Great Storm in Glasgow and the West of Scotland.
11th Feb 1856

Nearly six columns of the Glasgow Daily Mail of Friday are occupied with an account of the hurricane which visited that city and district early on Thursday morning, and which is described as the most powerful and destructive on record………..

Foremost among the ravages inflicted by the storm, are those at Messrs. Tod & Macgregor’s (ship) building years at Kelvin Mouth. The magnificent sheds built only a few years ago are now levelled to the ground, a huge mass of inextricable confusion. The wreck and ruin are so utter that the actual appearances can only be realised by a personal inspection on the spot.

These sheds formed a conspicuous feature in the scenery of the river, and were the finest in the world. Upright pillars were of framed wood, about 60 feet high; the entire breadth being divided into two isles – one of about 80 feet and the other about 60 feet. The roofs were nearly semicircular, and formed of corrugated iron, having large glass skylights set in at short distances. There were three powerful travelling cranes on the roof of each bay, which could move from one end to the other, and transport all the heaviest materials required in building the immense steamers this eminent firm have constructed under their shade.

Between half past one and two o’clock a fearful gust struck the building, apparently in an upward direction, lifted the roof and several of the pillars, and precipitated the whole over the east-most bay and beyond it. There were two small steamers building, one in each bay (the only paddle steamers being built at this time were Druid, Caledonia and Jupiter). The one in the westward bay is nearly completed, and the roof was carried entirely to leeward of it; but some of the pillars fell across the hull and broke one of the paddle-boxes and parts of the bulwarks; but the deck and hull are uninjured.

Indeed it is almost incredible that such a huge mass of materials could have been blown down, and yet so little injury done to the vessel under it. The other steamer, in the east or leeward bay, was not nearly so far advanced, and the frames are completely covered and crushed by the debris of the roofs and pillars of the sheds. Only here and there is to be seen a little bit of angle iron, which can be seen as the remains of a frame or rib of the vessel buried beneath. The materials in the sheds would weigh at least 150 tons, and it is hardly conceivable how utterly they are broken and destroyed.

For the last few weeks about 200 men have been kept at work all night under these sheds, hastening forward the work for the floating battery at present building in Napier’s yard; but on Wednesday night, in consequence of the gale, Mr Macgregor desired them to leave off at half-past ten. In three hours afterwards, without any warning whatever, the sheds were blown down; and if the men had been at work, it is hardly likely that one would have escaped with his life.

A gentleman in St Vincent Crescent, three quarters of a mile away, distinctly heard the crash, and supposed it was a peal of thunder. The loss to Messrs. Tod and Macgregor will be not less than £18,000 to £20,000, for which, of course, there is no protection by insurance of any kind

One of Mr. Tennent’s Chimneys, 250 feet high, was blown down………

(The original article was written in one paragraph)