PS Comet: Engines
Note: This is a sub-section of PS Comet
Research note. Comet’s second engine of 14 nhp. Thomas Hardie and Anderson foundry.[1]
Summary:
Comet’s original engine was built in 1811 by John Robertson and was of 3, later 4 NHP. Its subsequent history is well recorded and there is no doubt that it is the one at the Science Museum, London. It’s history post-removal in 1819 was known in detail from at least 1879[2] and was comprehensively proven by Dr Martin Bellamy and others in a 2012 Mariner’s Mirror Note.[3] In her rebuild / lengthening of 1819 Comet was fitted with a new engine of 14 NHP, a new boiler and, almost certainly, a new funnel. This paper examines the evidence for the engine and boiler maker, where they were built, and their fate.
The Note:
In 1853 the historian John Buchanan had conversation with John Robertson (when the latter was 70) and made notes at the time. These were published in 1859 and seem to be the major basis of all subsequent comments on the engines and lengthening of the PS Comet, often unquestioned. Robertson does not note which year the lengthening occurred, although Comet was rebuilt on the beach at Helensburgh from late 1818 until late August 1819.
17. ‘.. Bell resolved to enlarge her. She was therefore taken down to Helensburgh and lengthened.’
18. ‘The original Engine, of 3, and 4 horse-power was at this time taken out of her, ..’ [Buchanan’s underlining]
19. ‘.. a new one was put in, of six horse power. It was made by Thomas Hardie, in Andersons Foundry, Cartsdyke.[4]
Comet was lengthened and rebuilt specifically for service between Glasgow and Fort William – an engine of only ‘six horse power’ would be totally inadequate for the strong tidal currents and more exposed waters of that area. In fact, one of 14 NHP was installed in 1819, as recorded in 1820 by both Lumsden in his The Steam Boat Companion, and Cleland in The Rise and Progress of the City of Glasgow.[5]
Buchanan wrote that Robertson’s memory was ‘clear and distinct’, but there are discrepancies in his account and Robertson must have been mistaken as to the power of the engine.[6]
Other discrepancies are:
- Robertson said Comet took three days to reach Inverness - he was confusing Comet with Comet II, for the Caledonian Canal did not open to through traffic until 1822.
- He ‘Is unsure of date’ of Comet’s wreck but ‘Macdonnel of Glengarry was onboard and died’ - Comet was wrecked in 1820 and Robertson was confusing her wreck with that of Stirling in 1826.
- ‘A new one (engine) was put in, of six horse power’ - it was 14 NHP.
- Comet was lengthened ‘by 20 feet, making 60 feet in all’ – the 1821 Certificate of Registry shows it was by 30 feet 4 inches.
All understandable in a man of his age and of events decades earlier, but we should be circumspect in accepting his comments as fact without corroboration.
That said, although Robertson, understandably, must have been mistaken as to the engine horse-power, he is so specific as to name and place of the maker that it is likely to be correct. In spite of an extensive search little has been found recorded on Thomas Hardie of the Anderson Foundry, although the Foundry was probably established in 1809.[7] Cleland lists details of 39 steamships built on the Clyde to 1819, but not one is listed with Thomas Hardie or Anderson Foundry as the engine maker.[8] However, as detailed later, Cleland does list Henry Bell as the engine maker for the Glasgow of 1813 when it was Anderson, Campbell and Co. in Cartsdyke, Greenock, albeit under Bell’s supervision.
Apart from this one mention by Robertson, Thomas Hardie is equally elusive in engineering history. The most likely is Thomas Hardie, ‘Smith in Glasgow’, married there to Margaret Sinclair on 2 March 1806, although noted in the Register is ‘Irregularly’. Thomas was most likely born on 4 March 1788,[9] and if so he was two days under 18 at marriage, and hence not of age; plus their first child, John, had been born a month earlier, both of which facts would have earned the Minister’s disapproval and explain his note ‘Irregularly’.
