A voyage of seven weeks or two months was reckoned expeditious to North America, in the olden time, when performed by our portly, bluff, John-Bull looking merchantcraft, of so Aldermanic-like a mould as to move with the dignity and composure of a floating haystack.
But now-a-days, our dandy packet-shops are so sleek, so genteel, and so wedge-like, that a puff of wind makes them start off like race-horses; on they dash through thick and thin, like Tam o’Shanter and his mare, “despising wind, and rain, and fire”; and the Atlantic Ocean is crossed in eighteen or twenty days. Many of our coasting and Irish smacks, too, show very houndish propensities when they stuff the gale; and it was long imagined that the surly sea defied all further invention or contrivance of man to improve our marine vehicles, or render them, in any degree, less dependant on fair winds, smooth seas, and patent canvas.
Steam navigation, if hinted at as probably feasible, was generally scouted as ridiculous; and the old jack-tar, while he shrugged up his shoulders with self-gratulating importance, laughed at the notion, as being just as good as that of a pair of blacksmith’s bellows on the poop to fill the royals in a calm; and deemed the whole a land-lubbers’ device to encroach upon the unalienable and indivisible privileges of mainsail, foresail, and jib. Yet, notwithstanding the sneers of honest Jack, he has lived to see vessels of upwards of 300 tons burden, and of the most beautiful models, propelled on their course by means of steam, with a velocity equal to that of a sloop of war in a topgallant breeze.
The Mersey is now enlivened, not only by the continual departure or arrival (in addition to the flotillas of ordinary merchant ships) of regularly-sailing elegant packet ships from the different large towns in the United States (than which finer or better appointed vessels never floated) but we have the grand novelty of steam ships constantly plying the river; rushing along, without a sail set, at the rate of seven to ten miles an hour; each like a monster of the deep, flapping the sea with its huge fins, spouting forth dusky streams of smoke which it trails frequently for upwards of a mile behind it, in a swelling line of melting clouds.
The arrival or departure of any of these vessels attracts crowds of individuals to the landing places, and gives an animation to the shore and river, which it did not before possess. Nor is this to be wondered at, when we witness the numbers who emigrate even in one vessel; soon after she has discharged a sufficient number of both sexes, to people a moderate sized colony. Besides the larger packets which proceed to the Isle of Man, Dublin, Glasgow, Dumfries, Holyhead, and other parts of Wales, there are numbers, proportionably neat and convenient, plying almost hourly to the different ferries on the river, as far up as Runcorn.
For the information of our distant readers, and those in town who have not had an opportunity of seeing the interior accommodations provided in these vessels, which are exclusively adapted for passengers, we have visited two of them recently built and equipped at our own port, and shall endeavour to describe one of them.
This vessel (built by Messrs Mottershead and Hayes) is 130 feet in length, and admeasures 300 tons. Her rig is that of a two-masted schooner, with foretopsail; and her deck is flush as far as a small poop, and presents a fine roomy area, without that complication of cordage which so much cramps regular sail-ships; no part of the machinery rises in the centre of the deck so as to destroy its general openness and amplitude. Her chimney is proportionally lower than any we have yet seen, and, being whitened, has not the usual clumsy and disfiguring effect; and her whole appearance (having a handsome figure-head and quarter-galleries) is like that of what sailors term a rakish privateer; and gives a lively idea of the terrible effects of such a vessel even with one great-gun, if employed in harassing an enemy’s fleet in a calm. This observation applies also to the Majestic steam-ship, the St George, and most of the other packets in the trade.
It is due to the thriving town of Greenock, whence, we believe, our steam packet owners first derived the idea of these elegant steam ships, to state, that the beautiful figure-heads, on nearly all of them, were carved by a gentleman of that town, who is particularly eminent in that art.
We shall now describe
This neat and commodious room is of considerable capacity. A large table stands in the centre, and forms, or couches, cushioned in black-hair cloth, extend around it, The walls are neatly pannelled and painted, and open by respective doors into eight state-rooms, each containing three comfortable beds. The upper part of these doors is composed of mahogany Venetian blinds, for the freer admission of light and air; a wax-cloth covers the floor. This room is intended chiefly for a sleeping and dressing room for gentlemen — has every suitable convenience; and, as in the other cabins, a steward is in constant attendance.
