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Side-Wheeled Paddle Steamers
BRITISH GUIANA (now Guyana) : Rivers Demerara, Essequibo, Berbice
The
first steamer in British Guiana is recorded as being in 1826 with a
vessel named Cambria and services from the coast, especially capital
city Georgetown into the undeveloped interior were established by
companies contracted to the British colonial authorities.
Services
expanded after London-based ship manager Hugh Sproston (1819-1907) who
had established his own trading business in 1845, expanded into
inland shipping services in Guiana.
In 1867 Sproston bought
the 1853 Dumbarton-built paddler Rattlesnake from Liverpool-based
George Booker who had interests at Georgetown British Guiana
Following
the purchase of the small tug Eliza of 1871 in 1874, a relationship was
established with her builders, Richard & Henry Green of Blackwall,
London, which led to the purchase new of paddle steamers Lady Longden
(1876), Guiana (1879) Charlestown (1880), Sproston Wood (1881) and Amy
(1886) for towage and cargo work.
In 1880 they obtained
the 1876 Goole-built Princess, which had been used as a passenger
steamer by the Goole & Hull Steam Packet Company on the rivers Ouse
and Humber in the UK.
Further ships were built locally in the
dry-dock which Sprostons had established in Charlestown in 1867
commencing with Sproston Creole in 1878
The fleet was added to with the passenger and mail paddle steamer Horatio (1886)
The
company continued after the death of the founder and by 1914 the fleet
of inland vessels amounted to fifteen. The company was taken over in
1923 by the Aluminium Company of Canada. A number of Sproston's
paddle steamers survived but were converted into schooners
Historical database