From the birth dates of their children they must have moved to Greenock between 1809 and 1812,[10] and Thomas appears in the 1815 and 1820 editions of the Greenock Post Office Directory as ‘Hardie, Thomas, founder, Anderson’s land, Crawfordsdyke’ (now Cartsdyke).
Thomas and Margaret’s third son, born in Greenock, was baptised James Anderson Hardie in 1814, indicating a closeness to the Foundry owners.[11] When the 14 NHP engine was built in 1819 Thomas would have been aged 31; his later history is unknown, but it is possible he moved to Dumbarton.
In his History of the Maconochie Campbells of Inverawe, Diarmid Campbell noted that ‘At the time of his death, Archibald [Campbell of Blackhouse and Finlayston] was a partner with James A. Anderson and his son Andrew Anderson Jr. in Anderson, Campbell and Co., with their Counting House being in Greenock.’[12]
Anderson, Campbell and Co. are sometimes noted as Campbell, Anderson and Co. but I will refer to them by the former designation. Andrew Anderson Jr. seems to have been born in 1791,[13] so it is more likely that James was his uncle, not his son.
In the 1805 Greenock and Port Glasgow Post Office Directory Andrew Anderson Senior is shown as ‘Andrew Anderson, Esq., Merchant, Gourock Street’.
The 1815 Greenock Directory entry is ‘Anderson, Andrew, feuer and merchant, Gourock Street, counting house No. 31, Sugar house lane’
The 1820 Greenock Directory entry is ‘Anderson, James, cooper and vintner, No. 12 Rope-work street’
The ‘Campbell’ of Anderson, Campbell & Co. was Lieutenant-Colonel Archibald Campbell of Blackhouse and Finlayston, who had made a fortune in the West Indies and retired to Greenock a wealthy man. On his death in 1820 he left £125,000, over £100 million in 2018, apparently not unusual for successful Clyde traders of the time. Andrew Anderson Jr. was one of the trustees to Archibald’s young son and was described later, rather sniffily, by a Campbell wife as ‘Mr Anderson, wine merchant, Greenock, one of the Guardians [trustees], a staunch, good man though not a gentleman’.[14]
In his will Colonel Campbell specified that ‘In case it be thought proper to wind up the Concern of Campbell Anderson it is my wish that Mr. Anderson may have the use of Two Thousand pounds to be employed by him for the benefit of him and Mr. Duncan Campbell.’
His estate, when proven, showed a ‘Balance due the Deceased in the names of Campbell Anderson & Compy Greenock £5000. Interest due .. £28 1 6. £5028 1 6.’[15]
Given that both the Andersons and Archibald Campbell were involved in their other ventures it seems likely that Thomas Hardie was manager of the Foundry, not just an employee, especially as his third son carried the names James Anderson. This would also accord with Robertson’s affirmation that the engine ‘was made by Thomas Hardie, in Andersons Foundry, Cartsdyke.’
