Burns Shipping Companies Early History

James Burns 1789 - 1871 The Early History of The Burns' Shipping Companies 1

The account here is taken from "Memoirs and Portraits of One Hundred Glasgow Men", published by James MacLehose & Sons, Glasgow in 1886 James Burns 1789 - 1871 Born in a Glasgow tenement on 25 June 1789, James Burns went into business with his younger brother George. After six years as produce merchants, they moved into shipping and ran steamers to Liverpool and Ireland. As business flourished, they began (from 1839) to run mail ships to Halifax and Boston in conjunction with Samuel Cunard, George Burns and David MacIver. Sailings to and from New York were soon added, as were Mediterranean trade routes, and the Burns brothers ultimately owned 107 Clyde-built steamers. A sideline was the "Royal Route" steamer service in the Western Highlands, begun in 1932 and sold to the firm of David Hutcheson & Co in 1851. James Burns lived out his later years at Kilmahew, near Cardross, where he died on 6 September 1871. He was twice married: to Margaret Smith (no family) and to Margaret Shortridge, who bore him one son. James Burns was the sixth son and eighth child of the Rev. John Burns, D.D., of the Barony and Elizabeth Stevenson, daughter of John Stevenson, brewer in Glasgow. Dr. Burns was a link between the present and the past. Born near Stirling on 13th February (old style), 1744, he had been carried as a child to see the Hessians encamped after the '45 in the King's Park; his son is with us still; and he himself lived to see Victoria crowned, dying at Glasgow on 26th February, 1839. He had long been the father of the Church of Scotland, and he had served a Glasgow cure longer than any other minister on record - sixty-eight years was he at The Barony Church, four as assistant to the Rev. Laurence Hill and sixty-four as placed minister. He was the last minister who preached in the "Old Barony," and, we believe, the last Glasgow minister who kept up the old "Tent Preaching". The existing Barony Church (an architectural gem which ruthless hands now threaten) was built in 1798. For twenty-eight years of his ministry the Barony congregation worshipped in the Crypt of the High Kirk, where Frank Osbaldistone found them worshipping, and where they had worshipped since 1596, when the Synod first appointed "Mr. Alexander Rowatt to minister to the parishioners of Glasgow without the burgh". "Joceline's Crypt," though the finest crypt in the three kingdoms and the lightsomest, would not make a very cheerful church. But it is a fairy bower now to what it used to be. In Old Barony days the damp floor was packed below with recent heritors, scutcheons mouldered on the dripping walls, the columns were smeared with lamp-black and the roof was covered with death emblems. The pulpit stood near the south door with a great pillar to intercept what light the narrow windows might have given it; the elders were dimly seen on a raised platform round Ebenezer Allan, the precentor; and great box pews stretched in the gloom from column to column. Once a year, at the Preachings (or annual communion time), the Barony folk emerged from their gloomy fane into the light of day. On the Preaching Saturday the tent (or covered wooden pulpit) made its appearance for use on the great day of the feast. It was set up in the corner of the High Kirkyard, on the right as one 2

enters the gate, and the people stood about or sat on the through-stanes or on "chairs an' stools." The communion itself ("the Sacrament"), and the services specially connected with it, were held in the Crypt, but the tent was used for simultaneous overflow services of sermons, addresses, prayer, and praise. The whole work of the day, in the Crypt and at the tent - including "Action Sermon," "Debarrings" (or "Fencing of the Tables"), "Table Addresses" before and after each Table, singing between each two Tables, "Evening Directions," Evening Sermon - lasted from nine in the morning till nine at night without a break. As these Sunday services were preceded by two full services on the Thursday, a service on the Friday evening for young communicants and a service on the Saturday afternoon of two sermons and the address oddly known as "pirliecuing," and were followed on the Monday by one or, it might be, two sermons at one diet, it is easy to see how the Scottish Retraite was called "the Preachings". Only two verses were sung between each two Tables, but they took up a great deal of time in the Old Barony, where "reading the line" still prevailed, and old Ebenezer slowly read out each line before singing it. The Psalm sung was the 103rd or the 22nd (to Coleshill). At a later period, when the prejudice against paraphrases had given way, they sang (to Rockingham) the beautiful 35th paraphrase - "'Twas on that night, when doomed to know" (really a translation of the Latin hymn Nocte qua Christus). After a survey, at one time ordered, of the Old Barony, the surveyor reported that "very little light came from the pulpit." In one sense this was certainly not true. Dr. Burns was one of the few who held up the torch of truth in those dark days - a pious and faithful pastor, diligent in his congregation proper and in the outlying parts of his scattered parish, and ready, almost alone in the Presbytery, to help in such good works as the Anti-Slavery Society, the Bible Society and Foreign Missions; and he was before Raikes of Gloucester in establishing Sunday schools. Dr. Burns had nine children, of whom (besides James, George and Elizabeth wife of David MacBrayne and mother of John, Robert and David MacBrayne, all well-known citizens) were John Burns, M.D. (long one of our leading practitioners, first Professor of Surgery in our University, and author of several valued works, medical and religious, born 1775, drowned in the "Orion" 18th June, 1850), and Allan Burns, M.D. (a surgeon of brilliant promise, born 1781, died 1813, from a puncture got in dissecting). George Burns, seventh son, and youngest and sole survivor of the nine children, was born 10th December, 1795, and was trained under good John Wright in the New Lanark Mills Office in St. Andrew Square. James Burns was born in the "Holy Land," on 25th June, 1789. The "Holy Land" was a land or tenement of houses still standing on north side of George Street, a little west of North Portland Street, now Nos. 120-124. It got its name from the number of ministers living in it - Dr. Burns of the Barony, Dr. Balfour of the outer High, Harry Mushet of Shettleston, Johnny Macleod of the Chapel of Ease, and his colleague, Mr. Williamson. Dr. Burns had previously lived (Directory, 1789) "second flat, New Castlepennis Land, east side High Street," nearly opposite Old Grammar School Wynd. After the usual education at the Grammar School and the College James Burns went into business, and was for some time a partner with John Duncan, afterwards called of North Bar. This partnership was dissolved, and he and his younger brother George formed the firm of James & George Burns. Of this firm, which is now extinct and of the still existing firm of George & James Burns, an account will be found below. 3

