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PS (paddle steamer) Comet was built in 1812 for Henry Bell, a Scottish engineer who with his wife had become proprietor of the Baths Hotel offering sea bathing in Helensburgh. On 15 August 1812, Bell's ship began a passenger service on the River Clyde, connecting Helensburgh to Greenock and Glasgow. This was the first commercially successful steamboat service in Europe. Bell obtained the engine from John Robertson of Glasgow, and the ship was built for him by John and Charles Wood of Port Glasgow.
In the winter of 1811/1812 Bell got John and Charles Wood of John Wood and Company, shipbuilders of Port Glasgow, to build a paddle steamer which was named Comet, named after the "Great Comet" of 1811. The 28 ton burthen craft had a deck long with a beam of . It had two paddle wheels on each side, driven by a single-cylinder engine rated at . The engine was made by John Robertson of Glasgow, and the boiler by David Napier, Camlachie, Glasgow (2026). 9781445614878, Amberley Publishing. ISBN 9781445614878 (a story has it that they were evolved from an experimental little steam engine which Bell installed to pump sea water into the Helensburgh Baths). The funnel was tall and thin, serving as a mast, with a yard, allowing it to support a square sail when there was a following wind. A small cabin aft had wooden seats in front of concealed beds and a table. Comet was reported as "brightly painted, having for her figurehead a lady garbed in all the colours of the rainbow".
Comet was launched on 24 July 1812 with her trial run on 6 August from Port Glasgow to the Broomielaw in Glasgow, taking three and a half hours for the .Some sources have the launching in 1811 and 18 January 1812 for a trial trip The double paddlewheels were found to be unsatisfactory and a pair of single wheels were substituted which increased her speed to almost 7 knots.
On 15 August 1812, Bell advertised in a local newspaper "The Greenock Advertiser", that the Comet would begin a regular passenger service from that day, a distance of each way:
On 15 August Comet made the first commercial sailing from Glasgow for Bowling, Helensburgh and Greenock, opening the era of the steamboat on the Clyde, and more widely in Britain and Europe. The fare was "four shillings for the best cabin, and three shillings for the second." As the vessel clearly had no cabins in the modern sense it is unclear what this meant. The success of this service quickly inspired competition, with services down the Firth of Clyde and the sea lochs to Largs, Rothesay, Campbeltown and Inveraray within four years, and the Comet was outclassed by newer steamers. Bell briefly tried a service on the Firth of Forth.
Comet II sank very quickly, killing 62 of the estimated 80 passengers on board, including the son-in-law of John Anderson, a friend of Robert Burns. Also drowned were recently married Captain Wemyss Erskine Sutherland of the 33rd Regiment and Sarah née Duff of Muirtown.National Library of Scotland MS 9854 ff 177-180 After the loss of his second ship, Bell abandoned his work on steam navigation.
In 2011, just before the original's 200th anniversary, the replica was restored by a partnership of Inverclyde Council, Ferguson Marine and an organisation called The Trust. The restoration cost £180,000.
A survey and condition report was commissioned by Inverclyde Council and reported back in 2019. The survey found that the wooden hull of the replica is in such bad condition that it is beyond economic repair, and recommended that the machinery be removed and placed in a new hull.
In April 2023, the replica ship was dismantled and the woodwork scrapped by Inverclyde Council. No trace of the replica ship remains at the site.
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