Page:Loss of the Comet steam-boat on her passage from Inverness to Glasgow, on Friday the 21st October, 1825.pdf/4

 of locks occur on the line to increase the delay, the vessel did not reach Lochgilphead, at the other extremity, though only nine miles distant, till ten o’clock in the forenoon. Here it was discovered, that, owing to some miscalculation or unexpected interruption in passing through the canal, they had not arrived in time to find a sufficient depth of water to float the packet out of the basin into the open loch; and, in consequence, they were compelled to wait the reflowing of the tide. At six in the evening, there was water on the bar sufficient to float the vessel over; and they again set sail. At this time, Captain McInnes expressed a confident hope of being enabled, by favour of wind and tide, to reach Greenock by midnight, where he proposed to stay till daybreak, and then run up to Glasgow next morning. On emerging from the Kyles of Bute, the wind blew freshly; and the captain, when urged by several English gentlemen on board to touch at Rothesay, where they wished to land, manifested a disinclination to do so, on account of the great leeway which he would have to work up, provided he agreed to their request. One of these gentlemen was Mr Glover, the celebrated landscape painter, who, being averse to pass part of the beautiful scenery of the Clyde at an