A maritime aristocrat

THIS photograph captures perfectly the golden age of the Clyde before the Great War.

The scene is Rothesay Pier, packed with holidaymakers, and probably dates from the early years of the 20th century.

During that era, steamers on the river were regarded by small boys with much the same enthusiasm as jet fighters are today.

Also worthy of note are the number of rowing boats in the background. Until the advent of health and safety, boat stances were common on the shores of Clyde resorts, and aspiring mariners had the opportunity to spend an hour on the briny for a modest sum. The ship portrayed is the handsome Lord of the Isles, an aristocrat among Clyde steamers, second only to the Columba in prestige.

She was designed for the gentry, not the working classes, and her furnishings reflected that.

The Lord of the Isles was a remarkably beautiful ship. Ordered in 1891 from D and W Henderson of Partick, she replaced a vessel of the same name, which had inaugurated the Glasgow and Inveraray Steamboat Company’s flagship Inveraray service in 1877. The new ship was powered by diagonal oscillating machinery and on her first trip to Inveraray bettered her predecessor’s time by 20 minutes.

She was a ‘butterfly boat’; in an era of extravagance fleet owners operated prestige vessels only in the summer season, leaving winter services to the workhorses of their fleets. The Lord of the Isles left Bridge Wharf at 7.20am, calling at a number of piers en route and departed Inveraray on the return leg at 2.20pm, arriving back in the city around 8pm.

She also connected with the ‘Famed Loch Eck Tour’ (advertising agents in these days were very fond of heady adjectives) linking up with passengers from the Fairy Queen cruise on Loch Eck.

For a decade the Lord of the Isles ruled the Inveraray route unchallenged, but with the arrival of the pioneering turbine King Edward - faster and smoother - her popularity waned. In 1912 she was sold to her rival’s owners and put on a new route, sailing from Glasgow at 10.30am to Tighnabruaich and then round Bute before sailing back. She spent the Great War in home waters, sailing from Glasgow to Lochgoilhead, as her way south from Dunoon was blocked by an anti-submarine boom, returning to her round Bute route at the end of the war.

In 1928 she sailed for MacBrayne to Arrochar, but it was her swansong, for at the end of that season she was towed to Port Glasgow for breaking up.

Throughout her career of nearly four decades she retained her attractive funnel colours, probably the most striking on the river.