Glasgow And Ships Of The Clyde

Clyde puffer LOUISE founders off Rothesay and skipper is saved but two crewmen drown

   When the iron screw lighter (Clyde Puffer) LOUISE foundered off Bogany Point, Rothesay, the skipper was saved but the other two men of the crew were drowned.

   About 3.30pm LOUISE left Rothesay carrying 300 barrels of residual product from the Gas Works on the Island and was heading for Bowling and the Forth and Clyde Canal with her cargo consigned to Ross & Company at their works at Falkirk.

   The barrels filled the ship’s hold and many were piled on deck and the hatch could not be closed and had to be left open.

   As LOUISE rounded Bogany Point, passing only a short distance from the shore, she met a rough sea and immediately began to take water over her bow and bulwarks.   Being fully loaded and with little freeboard the vessel’s hold quickly became filled with water and she sank within moments.

   People on the shore who had witnessed the sinking immediately raised the alarm and a rowing boat was launched and went to the scene.   Barrels and debris were floating and the ship’s skipper, John Steel, was found holding onto a floating hatch-board.   There was no sign of the other two crewmen, Robert Miles and Thomas Cameron.

   LOUISE was owned by the lighter-owning Company J. & J. Hay of Glasgow and Kirkintilloch.   She had been built in 1870 by J. & R. Swan at their shipyard in Dumbarton and was a "Shorehead" boat 65 feet long and was of 43 gross tons.