James Burns was a quiet man and, though at one time in the Town Council and long in one of our leading firms, he came little before the public. But he managed carefully and well the financial department of a great business: he was a man of high principle and deep but not noisy piety; of a simple, kindly nature; with an open hand for all good objects at home and abroad. He had been a member of St. George's, but at the Disruption he joined the Free Church, and was one of her staunchest and most liberal supporters. He was long a member of Free St. Peter's, under William Arnot and Hugh Macmillan, but from his natural diffidence he shrank from accepting office. Latterly he lived at Kilmahew, a fine estate near Cardross, which he had built up by a series of purchases. He died at Kilmahew on 6th September, 1871. He married, 1st, Margaret, daughter of William Smith of Muirbank, by whom he had no family and, 2nd, Margaret, daughter of William Shortridge (of the old and complicated Spreull-Shortridge family), by whom he had an only child, John William Burns, now of Kilmahew and Cumbernauld. The business which James Burns and his brother George Burns so long carried on deserves special notice. Not many businesses have done more for Glasgow. It was in 1818 when the two brothers became partners. J. & G. Burns, their original firm, were produce merchants. In pushing their business they visited Belfast and every Irish port, as well as Liverpool and London, and everywhere the young Scotch firm made friends. With the help of these friends the firm soon promised to take a leading place in the produce line. But their energies were turned into another channel, and the main outcome of the produce business proved to be the help, which the friends it had won them gave to the Burns's in their new line of shipping. Their connection with shipping dates from 1824. They began with the Liverpool trade, and have been unremitting in their attentions to their first love. In those pre-railway days the coasting trade was relatively much more important than now, and as yet few steamers had made their way into it. The cream of it was lapped up by the smacks, familiarly termed "Ranterpykes." The Glasgow and Liverpool trade was divided among three companies, owning in all eighteen smacks. These, if not equal to the famous Leith smacks, were fine vessels of the kind. They sometimes made the passage to Liverpool (of course from Greenock in 24 hours; the average passage was three to four days. Though the voyage was reckoned to or from Greenock, the Ranterpykes did come up the river. But in winter the Bills of Lading contained what was called the "ice clause," giving power to discharge at Greenock if the river was frozen. Nowadays, between the increased depth, the freer scour of the tide, and the fermenting brew from the sewers, "ice clauses" are not needed. As another illustration of the then primitive state of the river, the sea-going steamers did not at first venture above Greenock. Their passengers were taken down in a river steamer, three to four hours being allowed to reach Greenock. Goods outwards were taken down in a lighter the night before, goods inwards were sent up in a lighter by the first tide after arrival at Greenock. Even when, with the gradual improvement of the river, the Broomielaw began to be the starting place, the steamers, to make sure of keeping time at Greenock, dropped down the river the day before. 4

