Builders: J & G Thomson Clydebank 1866
Propulsion type: Twin screw, two simple 2 cylinder inverted engines
Owners: David Hutcheson & Co
Service dates: 1866 - 1929
Tonnage: Gross 33 tons
Comments:
This is not a paddler but her longevity and the affection in which she was held merit a place as a pleasure steamer in my site. TSS Linnet is possibly the smallest steamer on the Paddle Steamer Picture Gallery but for sixty years she plied the Crinan Canal after she replaced the track boats which previously carried out this service. The Crinan Canal provided an important part of the "Royal Route", and connected the Glasgow-Oban section with the North. The sailing season was for only four months per year and the round trip from Crinan to Ardrishaig was undertaken twice daily, the boat berthing at Crinan over-night. Linnet would collect the passengers from Iona and Columba and take them to the waiting Chevalier, through the locks on the canal. She ceased this service at the end of the 1929 season and after the removal of her engines and boiler, and with the addition of a deckhouse from the Lord of the Isles, she served in the Gareloch as a club-house for the Glasgow Motor Boat Racing Club. She ended her days after being wrecked in a storm in January 1932.