In 1789 the Scots steamboat pioneer William Symington began to experiment with engines suitable for propelling a small boat. He developed the first paddle powered craft which was capable of 6 knots and was designed for 'dragging vessels'. This 'new technology' was viewed with as much consternation as nuclear technology has been over the past three decades.
By the 1830's most sailing ships were being fitted with steam engines for extra power on ocean voyages, but the amount of coal they could carry was small and the engine would be used in conjunction with sail. The epitome of this style of ship was the huge Great Eastern. Designed by Isambard Kingdom Brunel, the Great Eastern was built to carry enough coal for voyages to India and Australia.
Launched in 1858 and driven by sail, paddle wheels and a stern propeller, this giant steamship could carry up to 4,000 passengers and 6,000 tonnes of cargo. The two huge paddle wheels were over 17m in diameter and were powered by an immense two cylinder engine. In commercial terms however paddle steamers were never to catch on for ocean going cargo carrying. One of the inherent drawbacks was their beam (width) which meant that the larger steamers struggled to fit into conventional locks. Even when they did fit they would take the space of two sailing ships, providing the harbour authorities with the opportunity to try and charge the paddle steamer owners more tolls for their lock.
Glasgow was a growing city, its coal and iron industries booming and craft were needed to bring cargoes upstream and into the city. Although the Clyde was broad, until the early 19th century shoals prevented sea-going ships from sailing higher than Port Glasgow some twenty miles downstream. Ships had to discharge their cargoes at congested anchorages either into horse drawn lighters (barges) or onto packhorses for the journey to the industrial centre. It was in the river and estuary of the Clyde that paddle steamers came into their own, firstly as passenger boats and ferries, secondly as cargo carriers and finally as tugs.
Three different types of paddle steamers have met their demise in the Clyde and they provide the diver with three different levels of diving ranging from a standard air dive, through extended range to mixed gas.
The most northerly and shallowest of the wrecks is the IONA. Launched in 1855, the ship began her working career as a passenger ship, but by 1862 had changed role to a general cargo vessel. In October 1862 she was bound for the Bahamas when she was struck by the steamer CHANTICLEER which was returning to port after spending the day undergoing sea trials. The force with which the Chanticleer struck nearly cut the Iona in two and she quickly sank by the stern.
Although the Iona is the biggest of the trio of wrecks at over 68.5m long, the wreck is well dispersed and the main mass of the Iona lies on a silty seabed in 28m of water. The soft seabed has claimed most of the wreck and the maximum amount that any wreckage stands clear is around 4m. The visibility in the Clyde at the position where the Iona lies is 'variable' with a couple of metres being the best that is normally experienced. Diving the wreck on high water slack provides the best conditions.
At first dropping onto the silt covered remains of the Iona is a misleading experience. If you haven't landed on the middle section of the wreckage all you will see are rusted orange plates sticking out of the silt. It's hard to work out whether you're on a part of the hull or one of the bulkheads and all to easy to become disorientated and swim away from the wreck; laying a line off the shot soon solves this problem. One of the beauties of diving the wreck on an extended range basis is that you have the time to move around slowly and work out where you are. An ideal nitrox mix of 36% allows you about 40 mins on the bottom with 2 mins decompression, more than enough time to for exploration.
The two paddle wheel crankshafts and the remains of the engine are at the centre of the mid-ship section. The engine room consisted of two sets of parallel boilers and two huge sets of condensers and depending upon which way you swim from the crank shaft you can work out which way you are going. If you come to a condenser first, then the base of the funnel, you are heading towards the stern. If, however, you come to the base of funnel then a condenser, you are swimming towards the bows. Just forward of the engine room bulkhead the wreck ends abruptly where the hull plates have collapsed. You will need to swim out into the darkness as the bow section is about 9m ahead, again if you're laying a line then this doesn't present a problem. The bow section is one of the higher parts of the wreck. The port side of the bow stands around 4m clear of the seabed but the plating on the starboard side is only about 2m. The Iona sits in the middle of a busy shipping lane and you must contact Clyde Port authorities prior to diving her.
The second paddle powered vessel we feature is the CHAMPION, a paddle tug built in 1882. It is said to be unlucky to re-name a ship and the Champion (formerly known as the JAVELIN) certainly supports this tradition. On her routine mail run in December 1896 and in dense fog, the Champion collided with the paddle steamer CALEDONIA. With her port side ripped into, the Champion quickly began to sink, but not before the captain risked his neck to save the mail.
