Note 99 — Chapter II
Reading edition
Mr. James Deas, C.E., in his “Treatise on the Improvements and Progress of Trade of the River Clyde,” (1873) says, “An old gentleman, seventy-seven years of age, and who has been connected with the Clyde for upwards of fifty years, informed me a short time ago that he made a voyage in the Comet in 1812. He left Greenock at 10 A.M. for Glasgow, but, in consequence of a ripple of head wind, it was 2 P.M. before they got to Bowling, 10½ miles above Greenock, where all the passengers were landed and had to walk to Glasgow, owing to the want of water, the tide having ebbed. It was no uncommon occurrence for the passengers, when the little steamer was getting exhausted, to take to turning the fly-wheel to assist her.”