Irvine’s Maritime Heritage

Dane Love

The mouth of the rivers Irvine and Garnock has formed an ideal harbour for vessels for centuries. The wide estuary gives plenty of room for ships of considerable size to tie up alongside the wharves that were built along the southern side of the river. Indeed, in early days it could be argued that Irvine had the best harbour in Ayrshire. However, it suffered from blown sand and was difficult to enter at times.

In fact, in the eighteenth century, Irvine was the third largest port in Scotland, being the preferred port for Glasgow, which was only capable of allowing small vessels to land, the River Clyde being un-dredged and shallower than it later became. It wasn’t until Glasgow developed the Clyde as a major port that Irvine began to lose its trade, resulting in a harbour that hardly has any boats in it today, even pleasure craft.
But aspects of Irvine’s maritime history can still be seen down the harbour. The principal site of Irvine’s shipbuilding industry was located at the end of Church Street. Ship and boatbuilding took place in the town from the earliest of times, for example John Webb established a yard in 1759 and from then until 1931 many vessels were built and launched into the Irvine. Shipyard owners included John Webb, Gilkison, Thomson & Co., J. H. Gilmour, Irvine Shipbuilding Co., Peter Murchie, and a Mrs Martin.

In 1919 the yard was acquired by the Ayrshire Dockyard Company, and more ships were built there. A number were for the Clan Cayzer Line, including Clan MacTavish and Clan MacTaggart, which at 7,610 tons were probably the largest ships to be launched in Irvine. In 1928 the yard was bought by Lithgows of Port Glasgow, and ships such as the 6,300-ton Coulmore and Coulbeg were made for the Dornoch Shipping Company. These were the last ships built at Irvine, launched in 1931.

An Irvine son was to play a part in the development of marine engineering. James Steedman was born at Cullen in 1790, the son of a baker who came to work at Eglinton Castle. He became a joiner’s apprentice, but his love of nature led him to study birds and fish, in particular how they propelled themselves. After much study and experimentation, he developed the screw propellor. A model was made and it was tested successfully on the River Irvine.

Steedman sent another Irvine man, Maxwell Dick, to London with a prototype, hoping to raise capital for investment. However, someone saw the model and was able to file a patent for it before Steedman. He never made his fortune from what was soon to become standard issue on large ships, replacing the paddles used previously. He died in 1865 and is buried in the old parish kirkyard.

Most of the surviving wharves at Irvine are now used by the Scottish Maritime Museum which has a café and shop by the side of the water in addition to the large Linthouse Building at the end of Linthouse Vennel. There, a huge collection of maritime artefacts is on display, from full vessels to lifeboats, yachts and shipbuilding machinery. The building itself is unique, having been the shipbuilding workshop of Alexander Stephen & Sons at Govan, before it was dismantled and re-erected as a museum in 1991.

Irvine’s carters were employed to transport goods from the ships to the town and beyond. The men with their horses and carts are commemorated at the harbourside by a statue sculpted by David Annand and unveiled in 1996.

Facing the harbour is a mixture of buildings, old and new. Harbour Street contains a few traditional buildings, including the Ship Inn, claimed to be Irvine’s oldest hostelry. The inn was established in 1750 by Charles Hamilton and received its first licence in 1754. Hamilton was the top man in Irvine in his time, provost twice, and a friend of Robert Burns. He died in 1783.

The old Harbour Master’s office still stands by the side of the river. A simple building, it had a clock made by Robert Crawford on an outside wall. Among the harbour masters over the years was Martin Boyd.

It was Martin Boyd who invented Irvine’s unique Tide Signal. The foursquare tower for this still stands near the harbour mouth. It used floats in the harbour, connected by ropes and chains to a pulley system, which raised and lowered balls to indicate the depth of water at the Bar. The building was officially opened on 23 May 1906. Once it was declared open, the party sailed to Largs and returned in the evening, entering the harbour at night to see the pilot house signals in operation.

The Bar is the name for the mouth of River Irvine. The fluctuating tide and current of the river caused issues for vessels arriving and departing the port, as the depth of water varied considerably. In an attempt at constraining the water, with the hope of it scouring a deeper channel for itself, piles of stone and rubble were dumped on either side of the mouth of the river.

Some of the ships attempting to cross the Bar had problems, and there are many accounts of vessels floundering in their hope of reaching safety. To aid these vessels, there used to be a lifeboat station near the Bar, serving mariners from 1833 until 1914. In 1894 the lifeboat men performed their greatest rescue, when the Norwegian ship, Frey, lost its mast and would have been wrecked on Lady Isle before it sank.

Sixteen mariners were rescued, but one, Lars Magnussen, couldn’t swim and was drowned. The Norwegian government awarded medals to all of the lifeboat men.