Not far from the front cabin is the engine-room, near the top of which is a passage leading to a little gallery, with brass railings, where the curious may stand and have a full view of the whole engines at work, without interrupting those who superintend them. The engines were made in Liverpool, by Messrs Fawcett and Littledales, and, it is acknowledged by judges, are constructed and finished in a most correct and masterly manner. The improvement here exhibited on the plan of those first adopted in steam-vessels, is, to any one of the slightest mechanical turn, at once obvious; the whole being admirably contrived to avoid unnecessary weight of metal, and, by compactness and arrangement, to throw the main weight of the engines (which, we understand, with the boilers, to be about 130 tons) as low down as possible. The cylinders are 42 inches diameter, and the engines (both exactly alike, worked by a common boiler, and with a railed passage between them for the protection of the engineer) are upwards of 100-horse power. [We saw those of the St George, of the same power, and by the same makers, set a-going for the first time, not until the vessel was under weigh with passengers for the Isle of Man; so well could the manufacturers rely on their correctness and precision, that no previous trial was deemed necessary.]
Without being judges of the grand, we may say noble, art of engineering, we were struck with admiration on beholding the triumph of human art and genius, exhibited by the giant motion of these powerful engines. The castings combine neatness with strength; the minutest rods, and even screws, are of the highest polish and finish; and the regularity and smoothness of every movement left a conviction, that the art had reached the summit of perfection. One grand improvement we also observed: the fire is not, as in some other vessels, in the engine-room, but is fed from another room, on the other side of the boiler, so that the machinery is kept free from ashes and coal-dust, and the engineers are not annoyed by the opening of the furnaces and the heaving of coals. Moreover, there are an additional number of fire-places (five in all) under the boiler, which is an improvement on the original system, as, by diffusing a more equable heat, with less waste of fuel, a more constant and even power of steam is kept up.
On descending from the quarter deck, by a flight of stairs handsomely and richly railed, we arrive at the two principal cabins. The sternmost is adapted exclusively for the use of the ladies. This room is lighted by four windows in the stern, with rich cornices and hangings, and a frosted sky or deck-light in the centre. The sides are entirely of pannel work, of the choicest flowered mahogany, and superbly finished and polished; between each series of pannels, a mirror forms the middle of the pillar work that divides them, and, there are three large mirrors fixed in the rudder-case, and another of ample dimensions on the wall directly opposite; the whole incased in antique carved work of polished mahogany. The mirrors have a very striking effect, and on every side magically enlarge the appartment.
Sofa fixtures in black hair cloth surround the room, and form, when required, large and commodious beds, and over each the pannels slide down on pullies, and expose well-aired and neatly-fitted bed-plpaces. The large pannel-frames which thus slide down are richly draperied with stretched silk, which is protected by handsome net or wicker-work of gilded brass, and has a very light and relieving effect. There is also a water-closet and a small room, for the use of female servants; the entrances to both being from the interior of the ladies’ cabin. There are also two elegant private cabins for families, with ample bedding, and fitted up in a style of elegance correspondent with the main cabins.
Descending a few steps from this cabin (which is under the poop) we reach
An apartment 24 feet in length by 18. The whole is pannelled with the choicest mahogany of a beautiful polish; and, in the pillars dividing each series of pannels, a mirror is inserted. Sofa fixtures of the greatest neatness and ample dimensions are placed round the room, and over each, as in the other cabin, the woodwork slides down, and exhibits roomy and comfortable bed-places.
The room is lighted by a large oblong window in the roof, and the floor is covered with a wax-cloth. At the far end is a circular library, contrived so as to surround the mainmast. There are six fashionable tables so contrived with screws to the floor, that they may be available apart and equidistant for small select parties, or may be converted into one large complete table all round the room, the guests being seated on the sofas, and the ample area in the middle left for the convenience of the waiters.
