2-995-993 - The Print Collector/Heritage Images

New steam-ship "Giraffe" for the Glasgow and Belfast Royal Mail line, 1860. 'On Saturday, July 7, the Lord Provost, Magistrates, and other municipal authorities and their friends made the annual inspection of the lighthouses under their charge in the Firth of Clyde. The interest of the occasion was in no small degree heightened by the Messrs. Burns having placed at the disposal of the Lord Provost and magistrates their magnificent new steamer the Giraffe, that she might do them the honour of performing in their service her birthday trip to the sea. Her performances fully bore out the anticipations which had been formed of her as one of the swiftest, the most commodious, and the most comfortable steam-ships afloat. The Giraffe left the Broomielaw about a quarter before seven a.m....on account of her great length and size, [she] made a cautious passage down the narrow waters of the river, and on arriving at Greenock she was joined by the Provost and magistrates, of that sister burgh...She left Greenock amid hearty cheering and the thundering of cannon, and sped away to perform the business part of her mission - viz., the inspection of the lighthouses at the Cloch, Toward Point, and the Little Cumbrae'. From "Illustrated London News", 1860.