Bell’s Comet was a quaint-looking craft, with a tall, slender funnel, that served the double purpose of mast and chimney. Her length was 42 feet, breadth 11 feet, draught of water 5½ feet. She had originally two small paddle-wheels on each side with four arms to each. The engine was about three horse-power, and seems to have been the joint production of Bell and the village blacksmith. The boiler was made by David Napier, at a cost of £52. The engine is still preserved in the patent office of the South Kensington Museum. The Comet was lengthened at Helensburgh, in 1818, to 60 feet, and received a new engine of six horse-power, by means of which her speed was increased to six miles an hour. This engine was made by John Robertson, of Glasgow.
BELL’S “COMET,” OFF DUMBARTON ON THE CLYDE, 1812.
From “Chambers’ Book of Days.”
The Comet did not pay as a passenger boat on the Clyde, and was soon after her launch put on the route to Fort William, and continued on that stormy route till December 15th, 1820, when she was wrecked at Craignish, on the West Highland coast. She had left Oban that morning against the advice of her captain, who deemed the boat unseaworthy and quite unfit to encounter the blinding snow storm, in the midst of which she went ashore. But Bell had over-ruled the captain. Fortunately there was no loss of life. She was replaced in the following year by a larger and improved style of vessel, called by the same name and sailed by the same master, Robert Bain, who was the first to take a steamer through the Crinan Canal, and the first to traverse the Caledonian Canal from sea to sea by steam, in 1822. The second Comet came into collision with the steamer Ayr off Gourock in October, 1825, and sank with the loss of seventy lives. She was raised, however, was rigged as a schooner, renamed the Anne, and sailed for many years as a coaster.
Mr. Bell was born in Linlithgow in 1767. The son of a mechanic, he worked for some time as a stone-mason, afterwards as a carpenter, and gained some experience in ship-building at Bo’ness under Mr. Rennie. He removed to Helensburgh in 1808, where his wife kept the Baths Inn while he was experimenting in mechanical projects. He was a man of energy and enterprise, but like most inventors was always scant of cash. Had it not been for the generosity of his friends, and an annuity of £100 which he received from the Clyde Trust, he would have come to want in his old age. He seems to have had steam navigation on the brain as early as 1786, and had communicated his ideas on the subject to most of the crowned heads of Europe, as well as to the President of the United States, before he built the Comet. Mr. Bell’s memory is perpetuated in an obelisk erected by the city of Glasgow corporation on a picturesque promontory on the banks of the Clyde at Bowling, “in acknowledgment of a debt which it can never repay.” There is also a handsome granite obelisk to his memory on the esplanade at Helensburgh, the inscription on which testifies that “Henry Bell was the first in Great Britain who was successful in practically applying steam power for the purpose of navigation.” The stone effigy of the man adjoining his grave in Row churchyard was placed there by his friend Robert Napier, whose fame and fortune were largely the result of Bell’s enterprise. Mr. Bell died at his inn in Helensburgh, November 14th, 1830.
Fifty years later witnessed the full development of Mr. Bell’s ideal in the Columba, then as now the largest river steamer ever seen on the Clyde, and the swiftest. The Columba is built of steel, is 316 feet long and 50 feet wide. She has two oscillating engines of 220 horse-power, and attains a speed of twenty-two miles an hour. Her route is from Glasgow to Ardrishaig and back, daily in summer, when she carries from 2,000 to 3,000 persons through some of the finest scenery in Scotland. She is provided with steam machinery for steering and warping her into the piers, and with other modern appliances that make her as handy as a steam yacht. She resembles a little floating town, with shops and post-office where you can procure money orders and despatch telegrams And what is the Columba after all but an enlarged and perfected reproduction of Bell’s Comet!
“COLUMBA,” FAMOUS CLYDE RIVER STEAMER, 1875.