The “Lady Wolseley”
(British and Irish Steam Packet Co.)
Dundee, Perth and London Shipping Company
This company dates, like others on the east coast, from the time when the voyage between the Thames and Scotland was only performed by sailing smacks, and of these they ran nineteen. But in 1834 the smacks were removed and paddle-steamers took their place. Their first steamers were the Dundee and the Perth, each boat having a commander as well as a sailing master. They were wonderful vessels for the time, being of 650 tons burden and 300 horse-power. They were advertised as “these splendid and powerful steamers”; the cabins were “airy, commodious” (epithet beloved of steam-ship companies), and “elegant.” The company’s present-day fleet consists of the London and the Perth, each of 1737 tons and 3000 horse-power.
Isle of Man Steam Packet Company
No steamer company holds a more honourable position in the coastal and passenger trade than the Isle of Man Steam Packet Company. The vessels in early years were known as “the little Cunarders,” a compliment which they well deserved. The appearance of the vessels of the two companies was much the same, and the red and black funnel has always been a distinguishing feature of both lines. The first boat of the Isle of Man Company was built by John Wood of Glasgow in 1830, and named the Mona’s Isle, a title which has been borne by more than one distinguished successor. She was schooner-bowed, and carried on her paddle-boxes, which were placed well forward, the familiar three-legged sign of Manxland. The engines of the first Cunarder built for the transatlantic service were by Napier, who also built the hull, and this steamer was to all intents and purposes a large edition of the Mona’s Isle, whose engines he had previously built. Her dimensions were 116 feet in length by 19 feet beam, with a depth of 10 feet, and 200 gross tonnage. She cost £7042, and when sold in 1851 after twenty-one years’ service, in which she proved a most profitable vessel, she fetched £580.
But the first steamer seen in Manx waters was the Henry Bell, named after the constructor of the historic Comet; she was on her way from the Clyde to Liverpool to be placed on the service between Liverpool and Runcorn and put in at Ramsey Bay. In May of the following year the Greenock arrived at Douglas, whence she took some passengers to Laxey, and, as a local chronicler puts it, “moved by apparent enchantment.” The Mona’s Isle was thought to be too large and valuable to risk being used in winter, and a smaller boat was therefore ordered from the same builder. This was the Mona, and after her arrival in July 1832, she was engaged in a service between the island and Whitehaven and in taking visitors on trips round the island. Even before the advent of the steamers, the Isle of Man had become a favourite place at which to spend the summer, especially among the people of the north and west counties. If affection for the island could induce so many hundreds of people to brave the discomforts of a voyage from the Mersey to Douglas and back again in the small sailing packets which then were the means of communication, it is little wonder that the advent of the steamers, restricted in dimensions as they were, poor in accommodation, and slow travellers, should have increased her popularity. Occasionally the sailing packet took as long as a week to make the trip, and it was hailed as an extraordinary circumstance that a vessel trading between Douglas and Whitehaven was able to make fifty-two voyages each way in the course of a year. In 1813 also, a sailer took three days and nights to get within sight of Liverpool, and was then driven back by stormy weather to the island.
The “Ben-my-Chree” (I.). Built 1845.