Six smacks were owned by a Glasgow joint-stock company; the agent here was James Martin, who had been up till 1814 in the West India trade; his brother Thomas Martin was agent in Liverpool. Six smacks were owned by a private Liverpool firm Matthie & Theakstone, both able men; the senior partner was Hugh Matthie, an active, shrewd old Scotchman; the owners were their own agents in Liverpool; the agents here were two brothers, Port Dundas men, John and Alexander Kidd, with a young Port Glasgow man, David Hutcheson, as chief clerk. The remaining six smacks belonged to a private Glasgow company, managed here by David Chapman, afterwards of Thomson & McConnell, and in Liverpool by William Swan Dixon, one of the Dumbarton Dixons. In 1824 the second of the two Kidds died, and J. & G. Burns applied for the agency. They had strong competitors in Fleming & Hope, another produce firm, older and better known, and backed by a formidable round-robin. The choice lay with Hugh Matthie. The Burns's had come repeatedly in contact with him about freight for their produce, and had left on him their usual good impression; and personal fitness weighed more with Hugh than round-robins: but he would come down and judge for himself. He came down, and he chose the Burns's. He gave them full power, but suggested that they might retain David Hutcheson, whose usefulness he had noticed after the death of the Kidds. The Burns's engaged Hutcheson and took new premises for the new business. The Kidds' office was in Melville Place, Trongate (a natural site, by the way, for a shipping office, Melville Place having been built by Henry Bell, who was originally bred a mason, and was for seven years a builder under the firm of Bell & Paterson). The Burns's had their produce business first in Ingram Street, then in Miller Street. On getting the Theakstone agency, they added as their shipping office what is now No. 42 Millar Street, immediately south of Stirling's Library. This had been the late William Connal's house and his worthy nephew Michael Connal was born in it. They afterwards moved to 9 Buchanan Street, now the site of part of Stewart & MacDonald's warehouse. From this they moved to their present place, 30 Jamaica Street. Nearly opposite this, Thomson & McConnell long had their shipping office in the fine old mansion that had belonged to Provost John Black of Claremont, and originally to George Buchanan of Auchentorlie: Arnott's warehouse now stands on the site of it. James Burns stuck to the produce, and as long as he lived this branch was kept up, though it had long been little but the victualling department of the Burns fleet. George Burns at once threw himself into the shipping. In this great trade he won a place in the first flight, and now from his retirement he can see his old firm still holding their own in the race. Very soon after the Burns's became agents, Theakstone wished to retire, and the Burns's bought his share, thus becoming equal partners with Matthie, and for the first time shipowners. They had not been long at it when they found that the concern must either be revolutionized or ruined; elsewhere smacks might still have a chance, but on the Clyde they were doomed steam was killing them.

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Many cities claimed to have been the birthplace of Homer, and many waters claim to have been the birthplace of the steamer. But this at least is clear: the Clyde, if not the first in the race, soon took the lead, and by steady running, it heads them all yet. The earliest steamers had not ventured beyond the loch, the canal, or the river. It was Clyde paddles that first lashed the salt water. This statement was made on what we considered good authority, but we find it may need to be modified. The Clydefacts are these. The "Comet" (see Morris's "Life of Henry Bell," pp. 39, 42, 43), after previous experiments, steams from Glasgow to Greenock on 18th January, 1812. On 5th August, 1812, she is advertised to sail regularly between Glasgow, Greenock, and Helensburgh (three times a week each way, the hours of sailing being suited to the tide). She is soon taken off this station, and is advertised to ply weekly from 2nd September, 1812, via Crinan, to Oban and Fort-William. In 1816 Bell writes to the "Caledonian Mercury" that the "Comet" was then plying on the Firth of Forth between the end of the Great Canal and Newhaven. The letter is given in the "Encyclopaedia Britannica" (article, "Steam Navigation"), but it does not say how the "Comet" had made her way round to the east coast, nor how long before the letter was written. The trips to Ireland and England had no doubt been in the interval after the Fort William service. They are named (but without authority given) in Lindsay's "Merchant Shipping," IV., p. 67. The voyages from the Clyde to the Mersey and the Thames are named by Lindsay, and also by Cleland (Annals, II., p. 307). There are some slight differences in the two narratives, but Cleland, writing in 1816, may be relied on. These various voyages from the Clyde we found given as the earliest cases of ocean steaming. But it appears that America disputes the Clyde claim, not on behalf of Fulton, but on behalf of R. L. Stevens of Hoboken. Fulton's "Clermont" undoubtedly plied on the Hudson years before Bell's "Comet" plied on the Clyde, but she never went outside. Stevens (a very early worker at steam navigation and even at the screw as a substitute for the paddle) had, the "Encyclopaedia Britannica" says, constructed a steamer almost as early as Fulton's "Clermont," and, finding that Fulton had secured a monopoly of steam navigation in the State of New York, "conceived the bold idea of taking his vessel by sea from the Hudson to the Delaware," and presumably he carried the bold idea out. No date is given for the voyage, but if it took place, it was no doubt before the "Comet" began to ply to Fort William on 2nd September, 1812; for Fulton began to ply on the Hudson on 17th August, 1807. The exact facts about the Stevens claim ought to be easy to ascertain, but it seems that the matter has never been cleared up. In any case it is clear that the Clyde "Comet" was the first steamer that put to sea in Europe. We think it equally clear that the Clyde "Rob Roy" of 1818 (named in the next paragraph) was the first regular sea-going steamer, either in or out of Europe. David Napier (in a MS. 6

