The terms are, for the present, fixed at 4s. for the best cabin, and 3s. the second, but beyond these rates nothing is to be allowed to servants, or any other person employed about the Vessel.
The subscriber continues his establishment at Helensburgh Baths, the same as for years past, and a vessel will be in readiness to convey Passengers that intend visiting Helensburgh.
Passengers by the ‘Comet’ will receive information of the hours of sailing, by applying at Mr. Thomas Stewart’s, Bookseller Square; and at Mr. Blackly’s, East Quay Head, Greenock; or at Mr. Houston’s office, Broomielaw.
Henry Bell.
Helensburgh Baths, 5th August, 1812.
[99] Mr. James Deas, C.E., in his “Treatise on the Improvements and Progress of Trade of the River Clyde,” (1873) says, “An old gentleman, seventy-seven years of age, and who has been connected with the Clyde for upwards of fifty years, informed me a short time ago that he made a voyage in the Comet in 1812. He left Greenock at 10 A.M. for Glasgow, but, in consequence of a ripple of head wind, it was 2 P.M. before they got to Bowling, 10½ miles above Greenock, where all the passengers were landed and had to walk to Glasgow, owing to the want of water, the tide having ebbed. It was no uncommon occurrence for the passengers, when the little steamer was getting exhausted, to take to turning the fly-wheel to assist her.”
[100] Henry Bell, like too many of the pioneers of vast and truly important undertakings, failed to profit by the successful application of steam to navigation; and in his declining years he was chiefly supported by an annuity of 50l. granted him by the Clyde trustees. He died at Helensburgh in 1830, aged 63. (“Treatise” by Mr. James Deas, p. 24.)
[101] “Encyclopædia Britannica” (eighth edition), vol. xx. p. 638.
In the Patent Office Museum there is now to be seen the engine of the first Comet which carried goods and passengers on the Clyde. It was erected there in 1862 by the same engineer, Mr. John Robertson of Glasgow, who fitted it in the Comet, exactly fifty years before that time. To this engine I shall again refer.
[102] When Smeaton first officially surveyed the Clyde in 1755, with a view to certain engineering improvements, he found the depth of the river, between Glasgow and Renfrew, of not more on the average than eighteen inches at low water—nor did he hope by the improvements then contemplated to obtain more than “4½ feet of water at all times up to the Quay at Glasgow;” but, in 1768, “the river,” according to the report of another engineer, John Golborne, “was in a state of nature, and for want of due attention has been suffered to expand too much.” He, also, did not expect to secure more “than 4 or perhaps 5 feet of water up to the Broomielaw” at a cost of “ten thousand pounds,” a very considerable sum in those days to be raised by the citizens of Glasgow. Nor does Mr. Telford even, in 1820, hold out much hope of improvement, for in his report he remarks: “There does not appear to be any good grounds to expect such increase of revenue as to justify incurring any very considerable expense.” But the corporation of the city, who had then the river under their charge, was happily not deterred by these disheartening reports from attempting further improvements, and, in 1824, Mr. James Reddie, their town clerk, in an able letter, called for further reports, which brought wiser engineering counsellors to their aid. By the indomitable energy of the corporation and the river trust, the Clyde was by degrees deepened; and at the Broomielaw, which only fishing wherries and small barges could reach forty years ago, the largest and most magnificent ships afloat, many of them more than 3000 tons register, drawing upwards of 20 feet of water, are now moored. See “Reports of the Improvement and Management of the River Clyde and Harbour of Glasgow.” See also “Treatise” by Mr. James Deas, C.E., chief engineer to the river Clyde trustees, edited by Mr. James Forrest, C.E. (1873), pp. 31 and 32, where we learn that “during the last twenty-eight years, 1844 to 1872, no less than 18,000,000 tons of stuff have been dredged from the river by the Clyde trustees,” and that the expenditure for dredging and depositing alone since the year 1770 has amounted to upwards of 500,000l. These dredging-machines are so complete and so superior to anything else of the kind to be found in any other part of the world, that I furnish, [Appendix No. 2, p. 591], an account of them, their cost, horse-power, and other details. In 1800 the total amount of the annual revenue of the Clyde trust was only 3319l. 16s. 1d. In 1874, the revenue for that year, ending 30th June, amounted to 192,127l. 16s. 11d.