Today's photo is of the Clutha No.5, a passenger ferry built by TB Seath & Sons of Rutherglen for the Clyde Navigation Trust. The no. 5 came into service in 1884 and worked until 1903.


The Glasgow Story website has information about the history of these passenger ferries and an article written by Andrew McQueen is available online at Scribd which gives a fuller history of these "waterbuses".

Specification details available from the Clydebuilt site along with this interesting information provided by Stuart Cameron, about what you can see in the photo:

"In the background the spire of the University of Glasgow can be seen in the background on Gilmorehill. The ship on the left is berthed at D&W Henderson's fitting out quay on the west bank of the River Kelvin. The two ship's under construction are in the Pointhouse shipyard of A & J Inglis. To the right of them is the north bank slipway of the Govan ferry the the Partick Steamboat Wharf."