The single-funnelled paddle steamer "New Zealand", formerly Mill's "Alliance", in

the distance
wrecked on the sandbar at the entrance to Hogitika harbour, in New Zealand's
South Island in 1865

MILL'S 1857 STEAM CATAMARAN - THE

"ALLIANCE"
An interesting item in the shipping news of August 6, 1863 that might otherwise readily pass
unnoticed reads "Queenstown, 5th Aug., sailed, "Alliance", (s), Liverpool for Nassau" and
indeed service as a blockade runner.

Though the "Alliance" was George Mills' somewhat unsuccessful on the Clyde, the 1857-built
double-hulled 'catamaran', the Clyde's first 'saloon' steamer and first 'three-funnelled' Clyde
steamer, managed to cross the Atlantic and, after several successful trips evading the
cruisers, was captured at Savannah in April, 1864.

Auctioned as a prize in New York, she again traversed the waters of the Atlantic and eventually
found her way to New Zealand, where she stranded on the north spit of Hokitika Bar on
August 7, 1865. Andrew McQueen tells us much of her story in his 'Echoes of Old Paddle
Wheels'

In the 1850's, the Clyde Steamer was rapidly developing into a speed machine pure and
simple. Engine power and perfection of model were the qualities that mattered and the
shipbuilding and engineering firms on the river had set themselves to outstrip one another in
their productions.

Fleet of foot and deep-chested were these vessels, for a couple of large haystack boilers gave
them staying power. Never before had river formed course for such perfect thoroughbreds.

Their owners, usually their builders, sportsmen all, saw to it that their favourites lacked no
opportunity of displaying their prowess, providing them with skippers and engineers capable of
getting the last ounce out of them, and not scrupulous about the observance of harbour
regulations when racing was afoot.

The skippers were constantly appearing at the police courts. "Failing to reduce speed when in
harbour" was the usual charge; but the fines, ranging as a rule from one to three guineas,
imposed by the magistrates, were cheerfully paid by the owner, all the more cheerfully if the

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commission of the offence had enabled his steamer to outstrip a rival or to clip a minute off
the record between Glasgow and Dunoon.

Naturally, under such conditions, the accommodation of the passenger was a very secondary
matter. Speed was everything, and nothing that would offer extra resistance or interfere with
the vessel showing her best paces was tolerated. Consequently the deck-fittings were of the
simplest, sufficient when the weather was fine, but affording no shelter in rain, while in the ill-
ventilated cabins under deck the presence of a number of people soon rendered the
atmosphere intolerably foul.

It seems to have occurred to a Mr. George Mills that there might be travellers who did not
regard speed as the one and only desideratum, to whom a comfortable journey at a moderate
pace would appear more attractive than to be drenched or stifled in a rush at breakneck pace
for the sake of passing all competitors or saving a handful of minutes.
He accordingly applied himself to the designing of a vessel which, in his opinion, would provide
accommodation for all weathers, far more comfortable than the Clyde service had ever known
and which, while not exceptionally fast, should yet possess a reasonable turn of speed.

His design, in which all the conventions were completely departed from, was submitted to a
number of wealthy Glasgow gentlemen in 1854 and met with considerable approval. Mr. Mills
was advised, however, to await the passing of the Limited Liability Bill, then before Parliament,
and assured that as soon as that measure became law he would not lack support for his
scheme of putting such a vessel on the river.

Consequently, it was not till 1856 that the Clyde Improved Steamboat Co., Ltd. was formed
and the experimental steamer "Alliance" laid down with Tod & M'Gregor.

The following description of her, published at the time, shows how wide a departure she was
from the ordinary type of steamboat on the river, "The vessel is so designed that it is equally
the same which end of her goes first, nay, so constructed is a portion of her machinery that
she may be made to go laterally or sideways like a crab, to back, to go ahead, or to turn round
in her own length like a pivot. Her shape is as follows :

"Let an ordinary Clyde steamer of say 140 feet long and 18 feet breadth of beam be taken, but
with both ends alike, and be cut from end to end along the middle, each portion having one
side built straight, so that it should form half a vessel.

"Let these two halves be placed at a suitable distance from each other, so as to allow a
paddle to work in the trough formed between them.

"The two parts are bound together, first with horizontal strips or braces below water at the line
of the keel, and again at the deck by means of beams and knees, the whole decked over and
forming a broad, firm platform with nothing protruding above it except the wheel, for the
machinery, boilers, etc., will be placed in the hulls below the deck.

"Large saloons, with sides principally of plate-glass, will be placed on this platform and the
whole decked over as a promenade.

"Two small paddles, one at each end, worked by the donkey-engine, will be used for
manoeuvring at piers".