Autobiography now before us) distinctly says he built her from feeling sure that steamers could be built to face the ocean. Steamers in the Holyhead and Howth Line had just broken down lamentably, and Charles McIntosh, as he saw the "Rob Roy" starting on her trial trip in face of a south-west gale, bade Napier good-bye, with the cheerful assurance that they would all be drowned. The later story of each of these Clyde pioneers is worth telling. The "Comet" (25 tons originally and 3 H.P., but afterwards lengthened and improved) was built by John Wood of Port Glasgow, engined by John Robertson of Glasgow. We left her in 1816 plying on the east coast. She was fetched back, and in 1819 put on her old Fort William route. In October, 1820, on her passage from Fort William to Glasgow, she was wrecked in rounding Craignish Point, and parted in two. Part of her machinery, however, was recovered, and the frame of the engine was exhibited at the meeting of the British Association in Glasgow in 1841 (Henry Bell's Life, p. 154). Just five years later, in October, 1825, a second "Comet," which poor Bell had managed to build, collided with the "Ayr" steamer off Gourock, and sank with seventy souls. The "Rob Roy" (90 tons and 30 H.P.) was built by William Denny of Dumbarton, and engined by David Napier himself. Proving too small for the Belfast trade, she was transferred to the Dover and Calais route. She had been the first steamer between Great Britain and Ireland: she was now the first steamer between Great Britain and the Continent; and she ended by being the first steamer owned by the French Government. They were so pleased with the way she did her work that they bought her, and, with the help of a priest and holy water, changed "Rob Roy" into "Henry Quatre." We may add that the Clyde "Samson" was the earliest steam tug in Europe, if not in the world. She was built by William Denny in 1819, and gave a great impulse to the trade of Glasgow. Before this, sailing vessels had to trust to their sails as far up as Renfrew, and were sometimes days and days in getting there from the Tail of the Bank. From Renfrew they were towed by horses along the towing path on the south side of the river. This towing path (which survives as an invaluable river walk) was formed about 1807, by the advice of the famous Telford. Telford found that sailing vessels after at length reaching Renfrew, were often there becalmed, "the plantations at Elderslie taking off the winds." The Clyde Trust paid, and we suppose still pay, Speirs of Elderslie £150 a year for the privilege of the towing path through his grounds. See Telford's Report of 1826, quoted in "Lectures on Naval Architecture," p. 185; "Glasgow Archaeological Transactions," vol. I., p. 66. Our very first steamer, the little "Comet," finding poor support on the river, boldly put out to sea, and made various trips to the Highlands, to Ireland, and to England. Early in 1814 the "Elizabeth," built by Wood of Port-Glasgow, steamed up the Mersey.

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In November of the same year the "Marjory," built by Denny of Dumbarton to ply between London and Margate, crept round Land's End, and to the dismay of the Thames watermen arrived safe in the Port of London. The "Argyle," built by Martin of Port-Glasgow, followed her in May, 1815. These daring voyages were, however, isolated experiments, ventured on in picked weather only. As yet steamers as little thought of facing the sea, summer or winter, fair or foul, as did the "Castor and Pollux" of Alexandria. But marine science on our ground drove her chariot wheels swiftly, and within three years took two great springs forward. In 1818 the "Vulcan," the first regular iron vessel, was launched at Faskine, and (what is more to our present purpose) the "Rob Roy," the first regular sea-going steamer, was launched at Dumbarton. William Denny built her for David Napier, and his son Peter could not have turned out a better job. She was put on the Belfast route, and for two years (till sold for a Dover and Calais packet) she carried both goods and passengers, with regularity and without repair. Steam was, of course, not long in finding its way into the Liverpool route. The earliest steam company on the Liverpool route started in 1819. It was one of the many enterprises of David Napier, the cousin and brother-in-law of Robert Napier, a man of genius and of restless energy, the David Dale of marine engineering, his name, in the infancy of the trade, cropping up at every turn. Napier got Provost Mills, Banker Dennistoun, and other leading Glasgow citizens, to put steamers on for Liverpool. These steamers took passengers only (cabin fare, with food, 31s. 6d.; steerage, 10s.), three times a week, sailing from Greenock, passengers taken there by the "Post Boy," who was allowed four hours to make his way down the river. James Little was agent in Greenock, James Hamilton in Glasgow, John Richardson in Liverpool. Their first steamer was the "Robert Bruce." She was followed by the "Superb" (described in the "Steam Boat Companion of 1820" as the finest steamer in Great Britain, and making the average passage from Greenock to Liverpool in thirty hours), by the "Eclipse," the "Majestic," and the "City of Glasgow." The "Post Boy," by the way, was the first of our river steamers that sailed at a fixed hour, and not according to the tide. She was another of David Napier's inventions, being the first steamer in which surface condensation was tried. This first Liverpool Co. was a dead failure, and was given up, leaving the Manchester Co. alone in the field. The Manchester Co., or as it was sometimes called from its best steamer, the Huskisson Co., was established in 1823. It owned first and last the "William Huskisson," "Henry Bell," "James Watt," and "Solway." Of these four, only the first was even Clyde built (by J. Scott & Sons, and engined by Scott, Sinclair, & Co., both of Greenock). The other three interlopers were respectively built by Wilson of Liverpool, Sherriff & Co. of Liverpool, and Grayson, Dawson, & Co. of Holyhead, and engined by Fawcett & Co. of Liverpool, Boulton & Watt, and Fawcett & Co. They carried both passengers and goods, and sailed from Greenock, to which passengers and the "parcel-bag" were sent down on the day of sailing by river steamer, and goods the night before by lighter. They called at Portpatrick and the Isle of Man. 8