Here also those who feel inclined to jollity may “trip it on the light fantastic toe”. We can scarcely conceive any thing more delightful than the society at the well plenished table — of the respectable individuals who will naturally meet in good humour and fellowship in such a place — while converse is chastened by the presence of females of respectability and education, and the vessel is wheeled along over the ocean wave, and gallantly progresses on her voyage. Formerly, a voyage to sea, so cramped and miserable were the accommodations, and so frequently oppressive the effluvia of tar and bilge-water, was undertaken by ladies, only on occasions of imperative necessity; and endured as a sort of unavoidable hardship, which demanded, at once, their patience and their fortitude. Here, however, a hotel offers not more comparative convenience, suitable to the dignity and delicacy of the sex; and they are free to mingle in the general throng of genteel passengers, or avail themselves of that privacy which their own cheerful apartment affords.
Since visiting the St Patrick we have seen the St George, a twin steam-ship of the same owners (built by Messrs Dawson and Pearson of this town); and her fitting-up is, in every respect, similarly elegant. She is the sharpest-built vessel in the trade, and is extremely swift. The Majestic we last year amply described. Her cabins are also elegant, and rather larger than those described. The City of Glasgow may also be mentioned as another superb vessel. Indeed we may say, with justice and impartiality, that all the steam-ships of the port approximate, more or less, to this elegance of equipment; and, any alleged superiority in those of the larger class, may, in many instances, be but a mere matter of taste.
Such of their commanders as we have any acquaintance with are men of the utmost hospitality, frankness, and urbanity of manners — gentlemen whose education and cheerfulness always ensure even the strange way-farer an agreeable companion and an attentive landlord. Most of these vessels carry a few musicians; and the lively notes of the bugle and the clarionet are often heard mellowed along the water, and mingling with the splash of the paddle-wheel.
We consider steam-navigation to be one of the noblest inventions of the age. Already it has greatly increased the annual number of travellers between Scotland, England, Ireland, and France; and its operations may, ere long, extend to more distant shores, opening a new channel of commerce, and diffusing intelligence by facilitating the communication of nations. Some have availed themselves of this easy and health-inspiring conveyance for purposes of despatch and business; others for change of air, pleasure, or a thirst for travel and research.
In the summer months, the excursion to Wales, the Isle of Man, Dublin, Clyde, and the Hebrides, is peculiarly attractive; and, as in the days of Richardson and Smollet, many of our works of fancy were enriched by the strange and embarrassing adventures of the stage-coach; we may now anticipate from some of our modern scribes, animated speculations on character and incident on board the steam-ship, which, from the vast number of passengers, of various temperaments and pursuits which congregate on board, will afford a prolific field for the ingenuity of the novelist, or the vagaries of the muse.
An idea of the general speed of these vessels may be learned from the fact, that the passage from Glasgow, a distance of 209 miles, has been performed in twenty and a half hours’ sailing. That from Dublin (120 miles) in twelve hours; and this too in defiance of wind and tides.
From The Kaleidoscope; or, Literary and Scientific Mirror vol 2 no 104 new series 25 June 1822
My attention was drawn to this article by David M Williams and John Armstrong in their article “‘One of the noblest inventions of the age’: British steamboat numbers, diffusion, services and public reception, 1812–c1823” in The Journal of Transport History vol 35 no 1 Manchester University Press, June 2014
Posted in Engineering and construction, Foreign parts, Historical matters, Passenger traffic, Sea, Steamers
Tagged Kaleidoscope, Liverpool, Majestic, Mersey, St George, St Patrick, steam boat, steam-ship, steamer
I have mentioned the Newport transporter bridge, but today Jonathan Calder provides a film about the larger [Widnes to] Runcorn transporter. There are barges and cars and all sorts.
It always strikes me as odd that Liverpool has no bridges and that you have to go miles upstream to Runcorn to cross (if you want to be above water and not on a ferry, although the ferry trip is a wondrous thing in itself).
Of course Runcorn itself didn’t always have a bridge. Before that you had to cross by ferry, per tuppence per person per trip.
