14 Inaugural Lecture 1889 



very shallow. The size of the rivers was too great for the 

 idea to be entertained of dealing with the shoals so as to allow 

 vessels of the sea-going type to pass over them, consequently 

 the vessels were built to pass the shoals. Hence the form 

 developed was of the broad flat-bottomed type, suitable for the 

 navigation of shallow waters. Also the engine used for propel- 

 ling them was, and to a great extent continues to be, of the 

 type of the early pumping engine with the ponderous so-called 

 ''walking beam." 



In Europe steam navigation began on the Clyde, and the 

 form of vessel was given by its local peculiarities. Although 

 originally a shallow river, the commerce of Glasgow had already 

 assumed such importance that the channel had been artificially 

 deepened so as to admit the passage of vessels of sea-going 

 build of a size far beyond what even the most sanguine expected 

 to see fitted with engines. Consequently the ordinary type 

 of sea-going sailing vessel was not departed from in drawing the 

 lines of the early steamers ; more especially as what is known as 

 the river steamer traffic of the Clyde is to a great extent on 

 the deep fiord-like inlets or sea lochs, where a ship's draft 

 of water rarely comes in question. 



Owing to a number of conspiring favourable circumstances 

 the Clyde at once became the chief centre of steamship build- 

 ing, while at the same time its picturesque and mountainous 

 surroundings, being deeply indented by the sea, became avail- 

 able for settlements, especially for summer quarters for 

 the citizens of the towns. With this double advantage the 

 development of the Clyde river steamer advanced with great 

 rapidity, and by the year 1850 it had almost reached its present 

 model. Few of the thousands of tourists who every summer 

 pass through the Caledonian Canal and along the west coast 

 of Scotland are aware that the steamers in which they travel 

 have nearly all been running for upwards of forty years. 



The engines which up to 1850 were almost exclusively 

 of the upright single cylinder type, so-called "steeple engine," 

 were changed to the double cylinder oscillating, and have 

 again to a great extent reverted to the single cylinder, but 

 diagonal type. 