Another company was started in 1839, and has been running ever since, with the Langlands as agents. This company was the first to put iron steamers on the route, the "Royal Sovereign," followed by the well known "Princess Royal." These were built by Tod & McGregor, of which famous firm (now extinct) the partners David Tod and John McGregor were old workmen of David Napier's. One unsuccessful attempt at opposition on the Liverpool route ended in opening up the quickest communication till then known between Glasgow and London. That mighty hunter, Thomas Assheton Smith of Tedworth, was also a great yachter. Latterly he took to steam yachts, and to Robert Napier as their builder. He had eight of them built by Napier, and put them away one after another, as fast as Blue Beard's wives. He would then put them on this trade route or that, which was a grief of mind to the legitimate trader. In 1838 he ordered from Napier the "Fire King" of 700 tons, on fine hollow water lines of his own design. She was a splendid vessel, and steamed fifteen miles an hour, the fastest then afloat. But he discarded her like the rest. Napier then got Mr. McCall of Daldowie, Chairman of the Ayrshire Railway Co., and his codirectors to buy her, in reality for the Railway, and sail her from Ardrossan to Liverpool. The venture was a failure, and the Burns's bought her, and sailed her from Ardrossan to Fleetwood. The Fleetwood route is now forgotten, but it was the first route that brought Glasgow within twenty-four hours of London. (See Introduction by John Carrick to "Glasgow Past and Present," 1884.) But by a strange blunder the trade was allowed to slip into southron hands. Except the "Enterprise," a small steamer owned by the Clyde Tug Company (of which David MacIver, a young man sprung from Greenock, was the Liverpool agent), the only steamers on the route came to be the "James Watt," the "William Huskisson," and the "Henry Bell," owned by a powerful Manchester company, including Mr. Burt the Burgh Reeve, and other leading Manchester men. The blunder was soon put right by the Burns's, and good care has been taken that it should not be repeated. As soon as the Burns's saw that the future was with steam, they urged its adoption on Hugh Matthie, their partner, and on James Martin for his company. As they put, it, the clearing away of their twelve smacks would make good room for steamers. Matthie was too old and too rich to care for the new venture, but he kindly yielded to the Burns influence, only recommending that somewhere half-way there should be a reserve depot for coals - for Hugh's own faith in steamers was weak. Hugh's half-way coals may remind one of Dr. Lardner's well-known ideas about transatlantic steaming. As late as 1835 he declared that New York could only be reached from Liverpool by stages, and suggested Liverpool, Valentia, St. John's, Newfoundland, Halifax, New York, adding that if the run between Valentia and St. John's was too long, coals might be replenished at the Azores. 9

Martin was easily won over, but only after great trouble and delay got his owners to agree. The two agencies were then amalgamated under the lumbering title of James Martin & J. & G. Burns, the half-way coals were duly stored at Port-Nessock to crumble peacefully away, the smacks vanished, and on Friday, the 13th March, 1829, the first steamer of the new Glasgow company passed the Cloch. She was appropriately named the "Glasgow," and was followed next month by the "Ailsa Craig," a crack vessel of her day, and next year by the "Liverpool," of which old Hugh Main was captain. These new brooms swept so clean that they left little for the old ones. For some time the Manchester men stood their punishment, but when the captain of the "James Watt" reported to her owners that, on his way to Glasgow, he had met the "Ailsa Craig," which had left Liverpool about the same time with him, steaming merrily back again, they threw up the sponge, and offered to hand over the whole concern to the Glasgow company meantime, and preliminary to this, they placed their steamers and plant on commission under that company's agency. Difficulties among themselves stopped the carrying out of the offer, but the Manchester company withdrew their vessels, and Burgh Reeve Burt and the leading partners promised the Glasgow company all their influence against any opposition. Opposition was not long in coming. David MacIver, the Liverpool agent of the little "Enterprise," an eager man and an able as any Martin or Burns among them, thought the ground just left vacant should hold others as well as Martin & Burns, and he posted down to Glasgow to urge his owners to increase their operations. He arrived to find that Martin & Burns had just bought the "Enterprise"! He was, as he said, fairly thrown on his back. But he was not the man to lie there; he got up vowing vengeance: this was all the Burns's doing: he would find the Burns's in an opposition to which the Manchester company's should be child's play. He went straight to David Chapman, the Glasgow agent of the third smack company. Chapman, who had not been included in the Martin & Burns arrangement, and knew his smacks were doomed, entered into MacIver's views, but neither of them had any capital. Then Chapman bethought him of James Donaldson as a capitalist likely to help, and to him the two went. Cotton was then our leading industry, and Donaldson was our leading cotton broker, and rich. He caught at the thing, and with his help the "City of Glasgow Steam Shipping Company" was formed. The company took its name from its first steamer, the "City of Glasgow": this had belonged to another defunct Liverpool company, and was lying at Greenock for sale, she had carried only passengers, but Robert Napier altered her to carry goods likewise. Donaldson had a partner, James Thomson, who had a brother, Dr. Thomson, who had given up doctoring and become a carting contractor at the Broomielaw. In the office of Alexander Laird, who had been Greenock agent of the defunct Manchester company, was a young man, Archibald McConnell. The Doctor and he, under the firm of Thomson & McConnell, became the Glasgow agents of the new concern, and Laird the Greenock agent. 10

