The book Arran; - Cook Clan

THE NEW ARRAN 243
But the close of such adventures was at hand. The
river steamers of the Clyde came early among such fleets,
and the facilities which this mode of travelling afforded
' of visiting places formerly deemed inaccessible ' at once
attracted the public. On a day at the close of August 1825
the s.s. Helensburgh, with a party consisting of the pro-
prietors and their friends, opened up a remarkable prospect.
Leaving Greenock at eight in the morning, it proceeded to
Rothesay, thence through the Kyles of Bute to Loch Ranza,
round the west and south coasts of Arran, called at Lamlash,
Brodick, Millport, Fairley, and Largs, and reached Helensburgh
at 9 P.M., doing all this ' in a short space of thirteen
hours—through some of the finest scenery in Scotland.' ^
Within a few years Arran had its regular share in a
Royal Mail Steam Packet Service, when, as appears from an
advertisement of 1829, the Toward Castle sailed from Glasgow
every Tuesday for Brodick and Lamlash, and the Inveraray
Castle every Saturday, returning from Arran on Wednesday
and Monday morning respectively.
These earlier steamers were owned by individuals or
companies, and of the first in use the starting-place was
Glasgow. Some did only a summer or irregular trade.
From 1832 to 1864 the 'M'Kellar' boats, from the Hero and
the Jupiter to the Juno, were familiar on the Arran route.
By the sixties, however, the extension of railways to the
coast towns was setting up new conditions and limits for
the traffic. The steamers, indeed, helped to run the coaches
off the road, but in turn the railways soon encroached upon
the river steamers, and presently began to add these to their
own termini. Ardrossan had always been marked as the
natural port of departure for Arran, and in 1860 an Ardrossan
company had the Earl of Arran constructed for that route.
Her commander was a popular Irishman, Captain Blakeney,
the only Clyde captain of that nationality. In 1868 the
' Glasgow Heriild, September 6, 1825.