Blog at the Ballast

Back in October we organised and shifted close to 10 tonnes of engineering plans. These were drawings relating to about 8 different engineering companies based in the North-East of England. They had come to the Ballast Trust along with other material for the Kincaid’s collection that had been cleared out of the premises of Clark Kincaids in the early 1990s.

Following discussions with colleagues at Tyne & Wear Archives & Museums, we had agreed that these items would be much better placed with them as a repository that is local to where those companies operated.

They sent up a great driver who amazingly drove all the way up from Newcastle, spent 3 hours loading plans and then drove all the way back down! You can see what they have done since with the plans (including some snazzy and essential freezing of the plans) and find out more about how they fit into their shipbuilding and engineering collections here.

Today's photo is an unusual one for us compared to the normal ship photos. It is an image of the engine room of the PS Caledonia, built by William Denny & Brothers, Dumbarton, Yard no. 1266.

Today's photo is a deck shot of passengers on board the SS Davaar, a passenger/cargo vessel built by London & Glasgow Engineering & Iron Shipbuilding Co. in 1885.

The ship was used by the Campbeltown and Glasgow Steam Packet Joint Stock Company.

There is a history of the company written by P Donald M Kelly available online

The plan is stamped A & J Inglis, Glasgow with a date in 1897, the ship number given is no. 246 and this turns out to have been the SS Magpie built for G & J Burns Ltd to run across the Irish sea.

She was renamed as the Lairdsgrove in 1929 and ended her days as such.  The image below is from our flickr and part of the Dan McDonald collection.

• York Street Ferry (York Street to West Street) 
• Clyde Street Ferry (Clyde Street, Anderston, to Springfield Quay) 
• Hyde Park Ferry (Hydepark Street to Springfield Quay) 
• Stobcross Ferry (Finnieston Quay to Mavisbank Quay) 
• Finnieston Ferry (Finnieston Quay to Mavisbank Quay) 
• Kelvinhaugh Ferry (Yorkhill Quay to Princes Dock) 
• Govan Ferry (Ferry Road, Partick, to Water Row, Govan) 
• Meadowside Ferry (Meadowside Street, Partick to Holm Street, Govan) 
• Whiteinch Ferry (James Street, Whiteinch to Holmfauld Road, Linthouse) 
• Renfrew Ferry (Yoker to Renfrew) 
• Erskine Ferry (Dunbartonshire to Renfrewshire)

The Glasgow firm of Penman & Co, boilermakers, Caledonian Iron Works, was established around 1870 and by 1900 occupied a three-acre site at its Caledonian Iron Works in Strathclyde Street, Bridgeton (built 1889). The firm was incorporated in 1907 and from 1920 was owned by Babcock & Wilcox. It specialised in land boilers, which were exported worldwide.

We've had a very busy week this week with 4 new accessions:

• Photographs from Ferguson Shipbuilders
• Rigging Plans from McKenzie Niven Ltd
• Material relating to North British Locomotive Company
• Papers from the Sinclair Scott family

[rigging plan]

Today's photo comes from a set uploaded from a box of miscellaneous photographs from John G Kincaids. The image below is of the K23 engine.


The engine was fitted in the CLAN MCDONALD built by Greenock Dockyard Co. The collection belongs to Glasgow City Archives.

More images from Kincaids are available on our flickr pages.