MacIver, of course, was the agent in Liverpool, but he was constantly back and forward, living almost in the engine-room of his steamer, urging on extra coals, extra pressure, extra speed, "to run those Burns's off." Somehow the scheme of vengeance went a-gley. MacIver certainly did not let grass grow under his feet. The fight between the Manchester and the Glasgow Companies lasted till the beginning of March, 1831. At that date the three "Royal Mail and War Office Packets" of the Manchester Company (the "James Watt," "Henry Bell," and "William Huskisson"), and the three vessels of the Glasgow Company (the "Glasgow," "Ailsa Craig," and "Liverpool"), were running as usual. So was the Clyde Company's "Enterprise." On the 7th of March, Martin & Burns were alone in the field with both the Manchester vessels and the "Enterprise" in their hands, and, with seven vessels and no opposition, were advertising a daily sailing each way. But on the 7th May MacIver's Company announce that they are about to enter the field with the "City of Glasgow," and on the 25th of May, MacIver begins actual operations - his company formed, his capital subscribed, his vessel bought, altered, fitted out, and sent to sea. Pretty smart work for a Scotchman. But long before this he had opened a flank fire on the enemy. The Burns's (unconnected with Martin) had long run a steamer, the "Ayr," twice a week to Ayr, and on 6th April, less than a month after MacIver was "thrown on his back" his new friends, Thomson & McConnell, were running a steamer, the "Countess of Glasgow," twice a week to Ayr. In May the Manchester Company withdrew their vessels, and put them in Laird's hands for sale. Soon after Martin & Burns dropped the "Enterprise" and returned to their original number of vessels - three. Before the year was out, Mac Iver had reinforced the "City of Glasgow" by the "Solway" and the "John Wood." And so the Horatii and the Curiatii went at it - three to three. His new friends were presently taunting MacIver with having fallen under the Burns spell, worse than Matthie, worse than Martin, and to be sure when the enemy, in due course, offered terms, Mac Iver was the heartiest in urging their acceptance, and he ended by being the lifelong friend and partner of the hated Burns's. Chapman had also fallen under the spell, and lent his valuable aid in bringing about an arrangement. The terms offered, while leaving the control with the Martin & Burns company, gave to the younger company a liberal share of a joint purse. The offer was accepted, and the arrangement was loyally carried out on both sides. The play has been running ever since, but scenery and cast are all changed. Steamers have replaced the "Ailsa Craig" and the "City of Glasgow," almost as superior to these as these to the old smacks, and of the original actors not one is left. James Martin is long dead, and the lumbering Martin & Burns firm has shrunk into G. & J. Burns. Thomson, and his brother James, McConnell, Chapman, Donaldson, are all dead, and the firm of Thomson & McConnell has vanished. David MacIver died in the prime of life, dropping his mantle on his brother Charles.

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James Burns is dead. George Burns alone survives, but he has long left the stage, and retired to his property of Wemyss Bay - in his ninetieth year still able to enjoy the long quiet evening of the busy day, his eye not dim nor his natural force much abated. The Burns's connection with the Irish trade was again the outcome of their produce business. Steam, as we saw, had been introduced on the Belfast route as early as 1818. But the Belfast merchants were not satisfied with the service, and in 1824 they formed a company, G. & J. Burns, to run steamers of their own. Some of the promoters were among the old produce friends, and they offered the agency to the Burns's, who had just then taken up the Liverpool smacks. It was a tempting offer, a new and important shipping connection, and an introduction to steam shipping; but the steamers were to sail on Sundays. The Burns's objected to this arrangement, and it was afterwards dropped. They then entered heartily into the agency, and worked the steamers to their owners' satisfaction. They ended in becoming themselves the owners, and on the direct Clyde route they have long had pretty much their own way. But they have had serious opposition via Ardrossan. The sea passage via Ardrossan is much shorter than via Greenock, and in 1849, after one or two attempts by outsiders, a powerful company was established on the Ardrossan route. It was backed by the South-Western Railway and by the late Lord Eglinton, owner of the harbour and lord of the manor of Ardrossan. The Belfast mails at this time were sent by Portpatrick and Donaghadee. Lord Eglinton, the most popular and influential Scotsman of his day, did his best to direct them to Ardrossan, and he believed he had secured the contract on terms that would give his line both profit and prestige. A day or two later he learned from Lord Clanricarde, then Postmaster-General, that the Glasgow company had got the contract. No wonder, when the terms were known. The Glasgow company had been having four sailings a week. They now undertook to run a first-class steamer every day except Sunday, and to carry the mails for nothing. The extra sailings for long entailed a loss, but the service was from the first admirable, and the mails have now for thirty-five years been carried without a single slip. The line by Ardrossan was, however, kept up as an alternative rather than an opposition line. Latterly it was in the hands of the Ardrossan Shipping Company, of which the late John Moffat of Ardrossan, Robert Henderson of Belfast, and his son were the moving spirits. Since Mr. Moffat's death in 1882 the Burns's have acquired this line, and they now have the Belfast trade practically in their own hands, via Greenock and via Ardrossan. Their sailings are two inward and two outward every day, with the addition in summer of a daily daylight sailing in and out. One may judge from this what the Liverpool trade would have grown to but for the unlucky invention of railways. This generation is so used to railways that they have come to consider them a part of the order of nature, like the Evening Citizen, Mr. Biggar, M.P., and other daily luxuries. 12