We are happy in being informed, that the young man (son of the Rev T Cooper, of Leeds street, Liverpool) who was suspected of having been drowned whilst bathing at Liverpool, and for whose body a reward was last week offered, was picked up alive by one of the Dublin Packets outward bound, having been carried away by the rapidity of the current, and after a voyage to Ireland, was on Saturday last restored to his disconsolate friends, having thus been most providentially rescued from a watery and untimely grave.
Lancaster Gazette 25 May 1816
Posted in Foreign parts, Ireland, Sea, Water sports activities
On Saturday last, as the Commerce steam packet, belonging to the City of Dublin Company, was starting from George’s Pier Head, Batchelor, the police constable on duty, called out to the commander of the vessel to hold on for a few minutes, and instantly went on board with two of his assistants, and after a few minutes’ search they returned on shore with one of the passengers in custody, who was dressed in sailor’s clothes, and passed by the name of Wm Brown.
The case of this person’s apprehension was a report which had been communicated to the Constable that a female in a disguise, the description of which corresponded with this person’s attire, had taken a passage for Dublin by the Commerce, which awakened in his mind, not unnaturally, a suspicion that it was some woman who had either escaped from prison, or had been engaged in some robbery, and was flying to evade detection, whom it was therefore his duty to detain for examination before a Magistrate. The dress had been so minutely described, that it was impossible to mistake the person, notwithstanding the addition of a still deeper disguise of intoxication, in which the party was found at the time of making the capture.
When safely lodged in Bridewell and about to undergo a personal examination by Mrs Clayton, the wife of the keeper, finding detection inevitable, the prisoner confessed the fact of her sex and disguise.
In the evening, when perfectly sobered, she stated her name to be Selina Augusta Hamilton. Inquiries which had been made in the interim led to the discovery of the house in which she had been lodging by the Old Dock, and one of the constables was engaged, in the course of the evening, in conversation with the landlady for the purpose of tracing her history, when a respectably dressed man entered the room, to whom the landlady pointed and said “here’s the very gentleman as can tell you all about her”. The gentleman in question proved to be the master of the brig Laura, of New York, lying in Prince’s Dock, whose name we have been told is Duffey.
From the account given by this person, who, we believe, was the cause of her detention, as well as from her own statement, the following particulars of this extraordinary being have been collected.
Her father is said to be a merchant in London, and owner, wholly or in part, of several vessels, one of which was stated to be now lying in George’s Dock. He was said, as we understood it, to have a counting-house at Topham’s (query Topping’s?) Wharf, and a dwelling-house at Shadwell. From his house, it appears that she absconded about three years ago, to follow a young man with whom she had fallen in love. He was the mate of a vessel in the North American trade; and hearing that he had sailed for St John’s, New Brunswick, she came down to Liverpool, and took her passage in a vessel bound to that place. This part of her story is confirmed by several persons in this town, who recollect having seen her at that period, when they describe her to have been a young lady of fashionable appearance, elegantly dressed, and ladylike in her deportment.
On her arrival at St John’s, she found that the vessel to which her lover belonged had gone to Quebec; thither she therefore followed him, and there she learned that he had been drowned in the passage up the river St Lawrence.
Her determination was immediately taken to become a sailor for his sake, and, doffing her woman’s gear, of which she found means to dispose, and submitting the luxuriant tresses of her flaxen hair to the sheers, in the attire befitting a youth of the station which she assumed, she engaged herself as cook and steward to the master of a vessel bound for London, with whom she remained upwards of twelve months. While the vessel lay in the Thames, she met her father one day in the street, and touched her hat to him as she passed, but so completely was she altered as to defy recognition. In that vessel she served upwards of twelve months, and would still have continued in her, but that the Master, suspecting her secret, at length succeeded in extorting from her an acknowledgement of the truth, and afterwards wished her to remain with him, upon terms to which she would not submit.
