Lot Essay
Having been the cradle of steam navigation in Great Britian, the Clyde Estuary also proved one of the earliest regions to embrace the new technology with enthusiasm. New Steamer routes were developed rapidly, one of the most popular being run from Glasgow to Campbeltown via Greenock and it was for this service that Herald was ordered by James Little & Co. in 1865. Built by Caird and launched on 3rd March 1866, Herald was an iron paddle steamer of 446 tons gross (252 net) and measured 221½ feet in length with a 22 foot beam. Fitted with oscillating 2-cylinder engines to drive her feathering float paddles, she performed spendidly on her trials on 5 May 1866 and began regular scheduled sailings two days later under Captain Robert Young. Her fast passages attracted record numbers of passengers and, despite a widely reported suicide aboard early in her career, Herald totally eclipsed her competitors on the route all that summer and into the next. Slashing their fares to no avail, the rival Campbeltown Steamship Company eventually responded by building and introducing their even faster Gael which, once she entered service in April 1867, caused Herald's owners to lose heart and withdraw her off the Firth. She was put up for sale and purchased by the Barrow Steam Navigation Company for their Isle of Man service and operated on this route successfully for twenty-four years, during which time she was fitted with new boilers in 1880. For reasons so far unexplained Herald returned to the Clyde for the 1891 season and was put on the run from Fairlie to Campbeltown. Ageing and outdated however, her poor condition and even worse time-keeping attracted much criticism from the travelling public and she was withdrawn at the end of the summer. Purchased by the Workington and Isle of Man Steamship Company soon afterwards, their new service proved unworkable and Herald, deemed too old to be worth saving, was scrapped at Renfrew in 1894.