Henry Bell was a Scottish engineer of whom I knew very little. His claim to fame was a steamship called Comet of which I knew a little, information gleaned whilst writing a school project on his more illustrious counterpart, one I. K. Brunel. The link in this particular case was steamships – the Great Western (1838) being large, very large for its day, and built for the illustrious transatlantic Blue Riband route. The Comet just pottered up and down the Clyde. Brunel became a world-renowned hero. Bell lived his later years in abject poverty and never gained any personal benefit from the industry that he spawned. Yes, there is a shiny monument to his name in Helensburgh, on the seafront, but of what value is that to him?
So what was it about Comet? Well, it was the very first successful steamship built in Europe. It was in 1800 that Bell first wrote to the Admiralty suggesting that steam powered vessels would be a good idea, no longer to be held hostage by wind and tide. Lord Nelson seemed enthusiastic but otherwise the establishment dismissed the whole thing out of hand, not just once, but again three years later. So he looked abroad to see if he could find some interest. And he did – he sent his scheme to America (and elsewhere) and one Mr Fulton started building steamships for their rivers thus proving the safety and practicality of his scheme. But the Brits remained uninterested. So in 1808 Bell moved to Clydeside (he was raised in West Lothian), to the aforementioned town of Helensburgh, and in partnership with John Robertson, built the boat PS Comet. Messrs John Wood and Co. of Port Glasgow constructed it in 1812. It weighed thirty tons and had a three horsepower engine and cost him a mortgage on his house – money never recovered. After a few trial trips, which were highly successful, he advertised a regular passenger service from Glasgow to Greenock and Helensburgh, three times a week. Out one day, return the next. It was too small to make any profit so in 1819 he had his ship lengthened and fitted with a six horsepower engine in order to run a service to Oban and Fort William via the Crinan Canal. This commenced in September but in December the following year Comet was shipwrecked near Oban. So he built Comet II and in 1822 it became the first boat to sail from the Atlantic to the North Sea via the newly opened Caledonian Canal. Tourism had come to the Highlands. Sadly in 1825 she collided with another steamship near Gourock and sank. The collision was caused, not by any malfunction or poor design, but by a lookout who wasn’t keeping a lookout: dereliction of duty. Of the 80 passengers aboard 62 drowned and Bell, it seems, just gave up. He abandoned his worked and lived out his final days in poverty.
Some benevolent individuals who realised the value of his work clubbed together to provide him with a small annuity and arranged a public subscription. This seems like scant reward for a far-sighted, ingenious man whose invention and determination changed the face of shipping forever; and in his own lifetime at that. His main failing was to not patent his design. He was an engineer with great ideas, not a businessman. The Clyde became the foremost ship-building river of the World on the back of the ingenuity and determination of Henry Bell.
Back