Her assumption of the habits of a sailor, it seems, has by no means been limited to the “jacket and trowsers blue”, but the grog and the “backee”, and “the pretty girls to boot”, have all contributed their share towards the completion of the matamorphosis [sic]. Of the grog there was abundant evidence in her condition at the time of her being apprehended; of the tobacco, a token appeared in a well-filled box in her jacket pocket; and for the girls, she has unquestionably been humming them with a few adventures a la Paddingtoni. To one young woman she performed the honours of a regular courtship, underwent the threefold publication of the banns of marriage, and was only prevented from undergoing the ceremony itself, by a timely discovery of the parish officers, that the bride elect was in a condition very shortly to become a mother, when the creature was upon the point of declaring our heroine to be the father of her expected offspring; and then, says the latter, “you know I could not go any further”, and therefore the connection ended.
Since her arrival in Liverpool she has bamboozled more than one of the frail portion of its female inhabitants by affecting a serious attachment; and one night partaking too deeply of the potations to which she invited one of the beauties of Bridge-street, whom she had treated “to the play”, she was robbed by her of the greater part of her earnings by her last voyage.
The discovery of her sex on that occasion secured impunity to the plunderer, who afterwards buzzed it about; and to escape from the disagreeable consequences which the adventure had entailed upon her, she determined to go to Ireland in hopes of being able there to embark in one of the first vessels for British America, that being the trade to which she has attached herself in memory of her lover, William Brown, whose name she had assumed. She has stated since she has been in custody that she will have a fortune of £4000 at her own disposal when she comes of age — she is now not quite nineteen — and that she intends to lay it out in the purchase and equipment of a vessel, of which she expects by that time to have qualified herself to take the command.
She is in person of the ordinary stature of women, but rather stoutly made, and inclining to embonpoint; of fair complexion, with light hair and grey eyes, round face, features by no means handsome, though not unpleasing for a boy.
Yesterday, she was brought up for examination at the Town-hall, before Mr Alderman Peter Bourne, to whom a brief outline of her history had been sketched, the Mr Duffey, of the brig Laura, before named, appearing to state the grounds of her detention, in which, we must say, that for some reason or other, he cut as foolish a figure as any man could desire to do.
Before the lady made her appearance, Mr Duffey stated to the Magistrate that he had become acquainted with the prisoner from seeing her several times in her walk, near her father’s residence, but that he had no acquaintance with her father, whom, however, he knew to be a man of considerable property, as described above.
The prisoner, on being questioned by the Magistrate, said she knew that gentleman (Mr Duffey) very well, having often seen him at her father’s house.
The Magistrate then asked Mr Duffey if he had any thing to say against her; to which he replied, that he wished her to be given into his charge, that he might restore her to her father.
A look of something like surprise was the only comment of the girl upon this application; and the answer was, that he had no authority to give her into his charge. He, however, advised the girl to give up her present mode of life and return to her father.
She said she had made her own choice of her present mode of life, and she did not know why any one should wish to make her leave it. The Magistrate said he had no authority to prevent her from following her inclination, nor to detain her. She was therefore discharged.
Southern Reporter and Cork Commercial Courier 22 February 1827
Posted in Charles Wye Williams, Foreign parts, Historical matters, Operations, Passenger traffic, People, Sea, Steamers
Tagged female, Liverpool, Quebec, sailor, William Brown
31st December 1839: 591
31st December 1840: 568
Decrease: 23
Number of those existing in 1839 which were still open on 31st December 1840: 435
Number opened in 1840: 133
Number closed in 1840: 156
Proprietors having given up keeping these houses: 88
Proprietors having been reformed: 35
Proprietors in prison: 20
Proprietors having been transported: 4
Proprietors having died: 9
Number of prostitutes 31st December 1839: 2057
Number of prostitutes 31st December 1840: 2083
Increase: 26
Average number in each house: 3½
31st December 1839: 184
31st December 1840: 199
Decrease: 15
Number of those existing in 1839 which were still open on 31st December 1840: 156
Number opened in 1840: 43
Number closed in 1840: 28
Proprietors having given up keeping these houses: 19
Proprietors having been reformed: 8
Proprietors having died: 1
Number of prostitutes 31st December 1839: 347
Number of prostitutes 31st December 1840: 406
Increase: 59
Average number in each house: 2
Adapted from Table No 181 “Statement of the number of brothels, prostitutes, prostitutes’ lodging houses, mendicant’s [sic] lodging houses, and houses for the reception of stolen property, within the jurisdiction of the Liverpool Police, during the year 1840” in Tables of the Revenue, Population, Commerce, &c of the United Kingdom and its Dependencies Part X 1840 compiled from official returns HMSO London 1842
Posted in Ashore, Economic activities, Foreign parts, Historical matters
Tagged 1839, 1840, brothels, Liverpool, prostitutes, service industries
Yesterday I posted a notice from the Limerick Chronicle of 20 August 1834, outlining the schedule of events for the regatta to be held on Lough Derg later that month.