They forget that, within the memory of many not very old people, till the Liverpool steamers were started, those who did not post at a cost of £40 had only two ways of getting straight through from Glasgow to London. [1] The London Mail. At the beginning of the century this took sixty-three hours. This time was latterly much reduced, and the mail which left the foot of Nelson Street at eight on Monday morning drove into the yard of the Bull and Mouth before six on the Wednesday morning. But stiff and sore were the inside passengers, and the unfortunates on the top had often to be lifted down half dead, sometimes caught their death outright. The expense, including guards and coachmen, and not including two days' living, was about £10 inside and £7 10s. outside. But this was only what it was latterly brought down to. At the time when David Napier started the first Liverpool steamers, the mere fare to Carlisle, one-fourth of the whole journey, was 50s. inside and 33s. outside. [2] The Leith Smacks, sailing thrice a week. These famous vessels, the "Eagle," the "Hawk," and the rest of them, were established in 1809, and long carried most of the Scotch traffic. The fare was certainly moderate - two guineas in the cabin, provisions included - but the time was very uncertain. The average was three to five days, but it has been known to be two days, and it has been known to be twenty. From Glasgow it took about a day and about £1 extra. The Liverpool steamers at once improved matters, and still more when the Liverpool and Manchester, the Grand Junction, and the London and Birmingham, gave a continuous railway from Liverpool to London. The goods traffic was still more accelerated by the Liverpool steamers. David Napier's line carried no goods; but the Manchester Company, which was established in 1823, advertised that goods by their steamers might reach London in four days "by Mr. Bretherton's coaches." These goods must have been light, fine goods. But before this, anything beyond a trifling mail parcel must have either gone by Leith, with no certainty when it would reach London, or have gone by waggon. Till the Leith smacks started, the waggon was the regular conveyance for our Glasgow and Paisley manufactures to the English markets. The smacks at once carried off the most of the London traffic. They were generally quicker than the waggon, and they were cheaper - not that they were cheap, by any means. The through rate to London for box and bale goods by rail to Leith, thence steamer, is now-adays 30s. By canal and smack it used to be £6. The waggon took eighteen days to London, travelling twenty-five miles a day, and stopping two Sundays on the road. So at least says Senex. He does not give the freight, but it must have been a long way over the smacks' £6 - probably about £15. At the time of the starting of freight steamers to Liverpool in 1823 there were three carriers here for England -Howey, via Newcastle; Hargrave, and Welsh & Sons, via Carlisle - each with a daily departure.

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By a natural sequence of their Belfast connection the Burns's have long been connected with the trade to Londonderry, and since the death of the late Alexander Cameron they have run steamers there of their own. The Cunard Company is the most important undertaking the Burns's have had to do with. It dates from 1839. At this time The Admiralty had charge of our ocean mail service, and used to consign the mails for our North American colonies to the uncertain mercies of "coffin brigs." Steamers had repeatedly, had indeed twenty years before, crossed the Atlantic, but it was only in 1838 that the famous voyages of the "Sirius" from London and the "Great Western" from Bristol, decided The Admiralty in favour of steam. They issued circulars asking tenders for a steamer service to Halifax and Boston. One of these circulars came into the hands of a Halifax merchant, Samuel Cunard, who jumped into the next packet to see The Admiralty about it. Cunard was of an American family (originally Quakers), who having been Royalists at the time of the revolt of the Colonies, had taken refuge in Nova Scotia. He had a good position in Halifax: he was the agent to the East India Co.: he was a gentleman: he was given to hospitality: a bright, tight little man, with keen eyes, firm lips, and happy manners. Halifax was then a great naval station, and Cunard had many friends in the fleet. This secured him a ready hearing at the Admiralty, and to the dismay of the "Great Western" Company and the Bristol people he carried off a contract for the mail service via Liverpool to Halifax and Boston. But he had not means himself to carry out the project, and he did not find much encouragement from London capitalists. Then he applied to Melvill, Secretary of the East India Company, whom he knew well through his Halifax agency; Melvill referred him to Robert Napier, who had built steamers for "John Company"; Cunard came straight here to Napier; Napier, who had done work for our old friends the "City of Glasgow" Company, took him to its leading partner, James Donaldson; Donaldson took him to the Burns's; and the Burns's sent for David MacIver, and with him and Cunard went into the thing. It was a big job for these days, and a risky one: the capital was to be £270,000; there were to be steamers of not less than a stated tonnage and horse-power; to be set against the subsidy were heavy penalties if the passages were not made in a stated time; and the cost of driving full steam across the Atlantic in all winds and weathers was an unknown quantity. Finally, after a dinner with George Burns in Brandon Place, and a breakfast next morning with Napier at Lancefield, Burns and MacIver agreed to take it up if they could get a few friends to join them in a small private co-partnery, and could get the Admiralty to modify the contract in the way of an increase in the size and power of the steamers. Cunard agreed to everything, and George Burns set out on his rounds to find the partners. At the Lancefield breakfast he had asked a month to fill the list. He had under-estimated his hold on the public confidence. His first call was on William Connal, who gave him a short answer - "I know nothing of steamers, but as you say it is a good thing, put me down." Others followed suit, and the list was made up with ease within four days. 14