The wreck of the Champion lies on the seabed, south of the Gantock rocks, her bows in 34m and the stern in 38m. The sea very often has a 'tea stained' hue caused by layers of rainwater running off the surrounding hills. The resulting halocline effect that the fresh water causes means that it is better to get down two to three meters before doing a quick 'bubble check'. The shot disappears down through darker, clearer water, losing the light at about twenty metres and from here on in you see as much as your torches will allow. Lying at 36m on a muddy seabed the sharp bows soon take shape. The plating is covered in jewel and dahlia anemones as well as the ubiquitous dead-men's-fingers. The wreck isn't that big and working your way carefully along the gunwhale it's not long before you reach the remains of the port side paddle wheel. The metal frame of the paddle wheel is now a fraction of its former thickness and great care must be taken not to land on it. Moving across the jagged and twisted metal at the point of the collision and crossing the deck the shape of the hatch to the engine room looms. The remains of the boiler and a drive shaft can just be seen before the mandatory silt descends and turns the torch beams brown. Across the deck and past the numerous squat lobsters whose thin red claws reach out from under the debris, the framework of the second paddle wheel takes shape. The starboard wheel is (slightly) more intact, with the hub of the paddle and the struts still standing proud from the seabed. Carefully dropping onto the sea bed it is possible to follow the hull back to the bows and begin the ascent back up the shot, however when the vis is really bad line should again be laid. Using a combination of AIR & EANx 75 and based on a maximum depth of 39 metres for 40 mins means that you will need to pull about 30 mins of deco which is bearable. The Champion is a good little dive though locating her can be quite difficult.
The final wreck in our trilogy of paddle steamers has only recently been discovered. It has long been common knowledge that a paddle steamer, the PRINCESS OF WALES, had been sunk in deep water off Wemyss Bay. A team of gas divers from the north-west contacted local dive centre operator and commercial diver Jim Queen at Kip Watersports to see if it would be possible to mount an operation to locate the Princess. Having spoken to local wreck experts Peter Moir and Ian Crawford, and the many fishermen who drag their scallop trawl around the area, Jim began to search for the wreck using a sounder. It didn't take long for him to find a potential target.The Princess had been built for the Southampton & Isle of Wight Royal Mail Steam Packet Company and was undergoing her speed trials when she was in collision with the steamer BALMORAL CASTLE. The Princess was struck just behind her engine room and was sliced in two, her stern sinking immediately and taking three workmen to a watery grave. The bows stayed afloat long enough to allow the passengers to escape in lifeboats launched by the Balmoral Castle as well as the Princess' own remaining boat. A passing steamer, the ADELA, tried to tow the Princess to Wemyss Bay but she sank in deep water where she was written off as a total loss.
Steaming out of Inverkip marina aboard the dive boat 'Red Dwarf' the mood turned from the normal banter and 'mickey taking' to an air of quiet proficiency as the gas divers began to ready their back mounted cylinders of 16/35 trimix (16% Oxygen 35% Helium). The shot had been dropped into a substantial lump on the sounder and now Jim ran around the target to 'box it in'. The maximum depth showed at 68m and rose to 62m on a gradual slope. As the travel and decompression side mount cylinders were clipped under the diver's arms, Jim ran in again on the large buoy to check the current. Satisfied with the slack water the twin outboard engines were knocked into neutral as the gas divers were given the word to go. The sun was high and bright and filtered down to around the 30m mark after which it was on with the torches. As final divers down we arrived at the anchor to find three white lines from the other divers heading away into the distance. The bottom was alive with squat lobsters which, caught out in the open, scuttled for shelter. Immediately a curved, rusty, rivet holed plate came into view from which lines had been belayed. Continuing to follow the lines past other tangled pieces of wreckage brought us to the main hull of the ship. Trying not to disturb the bottom we slowly started to figure out where we were. Rising up the side of the hull the plates began to curve away from us. With dive lights on full beam we followed the curve of the ship until a flaking ridge of steel gave us our first indication of the wreck's position. She had settled upside down. The second question was were we on the stern or bow?
Scanning the lights around, the answer to the second question soon became apparent as the plates widened out from the keel. The torches illuminated the irregular shape of a trawl net. Moving cautiously toward it we could see the spars and struts tangled up in the net. These were the remains of a paddle wheel and it confirmed that we were indeed on the wreck of the Princess of Wales. Swimming across the keel at ninety degrees, more net though this time smaller and more manageable was wrapped around the remains of the other paddle wheel. With gauges indicating that 28 minutes of a planned 30 minute bottom time had elapsed it was time to follow the line back to the shot. Following the opposite side of the keel back we came to a gaping hole in the hull, but we had no time to ponder how this had occurred as clouds of silt indicated that we were approaching the shot.
Line reels stowed, we began the one and a half hour ascent back to the surface, using EANx 36 and 80 as decompression gases. Back on the boat we began to collate our information as to where we had been and what we'd seen. The wreck was upside down with the bows pointing back towards Wemyss bay in 62m. The wreck ends abruptly in 68m after the paddle wheels, in the area of the collision. Only small ribs and sections of plate stick out of the sand and there was no sign of the stern section. That remains to be found another time! In these days when science and innovation in Britain seem to be very much undervalued, the three Clyde paddle streamers serve as a reminder of Britain's inventive and industrial past. What we now have is the technology to explore and enjoy this heritage. The Gas diving team: Ken Hughes, Tony Harris, Paul Lillie, Zadi al Obadi, Richie Waering and Ron Mahoney.

By Ron Mahoney.