The vessel was duly built and on Saturday, 3rd December, 1856 made a trial-trip down the
river, but proved herself very slow. Mills had reckoned that she would steam fourteen miles an
hour, but twelve was the utmost she achieved and that only for a brief spurt, her twin 85 hp

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engines giving her an average speed of around just 8 knots being far below even that modest
figure suggested by Mills though, in manoeuvring she was found to be all that could be
desired.

On the 4th of April, 1857 (the Fast-Day holiday), the "Alliance" made her first trip with
passengers to Garelochhead. She is said to have covered the distance in three and a quarter
hours each way, no great performance, but considerably better than her trial-spin had given
cause to expect and as the day was cold and stormy, the comfort of her saloon was greatly
appreciated.

The "Alliance" made her next trip with passengers to Garelochhead on the Queen's Birthday
holiday, Thursday, 2ist May, and on the following Monday commenced plying regularly on that
route. But whether it was owing to her unorthodox shape or her lack of speed, the public
evinced no excessive desire to travel by her.

Efforts were made to arouse some enthusiasm by means of newspaper articles extolling her
attractions, the light and airy character of her saloon and the facilities she afforded for
promenading in all sorts of weather.

She was described as "not only the most comfortable, but the most luxuriously comfortable
boat that was ever sailed on business or pleasure".
As for speed, it was asked, "How many of the thousands who travel by river from Glasgow to
Greenock ever do so for purely business purposes ?" and the writer declares, "It is not so much
speed that such travellers want as comfort".
And, besides, he contends that the idea current that the "Alliance" is a slow boat is scarcely
justified, as " she makes her run to Greenock in two hours and there are very few boats doing
it in less time".

He claims for her that she is economical to work and expresses his confidence in her success
and his belief that patronage will be found not merely for one, but for half a dozen boats of her
class. But the "thousands who travel" did not display the same enthusiasm as the writer of the
articles.

The craze for speed was deeper-seated than Mr. Mills had supposed and the many attractions
of the "Alliance" failed to reconcile the public to her lack of this essential. Though perhaps the
aversion, springing from conservatism, which recoiled from her bizarre model might have
disappeared in time, the indignity of being passed on the river by old craft long ago due at the
shipbreaker's was an unpardonable failing.

The claim for economical working, too, might have been accurate had the "Alliance" been
allowed to crawl along at her own impossible pace, but to drive a vessel of such design even at
twelve miles an hour involved a ruinous expenditure of fuel.

So unprofitable did the boat prove that at the end of her second season The Clyde Improved
Steamboat Co., Ltd. went into liquidation. Repeated attempts to sell the steamer proved
abortive.

She was offered for sale by auction no less than six times during the months of January,
February and March, 1859, the upset price, originally fixed at £4,500, coming down gradually
to £1,500, but even then the offer found no takers. The liquidator then advertised her for
charter by pleasure parties and others and eventually got her let for the Sunday trade, but
even in that last refuge of the destitute and incompetent she was not a success and at the end
of the season was completely withdrawn from the service.

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She did not appear in the advertisements of 1860 but in July, 1861, plied for a short time on
The Caledonian Canal and those who are familiar with the present scale of fares on that route
will learn with surprise that half a crown sufficed to carry the passenger from Inverness to
Banavie in the second cabin of the "Alliance" while the payment of an additional half-crown
entitled him to all the comforts of the first saloon.

Her next appearance was on The Mersey, in 1863, now owned by one William J Glazebrook of
Liverpool, but with no better fortune and, after being laid up and vainly offered for sale, she
was eventually picked up for blockade-running by a Lewis Grant Watson and sailed for Nassau
in August, 1863.

It is notorious that a slow boat was often more successful than a swift one in that occupation
and the experience of the "Alliance" seemed to bear this out, as she made several trips before
yet again attempting to run the blockade and running aground on Tybee Island's Bloody Point,
in the Savannah River on April 11, 1864 and being captured by the USS "South Carolina".
Despite her loss, she doubtless proved a profitable ship to the speculator who bought her !

It seems that, after falling into the hands of the Federals, the steamer was taken to New York
and there put up for sale by auction and knocked down to a Boston firm, Messrs. Taylor and
Company, who made considerable alterations on her.

She was lengthened from 140 feet to 174.7 feet, had her stern rounded and was converted
into a conventional side-wheel paddle steamer with an overall beam of 29.9 feet, her tonnage
then increased to 407 tons gross and 342 tons net and her original engines were upgraded to
90 hp each, Messrs. Taylor then sending her out to Melbourne, Victoria, where she traded for a
short time before being registered in Canterbury, New Zealand, in 1865.