In a comment, Vincent Delany M.A. (Hist.) said
Lough Derg YC was founded c. 1836 but regattas to approx the same format existed on Lough Derg before the formalising of the yacht club.
My thesis ‘yachting and yachtsmen on the Shannon 1830s to 1930s’ discussed the issues extensively.
I have not seen the thesis, alas, but I thought I’d see what else the invaluable British Newspaper Archive had on the subject. The first result was that there was no mention, in any newspaper, of a Lough Derg regatta before 1834. I have not attempted to search for all possible terms involving sailing boats, races, yachts and so on; I think I can say that the 1834 event was the first on Lough Derg to be designated a regatta.
There had been similar events on the estuary before then: the Limerick Chronicle of 30 July 1834 reported the early events of the Royal Western Yacht Club’s regatta at Kilrush. Just below that it said
The Committee of the Lough Derg Regatta met at Killaloe on Friday, when a Commodore, Stewards, Secretary, and Treasurer, were appointed.
The 1834 regatta was covered by The Pilot on 29 August 1834. At the time, the term “upper Shannon” distinguished the freshwater from the tidewater: “lower Shannon” meant the estuary.
LOUGH DERGH REGATTA
Lough Dergh Regatta, Upper Shannon, commenced on Tuesday under most favourable auspices. The beautiful scenery of that romantic region will now be seen to great advantage, and many visiters [sic] have left to enjoy the treat. On Wednesday the boat races were to take place at Killaloe, and the Messrs Paterson, from Kilrush, 70 miles distant, on the Lower Shannon, have entered to contest the prize in that department. The band of the 91st Regiment, from Limerick, attended the regatta.
There were not less than ten thousand people assembled on the shores at Williamstown and Drumineer [sic] to witness the scene on Tuesday, and the Lake was literally covered with row boats, filled with ladies and gentlemen. There were five yachts started for the challenge cup, from Drumineer to Holy Island and back. The Corsair, Mr White, came in first; Ida, Mr Bailey, second; and Thomas, Lieut Tully RN, third.
There were only three minutes between those three boats — the others were not placed. Wednesday’s race was to be run by the same boats, for the Salver; and on Thursday the rowing matches take place at Killaloe. The Lady Lansdown [sic] steamer attended, and was crowded to excess, so much so that they were obliged to refuse taking more company on board.
A somewhat confused reporter there, but never mind. Interesting to note that Tom Bailey was navigating Ida around the Shannon way back then: he must be older than he looks.
The Northern Whig of 4 September 1834 added a little colour:
This Regatta commenced on Tuesday sen, as we announced, and the numerous gentry who attended from the adjoining counties, fully realized the anticipations we had formed of its attractions. The delightful scenery of the Upper Lakes, enlivened by the gay yachts, crowded with beauty and fashion, floating on their bosoms, had a most pleasing effect.
So many visiters [sic] arrived at Killaloe, to enjoy the diverting sport, that it became almost impossible to procure even ordinary entertainment. […]
In the following year, the Roscommon and Leitrim Gazette (18 July 1835) reported that
The Lough Derg Yacht Club have adopted the rules and regulations of the Royal Western Yacht Club, and the Regatta commences at Killaloe, the 23d inst; Dromineer, the 24th, and at Williamstown, the 25th instant.