In 1813 the Glasgow was built by John Wood and ‘...was supplied with machinery by Anderson and Campbell, of Greenock, under the superintendence of Henry Bell. The engines proved a failure, and by involving Bell in much litigation, contributed seriously to his financial embarrassments. New engines were substituted by James Cook, of Tradeston, and they seem to have given satisfaction.’[16]
The 1805 Greenock Post Office Directory has the entry: ‘Caird, John, smith and feuer, Gammill's close, Low street’
And in 1817 the Foundry business of Anderson, Campbell and Co. became Anderson, Caird and Co. when John Caird joined as a partner. In his History of Greenock Daniel Weir wrote that ‘Caird had started work in a smithy at the East Breast, and gradually shaped the smithy into a smithy foundry in Hutcheson’s Court, Cartsdyke, shoeing horses and casting anchor chains in the same workshop. Eventually the smithy foundry became an engineering shop and then merged with Anderson’s Foundry as the partnership of Anderson, Caird and Co. with new premises in Arthur Street. They specialised in the fitting up of sugar machinery and also to locomotives, building the first locomotive for the Greenock and Glasgow Railway.’[17]
And in the 1820 Greenock Post Office Directory is the entry: ‘Anderson, Caird and Co. new foundery, (sic) Crawforsdyke’
The History of Shipbuilding in Greenock noted that ‘Mr Caird with his son James, had previously carried on business as house and ship smiths at the East Breast, next to the premises now occupied by Gourock Ropework Company. Afterwards the son, John Caird, jun., went into partnership with Mr Anderson, Port-Glasgow, as smiths and founders, their Greenock shop being in Hutcheson's Court, Cartsdyke. They removed to Arthur Street, and the firm became Caird & Co.’[18]
This last sentence is not quite accurate, for the 1817 partnership of Anderson, Caird and Co. lasted until 1828, when John Caird became sole partner in Caird and Co. Possibly Andrew Anderson retired then, for the firm won a contract to re-engine the Clyde tug fleet, including the PS Industry. Built in 1814, re-engined by Caird and Co. in 1828 with an engine of 14 NHP, she continued working until 1862. In that year she went down after a collision but was raised and left as a hulk at Bowling.[19] Luckily her 14 NHP Caird engine was saved and is at the Riverside Museum, Glasgow.
Referring to the 1812 Comet, George Williamson in 1856 stated that: ‘The greater part of the engine-work was made at Greenock by the firm of Anderson, Campbell and Co., who were smiths or hammermen in this town and Port-Glasgow, —the same company which afterwards became Anderson and Caird, and is now the famous engineering firm of Caird & Co. at Greenock. The boiler was made by the same parties in Port-Glasgow ; the cylinder was cast in Glasgow.’[20]
Although he had this information from the son of Andrew Anderson,[21] clearly Williamson was confusing the two engines, for the 1812 engine is indisputably recorded as being made by John Robertson, and the boiler by David Napier. But his comment does confirm Robertson’s affirmation that Comet’s second engine was built ‘in Andersons Foundry, Cartsdyke.’
Comet had arrived at the Broomielaw 15 December 1819, her last voyage of that season due to the winter weather and lack of passengers. On the 23rd Bell wrote to Sir Hugh Innes Bt, a potential shareholder: ‘I am going to give her a new sett of boylars .. as the publick tack in to their head that those I had was not safe so .. I have gott new one althaw the old one is the best for standing the salt water.’[22]
The ‘publick’ had cause for concern, for early that summer the cast-iron boiler of Bell’s Stirling had exploded; from Bell’s comments this implies the Comet boiler was also cast iron. Although Bell averred ‘I have gott new one’, whether he did in fact install it is unknown, but I doubt it. It would have been of copper or wrought-iron, but coupled with the expense of rebuilding Comet was the outlay on two new copper boilers and an engine for the Stirling. I doubt Bell had the funds, or the inclination, to replace Comet’s boiler, barely three months old.
As ever with Bell his spelling is idiosyncratic and his language is fluid – he refers both to ‘new sett of boylars’ but shortly thereafter to a ‘new one.’
Although the Glasgow engines were a failure - possibly from Bell’s design or involvement - Anderson, Caird and Co. seem to have recovered, for nearly two centuries later it was recorded that ‘John Caird had earned a reputation for reliable marine steam engines since the 1820s.’[23]
This was born out by Caird & Co. being awarded in 1828 the contract to re-engine the Clyde tug fleet.
Putting all these facts together it is almost certain that Comet’s second engine was built by Anderson, Caird and Co. It is this engine we hope to locate in the wreck, for it was almost certainly never salvaged.
Conclusion:
It can be said with confidence that the 14 NHP engine installed in the 1819 rebuild of Comet was built by Thomas Hardie at the works of Anderson, Caird & Co. in Arthur Street, Crawfordsdyke (now Cartsdyke), who also made the boiler. Possibly designed by Bell, it would probably be of similar size to the Industry engine at the Riverside Museum and was almost certainly never salvaged.
