The PS Comet

Because of the vessel's significance in steam ship design and her ' belonging' to the Port massive celebrations were held to mark her century launch and then again for 150th anniversary in 1962 when the replica of the comet was built.

This is the first flywheel of the Comet and is now in Hermitage Park in Helensburgh.
There is two monuments to Bell one at Helensburgh and the other at Bowling.
The Comet had two engines both of which are shown here.

In the early part of the 19th century a Helensburgh engineer called Henry Bell began to pursue the idea that the steam engine, perfected by James Watt from across the Clyde at Greenock, could he used to propel ships. Curiously, Watt himself saw no future for the steamship and rather played down his enthusiasm.
But Bell, who had been an engineer in Glasgow and was helping his wife to run a hydropathic hotel in Helensburgh, was not to be put off. In 1811 went to see John Wood, a Port Glasgow shipbuilder, who agreed to build a 45ft wooden paddle steamer which became famous around the world as ps Comet.
The Comet became known as the mother of the British steamship.
Bell was not counted a great maritime engineer nor much of a businessman; he was just someone who pursued a dream, indeed not even the dream was his own. Another Scots engineer, William Syrnington from Leadhills, had in fact built the first commercial steamship in the world, the Charlotte Dundas, but it so damaged the banks of the Forth and Clyde Canal that it was withdrawn.
The Comet ran for passengers between Glasgow, Greenock and Helensburgh but found it too small to he viable. By the time he lengthened it by 20ft, more astute businessmen had moved in and, within a few years, he had more than 20 competitors. So he opened up another route, through the Crinan Canal to Oban and onwards to Inverness.
All too typical of Britain with its inventors, Henry Bell was still trying to raise money and Comet came five years after Fulton's ship making him no money at all.

Returning to Glasgow from Inverness one December day in 1820, Comet was lifted on to the rocks at Craignish Point, near Oban, and wrecked. Her engine was salvaged and used to drive machinery at a brewery. But in 1862 it was rescued and bought by that great engineer, Robert Napier, who presented it to the Science Museum in London,
where it remains.
Bell built another Comet, which perished. Poor, depressed and in failing health friends gathered £500 as a testimonial and the Clvde Navigation Trust gave him an annuity.
Henry Bell died in 1830, aged 63, and is buried in the churchyard near Helensburgh.

This page last modified on Tuesday, March 04, 2003

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