Part One - The Beginnings
(From Sea Breezes in 1957, published from a Steel & Bennie Centenary publication)


In 1856 a Greenock man, James Steel, having acquired several lighters for sale by the Clyde Shipping Company assumed into partnership two of his eight sons and began trading under the name of James Steel and Sons. This company incorporated the Glasgow and Greenock Shipping Company which he had formed soon after leaving the Clyde Shipping Company in 1851, in which firm he had served as lighter manager for some years.

John Steel, the eldest son, was born in 1826 (died 1908). From an early age he was interested in evangelical work, and during three visits to India saw for himself many of the mission stations and took and active part in mission work. Robert Heron Steel, the fourth son, was born in 1832 (died 1904). Outside of domestic circles and those with whom business brought him in contact, he was comparatively little known, avoiding publicity in all its forms. Perhaps his strongest point was his unostentatious generousity to the habitues of the Broomielaw.

James Steel and Sons entered into the lighterage trade and plied between Glasgow and Greenock carrying all classes of merchandise to and from the Tail O The Bank where the ocean-going ships lay at anchor between voyages. At this time, although the Clyde was navigable up to Glasgow, quay space was almost wholly confined to the Broomielaw. Much of the trade for Glasgow was still carried in sailing vessels, and craft drawing more than 15 feet had to be lighted at the Tail O The Bank. The lighterage business at this time was undoubtedly a flourishing trade.

In the beginning the fleet comprised three luggage paddle steamers - INDUSTRY, GREENOCK and GLASGOW and eight wooden dumb lighters ANN, BETTY, CLYDE, FRIENDS, KELVIN, LAUREL, BOWLING and NEWARK. As well as carrying their own full quota of cargo the steamers towed the dumb barges, thus originating what was to become the firm's sole business - towing.

The most famous of these old steamers was the INDUSTRY, affectionately known as 'the Coffee Mill'. She was built in 1814 by Fyfe of Fairlie (the well known luxury yacht builders) and acquired with the GREENOCK for £2,180. The original engine was buiilt by Dobie of Glasgow but in 1828 she was re-engined by Caird of Greenock. This 10 HP engine gave yeoman service until the mid seventies when the vessel was broken up. The engine was presented by the firm to the Kelvingrove Galleries [Editor's note: where, it states in this 1957 publication, the engine still exists]

In 1847 the only deep sea traders were sailing vessels and the loading and discharging berths for cargo not taken on board lighters at the Tail O The Bank was the Broomielaw between Oswald Street and James Watt Street. As a port Glasgow was still subsidiary to Greenock, whence trans-shipped cargoes were taken by lighters, and it is fair to record that the merchants of Glasgow very much grudged the heavy tolls which Greenock levied on all cargo passing to the city. The necessity for deepening the river and straightening the channel was constantly in the minds of the Clyde Navigation Trustees.

Until the early sixties the system was for a tug to drag a weighted harrow leisurely over the bottom. This was not very effective and vessels drawing between 14 feet and 21 feet frequently grounded and had to be partially unloaded to lighten. Steam hopper dredgers, invented and built on the river, brought an immediate improvement, and dredgers have been employed in deepening and maintaining the channel ever since.

Business was brisk and the trade plentiful in 1856 and the prospects enabled the Steels to order four new steamers. Two of these lighters were the first ever vessels built at Scott's Yard, Rutherglen. They were launched within weeks of each other and named JAMES WATT and HENRY BELL. It is remarkable that these two names find their way into practically any history of Clyde activity. The two new vessels were commissioned in June 1857 and the issue of the Glasgow Herald of June 5th announced the additions to the service with an offer "to convey all manner of cargoes between Glasgow and Greenock at the same rates as the Clyde Shipping Company".

In the same issue the Clyde Shipping Company announced a 25 percent reduction in all their rates.

Competition was indeed severe in those days. However, later the same year, the DUNGLASS and RENFREW were delivered. Shortly afterwards the GENERAL WILLIAM, FIREFLY and SIR CHARLES NAPIER were acquired.

On Christmas Eve 1862, David Bennie joined James Steel and Sons in a junior position from which he would soon rise by his business acumen and focefulness.

Expansion was the trend and in 1863 another lighter the TWO SISTERS was bought. This vessel shortly afterwards made several voyages to the West Highlands. The following year GREENOCK was scrapped and replaced by a namesake.

The pattern of the firm's development became clearer in 1866 with the purchase of the ADMIRAL, the company's first real tug. This was quickly followed by three other tugs, the VANGUARD, HOTSPUR and LORD DERBY. Of these paddlers the VANGUARD was perhaps the most famous. Built by Robertson and Company of Greenock in 1868, she had a side lever engine (colloquially known as the 'grasshopper') taking steam from two egg-ended boilers. She was scrapped in 1917.

At about this time a plain black funnel was common to many shipping companies. In 1866 the funnel colours now recognised as Steel and Bennie's was adopted - tripartite black, white and black.

The first Glasgow dock, Kingston Dock, was opened on the South Side of the river in 1867. This was a very small basin of five acres on the site of a sandpit and it was not until 10 years later that Queen's Dock, where previously there had been a farm and market garden, took ships into a water area of 34 acres.

The early seventies saw the start of the great Irish emigration trade to America which opened up another field for the company. A subsidiary company in Londonderry was formed in 1872 trading under the name of Steel and McCaskill with J.W.Currie as manager. A service of tugs and tug tenders was instituted between Londonderry and the Atlantic liners which lay off Molville in Lough Foyle. The service began with the LOUGH FOYLE (previously the LOCH GOIL built in 1853.) Within a few years the service was augmented by the paddle steamers ALBATROSS, SEAGULL, SAMSON and the steamer OSPREY in 1876. The ALBATROSS was for a short time on charter to MacBrayne's for one of the Hebridean routes [Editor's Note: The original publication states that a model of this vessel is in the MacLean Museum in Greenock]

For a time this ferrying trade was profitable and continued until the turn of the century when the liners began to dock at Belfast direct. Subsidiary services of pleasure excursions met with increased local competition and ultimately the service was withdrawn in 1906.

The title of the firm was changed in 1877 to Steel and Bennie incorporating the Glasgow and Greenock Shipping Company, when David Bennie was taken into partnership with John and Robert Heron Steel shortly after the death of James Steel
 

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