Shieldhall is now a frequent sight around the Solent running excursions, crewed by volunteers. She has been restored to sea-going condition, and is listed as part of the National Historic Fleet. The remaining Glasgow sludge boats kept going into the 1990s, when changing environmental standards led to new ways of treating the sludge. All work associated with the Society and Shieldhall is carried out by unpaid volunteers. Preservation SS Shieldhall moored at Custom House quay, Greenock in 2005.ĭue to rising fuel prices she was withdrawn from service in 1985, then was taken over by a preservation society, The Solent Steam Packet Limited, which operates as a charity. In 1976 after 21 years of service on the Clyde, Shieldhall was laid up, and in the following year was bought by the Southern Water Authority to carry sludge from Southampton, England, to an area south of the Isle of Wight. She and her sister ships were jocularly known as Clyde banana boats as the livery resembled that of a well known banana shipping company. She entered service in October 1955 and was operated by Glasgow Corporation to transport treated sewage sludge down the Clyde to be dumped at sea. Accommodation was provided for 80 passengers. She was built on the classic lines of a 1920s steam tanker with a traditional wheelhouse of riveted and welded construction, a slightly raked stem and a cruiser stern. Glasgow Corporation had long allowed day-trippers access to the engine room of its ships while at sea and the older-style engines allowed passengers to see the workings of the engines in operation. By the 1950s Lobnitz usually built its engines with enclosed crankcases but the Shieldhall was deliberately fitted with traditional open-crank engines. of Renfrew who also constructed the two triple expansion steam engines which are set vertically in a similar way to the much larger engines on the RMS Titanic. The 1,972-ton Shieldhall was laid down in October 1954, built by Lobnitz & Co. History Passengers can go down into the engine room between the two steam engines. SS Shieldhall has been preserved and offers cruises to the paying public. These steamships had a tradition, dating back to the First World War, of taking organised parties of passengers on their trips during the summer. She spent her working life as one of the "Clyde sludge boats", making regular trips from Shieldhall in Glasgow, Scotland, down the River Clyde and Firth of Clyde past the Isle of Arran, to dump treated sewage sludge at sea. She is one of the last reciprocating steam engined ships built, using technology that dated back to the last quarter of the 19th century and which was obsolete at the time of her construction. SS Shieldhall is a preserved steamship that operates from Southampton. Nat and bring to the public eye the major achievements of the Herreshoff Manufacturing Company in steam engine technology.2 triple-expansion steam engines of 800 IHP each ![]() The concept is to bring it to a level that can show the imaginative engineering of Capt. ![]() Thus, the restoration began to clean up the” little engine that could”. ![]() While the steam engine was not part of the original Reliance (she had no power and was perhaps a little heavy for this engine) she is from the same heritage. It was brought up to the building where the Reliance Project ( is underway. While a fairly complete circa 1898 engine, it was in need of some TLC. The engine had been residing in the main museum building hidden in the dark recesses near the upcoming Steam Engine display area. ![]() Leaping ahead to the spring of 2015, a project began that is the “restoration” of a Herreshoff triple expansion steam engine with cylinder bores of 3-1/2”, 5” and 8” and sporting a 4–1/2” stroke. One of his projects was the motor launch “Vapor” built around 1898 which was powered by the triple expansion steam engine. Skipping ahead a few years to 1878, Nathanael Greene Herreshoff formed Herreshoff Manufacturing Company. Here’s one possibility – in the first century A.D., Hero of Alexandria invented the aeolipile, or primitive steam turbine: Now, what to do with this hot, high pressure water vapor? Cooking lobsters leaps to mind but that’s a different discussion. Perhaps by accident, a cover was left on too long and pressure built up and then we had steam! At some point the pot being used (I have no idea who discovered the utensil to hold water over a fire) was covered to speed up the heating of the water. Then, someone discovered fire – how that occurred is open for debate but obviously it happened! Now that fire was available, early humans (they had to have an opposing thumb to lift up a pot!) heated up the water to make coffee (well, that sounds good!). Its primary use was survival of all living creatures.
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