My interest in this topic is in the involvement of Lieut John Tully RN. He visited Limerick in 1829 to make arrangements for the arrival of the first City of Dublin Steam Packet Company [CoDSPCo] steamer to operate on the Shannon, the Mona. It was replaced later that year by the Kingstown, which Tully captained for some time. In 1831 he was the company’s Limerick agent (John Grantham was its acting manager) and from then on, for the rest of his working life, he seems to have been an agent or otherwise working for or with the Company; he spent much time as Agent at Killaloe and later at Athlone. The yacht he sailed in 1834, the Thomas, may have belonged to the company’s founder, Charles Wye Williams, who in 1829 had a 10-ton schooner of that name at Liverpool.
Tully was Secretary and Treasurer of the first Lough Derg Regatta. It involved the provision of special packet boat services on the Limerick Navigation (controlled by a company strongly associated with the CoDSPCo. The regatta spent one day at Killaloe, where the company owned a hotel, and another at Williamstown, its private harbour, where it likewise owned a hotel. It also used either one or two of the company’s Lough Derg steamers.
Most importantly, though, it attracted visitors to Lough Derg, and thus supported the CoDSPCo’s marketing efforts. They included sponsorship of publications, special attention to visiting writers and large-scale advertising.
None of this is evidence that the CoDSPCo invented the Lough Derg Regatta, but I would not be surprised to find that it was at least an early and enthusiastic supporter of the concept.
For an account of a later Lough Derg Regatta, that of 1849, see here.
Posted in Built heritage, Charles Wye Williams, Economic activities, Engineering and construction, Extant waterways, Historical matters, Industrial heritage, Ireland, Irish inland waterways vessels, Operations, Passenger traffic, People, Scenery, Shannon, shannon estuary, Sources, Steamers, Tourism, Water sports activities, waterways, Waterways management
Tagged Charles Wye Williams, City of Dublin Steam Packet Company, CoDSPCo, cot, Dromineer, Drumineer, gig, John Tully, Killaloe, Kilrush, Liverpool, Lough Derg, Paterson, race, regatta, Royal Western Yacht Club, schooner, Shannon, Thomas, Williamstown
Older readers may, at some stage, have been forced encouraged to read some part of In Memoriam A H H, an extraordinarily long poem [make sandwiches (preferably anchovy) and a flask of coffee before you start reading it] written by Alfred Tennyson about the early death of his friend Arthur Henry Hallam. The poem was finished sixteen years after Hallam’s death in 1833.
In 1830 Tennyson and Hallam visited France and returned from Bordeaux by steamer. The steamer was the SS Leeds, owned by the City of Dublin Steam Packet Company, which had been operating on the route from Belfast to Dublin and Bordeaux, in the summer months, since 1827. Passengers from England were given free transport from Liverpool to Dublin [Saunders’s News-Letter 11 June 1827 via the British Newspaper Archive].
CoDSPCo ad from the Dublin Evening Mail of 8 August 1827. Image © The British Library Board. All rights reserved.
On their homeward journey, Tennyson and Hallam met the Tipperary-born landowner John Harden and his family. Harden lived in the English Lake District; he and his wife were “talented amateur artists”. The shipboard meeting is described in this extract from Leonee Ormond’s Alfred Tennyson: a literary life [Macmillan Press, Basingstoke 1993]. Harden sketched the group on deck`; here it is.
Tennyson, Hallam and the Harden family on board SS Leeds 1830
I cannot remember where I got that image. I presume that Harden’s copyright is long expired but it may be that a publisher or someone owns rights to the image. If I am in breach of copyright, leave a message below and I’ll remove the image.
Posted in Charles Wye Williams, Economic activities, Engineering and construction, Foreign parts, Historical matters, Ireland, Operations, Passenger traffic, People, Sea, Sources, Steamers, Tourism
Tagged belfast, Bordeaux, City of Dublin Steam Packet Company, Dublin, Hallam, John Harden, Liverpool, Tennyson
Irish waterways history 