Tony Dalton maolachy@myphone.coop 6 November 2019
See Also
Sources of Information
- ↑ As yet unpublished, but Dr Martin Bellamy, Editor of The Mariner's Mirror, commented on it “I suspect you are entirely correct - further evidence comes form George Williamson's Memorials of James Watt.” Pers. comm. 2019.
- ↑ Irving, The Book of Dumbartonshire, I, 327-8.
- ↑ Mariner's Mirror 98:3 (2012), 327-334. Martin Bellamy, Alison Leighton, Peter Thomson, Stephen Davies & Charles Dawson, ‘Unravelling the Mystery of the Comet Engines’.
- ↑ Buchanan, J., ‘Notes of a conversation by John Buchanan with John Robertson’ (1853), National Library of Scotland: NLS Ms. 2645.
- ↑ Lumsden, J., The Steam Boat Companion, (Glasgow, 1820), vi. Cleland, J., The Rise and Progress of the City of Glasgow, (Glasgow, 1820), 240.
- ↑ Robertson was not alone in his confusion over Comet’s engines; Cleland and Morris recorded the 1812 Comet with an engine of 6 NHP: Cleland, J., Annals of Glasgow, 1816, 394. Morris, E., Life of Henry Bell, 56, 58. [Probably from Cleland.]
- ↑ Weir, Daniel, History of Greenock, 95 (Greenock, 1829)
- ↑ Cleland, J., Rise and Progress of the City of Glasgow, 240. (Glasgow, 1820)
- ↑ Old Parish Registers Births 622/30 188 Barony, 188.
- ↑ Janet born Glasgow Dec. 1809 (Old Parish Registers Births 644/1 200, 483).Thomas born Greenock Feb. 1812 (Old Parish Registers Births 564/2 10)
- ↑ Old Parish Registers Marriages 644/1 280 30 Glasgow, 39. Old Parish Registers Births 564/2 10 25 Greenock East, 25.
- ↑ Campbell, Diarmid., A History of The MacConnochie Campbells of Inverawe, III, Further Collected Papers, 82. (2000, pub. privately). From the Auchendarroch-Inverawe Papers - Trustees Sederunt Book.
- ↑ ‘1791, 29 January, Andrew born to Andrew Anderson Merchant and Janet Anderson, baptised 13 February.’ OPR 564/3 20 397 Greenock Old or West, 397.
- ↑ Ibid. 214.
- ↑ Campbell, Diarmid., A History of The MacConnochie Campbells of Inverawe, III, Further Collected Papers, 86-87. (2000, pub. privately). There was also due a ‘Promissory Note of James A. Anderson And A.[ndrew] Anderson Jr.’ for £1,000 - £100,000 in 2018..
- ↑ Williamson, Captain J., The Clyde Passenger Steamer: Its Rise and Progress during the Nineteenth Century. 23. (Glasgow 1904).
- ↑ Weir, Daniel, History of Greenock, 95. (Greenock, 1829)
- ↑ Smith, R M., History of Shipbuilding in Greenock , 96. (Greenock 1921)
- ↑ ‘There are differing reports about the crash which ended the career of the Industry, but the most probable is that it broke the starboard paddle wheel and paddle box. Your photograph shows the boat without the starboard paddle box so it suggests that she survived sufficiently to reach a quay and unload the sugar barrels.’ Peter McOwat, pers. email.
- ↑ Williamson, George, Memorials of the lineage, early life, education, and development of the genius of James Watt, 228. (Greenock: The Watt Club, 1856).’
- ↑ Ibid, 230, note i: ‘For many of the particulars in regard to the Comet and Henry Bell, I am indebted to the obliging communications of Mr. Anderson of High Holm, - whose father was the original partner of the firm alluded to.’
- ↑ NRS GD46/17/53. 23 December 1819 Bell to Sir Hugh Innes Bt. This implies the boiler fitted during the 1819 rebuild was of cast iron.
- ↑ Smith, Crosbie, Coal, Steam and Ships – Engineering, Enterprise and Empire on the Nineteenth-Century Seas, 139. (Cambridge University Press, 2018)