Among the original partners of the Cunard Company were William Connal, James Donaldson, Thomas Buchanan (Cadder), William Stirling (Stirling, Gordon & Co.), Sir James Campbell and his brother William Campbell of Tullichewan, William Leckie Ewing of Arngomery, William Brown of Kilmardinny, Robert Napier, Elias Gibb, Alex. Fletcher, James Merry, &c. Besides Cunard and the MacIvers, the only non-Glasgow names in the list were Alexander, John, and Henry Bannerman, of Manchester, brothers-in-law of Sir James Campbell. Of the whole co-partnery only George Burns and Charles MacIver survive. Then John Park Fleming sat up all night, and with his own hand wrote out the contract of copartnery, and we do not suppose any of the co-partners had any reason to regret having put their hand to it. The Admiralty contract, as finally adjusted, was in the names of Samuel Cunard, George Burns, and David MacIver. It was for two sailings per month from Liverpool to Halifax and Boston, and the subsidy was £60,000. These terms were afterwards largely increased on both sides, but from the first the Cunard Company (or, in its formal title, the British and North American Royal Mail Steam Navigation Company) gave extra measure. The first vessel ready was the "Britannia," and she sailed from Liverpool on her first voyage, on Friday, 4th July, 1840, Independence Day as it happened. Cunard sailed in her; he was uneasy over the Friday sailing; but in spite of it the "Britannia" arrived safe, and from that day to this the Cunard Company have never lost a life nor a letter. The later history of the Company; how New York was taken in and Halifax dropped out; how the Mediterranean and French trades were added on; how the sailings have been doubled and quadrupled, and "Britannias" have grown into "Umbrias," we cannot go into here. One thing we may add. The Cunard Company, with its origin and headquarters in Glasgow, first and last have owned 78 and the Burns's themselves 107 steamers, of a value in all of over £10,000,000 sterling, every ton of them built and engined on the Clyde; and if we reckon, besides, the thousands of Glasgow men who have one way and another been the better for them, it will be plain that James Burns and his firm could scarcely have been left out of this book.

The Cunard Fleet

The Burns Fleet

Trade

No of Vessels

Transatlan tic Mediterra nean and Havre Belfast, Londonder ry, Larne Liverpool Highlands, Firth of Clyde

Tonnage

Horse Power

59

163,513

33,802

19

25,769

3,601

78

189,282

37,403

46

23,777

8,282

35

20,734

7,380

26

3,736

1,780

107 15

48,247

17,442

Totals

185

237,529

54,845

One famous line the Burns's worked up, and then, under the pressure of greater enterprises, abandoned. This was The Royal Route (well-named) through The West Highlands. The Crinan route got the name of the "Royal Route," from its having been used by the Queen on her visit to Scotland in 1847. She was sent that way by the glowing account she had of it from the Grand Duke Constantine, who, on a visit to Scotland the year before, had been sent that way by The Admiralty. They began the Highland trade about 1832, and in 1835 bought three little steamers, the "Rob Roy," the "Helen Macgregor," and the "Inverness," which William Young, a plumber, had been running to little profit through the Crinan. From this beginning they worked up a whole system of steamers for the day passage through the Crinan or the night passage round the Mull, gliding along canals or battling with the Atlantic, meeting at Oban, crossing and re-crossing, plunging into the lochs, winding along the sounds, threading their way among the islands, fine pleasure boats for the flock of summer swallows, stout trading boats summer and winter serving the whole archipelago, linking with the world the lonely bay or the outer islet, freighted out with supplies of all sorts and shapes, freighted in with wool and sheep, Highland beasts and Highland bodies: surely the liveliest service in the world ! But they had their hands more than full, and in 1851 they handed over the whole fleet to the new firm of David Hutcheson & Co., consisting of David Hutcheson, who had been with them from the old smack days; his brother, Alexander Hutcheson, who had also been with them; and their nephew, David MacBrayne. There has been many a change since then in the service. 'Fairy' steamers have replaced the Crinan track boats of our youth and the boys galloping in their scarlet jackets: the "Iona" and the "Columba," the "Clansman" and the "Claymore"we had not dreamt of such vessels: in every detail there have been vast improvements. But in all its main features the service is as the Burns's made it. To their initiative, which others have ably followed up, thousands of travellers from all parts owe the most delightful of their travels - thousands of ourselves, worn by the strain of the town, owe the new life sucked in with the breath of the heather, the music of the ocean, the untold delights of the West Highlands.

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