The next word we hear of the "Alliance" is from a New Zealand paper, "The West Coast Times,"
in the autumn of 1865, a discovery of gold being made on the west coast of New Zealand's
South Island, causing 'the usual rush' to the district and the "Alliance", as the 'Three-funnelled,
covered-decked paddle-steamer "New Zealand" ' being sent thither to secure a share of the
traffic between Dunedin and the gold district.

She made one very successful double journey, but on her second trip went ashore at the
entrance to the Hokitika harbour, on August 7, 1865 and though her passengers were
successful in escaping, a large portion of her valuable cargo was lost.

The "West Coast Times" of August 12, 1865, reported "During the greater portion of the
present week, our business have mostly been engaged on the salvage of the unfortunate p.s.
New Zealand. As valuable a cargo never tried to cross the bar of Hokitika, nor was there ever
on the West Coast such a destruction of property caused by what seems the most culpable
incapacity or carelessness. Opinion on the matter is strong in every circle; and we hop that an
investigation thorough and searching will be made into the causes of this fresh disaster -
accident it cannot be called.

"Resident Magistrate's Court before Mr G. Sale, Esq., R.M. Walter Dwyer, charged with willful
and continued disobedience of orders on board the steamship New Zealand.

"Wrecking - David Smith, charged with have stolen a number of pairs of drawers from the New
Zealand.John Brozil and James Alexander, the one for having stolen two pick-handles and the
other two axe-handles from the wreck of the New Zealand, were severally sentenced to a
week's imprisonment, with hard labor".

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Then on page 2 of the "West Coast Times" of Tuesday, 15 August, 1865, "Inquiry. Loss of the
P.S. New Zealand. Captain Anderson. She was owned by Messrs Taylor and Co., of Boston,
United States. Arrived off Hokitika on August 7th. Franklin West, chief engineer on the New
Zealand. William Dwyer [Patrick Dwyer] [Walter Dwyer], second engineer of the New
Zealand. Captain Kerley was on board the Cymraes. George Lowry, signalman. At low water
noticed she had broken amidships. James Thomas, fireman. Edward Houghton, shipping agent.
Stephen Roff.

"A stranger visiting Hokitika for the first time, and not previously apprised of the unenviable
notoriety which this port has gained for itself since the West Coast was rushed, would be
astonished at the multitude of wrecks and remains of wrecks with which the beach is covered.

"From the entrance to the river to where the Montezumna has been cast high and dry on the
sands, the picture is one that cannot be equalled in the colony, and perhaps the not in the
world. In one spot the last remnants of the Oak may be observed - showing, even now, how
well and faithfully she must have been built; further on, a confused mass of ruin, a heap of
splintered planks and ribs, marks the place where the Sir Francis Drake and the Rosella
finally succumbed to the force of the waves.

"Yonder can be seen the masts of the Titania and nearer home, what is left of the steamship
New Zealand supplies us with a painful reminder of the dangers of Hokitika. Everywhere,
from the water's edge to the top of the spit, are scattered portions of luckless vessels which
have gone to pieces. Masts, anchors, chains, standing riggings, windlasses, may all be found,
and a sprinkling of old in sufficient, if it were worked, to give materials for a good sized
steamer. Never before was such a gloomy sight seen in New Zealand.

"A year or two ago the Bluff Harbor had the worst reputation of any place on the coast.
Captains and shoppers had a dread of going there, and insurance companies raised their rates
on goods consigned thitherward; and yet the Bluff Harbor is and always was a Milford Haven
compared to Hokitika.

"The same vessels and the same captains have traded for years, very probably without the
occurrence of a single disaster worthy of mention, and their first voyage to Hokitika has likely
enough been their last. The same thing has happened so often that the most unwilling are
compelled to acknowledge that the fault lies with the harbour and not the captains of the
vessels. The harbor is bad.

"The work of recovering the engines that belonged to the ill-fated New Zealand is rapidly
proceeding and at night gives the beach quite a lively appearance. The purchasers will ship
them to Melbourne, where doubtless, they will be well rewarded for their spirited undertaking".

She eventually broke her back on the sandbar and 'went to pieces' and thus ended the
eventful, if somewhat inglorious, career of this interesting but unsuccessful steamboat. She
had been but nine years afloat, first as a Clyde river-boat, partly as a Sunday-breaker, next on
The Caledonian Canal, then on The Mersey, with a spell laid up in dock, following which came a
turn of blockade-running, capture and conveyance to New York, sale and despatch to
Melbourne and, after some service there transference to the New Zealand coasting trade,
where her adventures terminated in the manner described, so that this first Clyde saloon
steamer had no lack of variety in the experiences of her short lifetime. The pity is that for the
purpose for which she was designed the "Alliance" was a failure, and that the ingenuity and
courage of Mr. Mills brought him nothing but disappointment.