Hot Off The Press – New Titles This Week

To mark the start of 2026, we’ve added 404,407 brand new pages to The Archive over the last fortnight, as we explore the remarkable history of PS Comet, the pioneering steamboat, which was launched in 1812 to connect Glasgow with Helensburgh.

The New Year treats don’t stop there; we’ve added four brand new titles to our collection from England and Northern Ireland, whilst we’ve updated 21 of our existing titles from across the United Kingdom and Ireland. So read on to discover more about our new and updated titles of the week, and also to learn all about the history of the PS Comet.

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The Helensburgh and Gareloch Times

It’s thanks to the Helensburgh and Gareloch Times that we are learning more about the PS Comet this week, Europe’s first commercially successful passenger steamboat. The Helensburgh and Gareloch Times was itself established in 1880 in Helensburgh, a town that lies on the north side of the Firth of Clyde. Liberal in its politics, it ‘circulated extensively in Row, Rosneath, Clynder, Shandon, Garelochhead, Kilcreggan, Cove, Luss, Arrochar, Cardross, Dumbarton’ and other towns and villages in the area.

Helensburgh and Gareloch Times | 12 July 1882

Appearing every Wednesday at the modest cost of 1d., it was owned and published by A. Macneur and S. Bryden. An informative local newspaper, the Helensburgh and Gareloch Times filled four pages with news primarily from the local area, for example featuring the latest from the Row Parochial Board and the Row School Board.

Reflecting Helensburgh’s position as a resort town (more on that later), the Helensburgh and Gareloch Times printed a visitors’ list, which detailed the names of those staying in hotels in the area. Additionally, the paper printed news of local anniversaries, prizes, a ladies’ column, a property circular and notices of births, marriages and deaths. The Helensburgh and Gareloch Times ran for nearly 100 years before ceasing publication in the 1970s.

The Herne Bay Gazette

From north to south now with our next new title of the week, which is the Herne Bay Gazette. Coming into existence in the early 1980s, having evolved out of the Herne Bay edition of the Kentish Gazette and incorporating the Herne Bay Press, itself founded in 1881, the Herne Bay Gazette appeared every Friday.

Herne Bay Gazette | 16 May 1986

As the Sheerness Times Guardian put it neatly on 25 June 1992, the Herne Bay Gazette, had, ‘throughout its history…reported and photographed every sea-freezing winter and tar-melting summer and faithfully recorded births, marriages and deaths, club news and sporting achievements.’

The Herne Bay Gazette provides news from the Kentish seaside town of Herne Bay to this day.

The Irish Temperance League Journal

First published in Belfast in February 1863, the Irish Temperance League Journal was the mouthpiece of the Irish Temperance League, which was founded during the previous decade. As the publication itself put it, both the league and the journal aimed to ‘teach the following established truths:

1. Total Abstinence is right and the opposite wrong in the light of Experience.
2. Total Abstinence is right and the opposite wrong in the light of Science; and therefore, the customary advice of the majority of Medical men upon the subject is erroneous
3. Total Abstinence is right and the opposite wrong in the light of the Holy Scriptures.
4. The public sale of Intoxicants ought to be totally suppressed by Government and the Permissive Bill of the United Kingdom Alliance indicates the most feasible method hitherto proposed for the accomplishment of that desirable object.

Irish Temperance League Journal | 1 March 1863

Describing its mission of promoting total abstinence from alcohol as one ‘of love,’ the Irish Temperance League Journal appeared monthly, printing a range of articles dedicated to the temperance cause. Therefore, within its pages, you can find pieces from religious proponents of temperance, like the Reverend James Morgan (1799-1873), a Presbyterian who strongly supported the cause, which examined the moral and Biblical reasoning behind the temperance movement.

Moreover, within the 24 pages of the Irish Temperance League Journal, which cost only 1d., you can discover updates regarding the temperance movement from across Ireland, with updates from the likes of the Total Abstinence Association, the Ladies’ Temperance Union, the Revival Temperance Movement, as well as, of course, from the Irish Temperance League itself. The paper, meanwhile, also printed ‘Selections for the Young,’ a ‘Housewife’s Corner,’ reviews of temperance literature, poetry, and fictional tales all with a strong moral theme.

Irish Temperance League Journal | 1 January 1891

Conducted with ‘much vigour and discretion,’ as the Tyrone Constitution put it in May 1863, the Irish Temperance League Journal provides a fascinating window into the temperance movement in Ireland in the nineteenth century. Furthermore, the Irish Temperance League exists today as Christian organisation, which aims to ‘combat the abuse of alcohol and drugs.’

The Larne Weekly Recorder and Northern Express

Our final new title of the week also hails from Northern Ireland and it is the Larne Weekly Recorder and Northern Express. Thought to be a short-lived title, the Larne Weekly Recorder and Northern Express was published in the 1880s in Larne, which lies on the coast of Country Antrim.

Larne Weekly Recorder and Northern Express | 7 April 1883

Appearing every Saturday and filling four pages, this publication printed the news from Larne and Inver Church, the Larne Town Comissioners and the Larne Petty Sessions. Meanwhile, the Larne Weekly Recorder and Northern Press published shipping intelligence, poetry, and serialised fiction. The title was Liberal in its politics, and it cost only 1d.

Our updated titles

We’ve got a feast of updated titles for you to enjoy this week, with an extra special milestone for you. We’ve added over 165,000 brand new pages to the Belfast Telegraph, which go up to the year 2014 – our most modern pages on The Archive so far. Meanwhile, we’ve also added new pages to another Northern Irish title, the Tyrone Courier, and more pages also to the Republic of Ireland’s Connaught Telegraph.

Elsewhere, we’ve added over 35,000 brand new pages to the Sheffield Daily Telegraph, with another 35,000 brand new pages joining the Ayrshire Post. We’ve also updated a further two of our Scottish titles, the Aberdeen Press and Journal and the Kirriemuir Herald.

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The Story of the PS Comet

When Scottish engineer Henry Bell and his wife became proprietors of the Baths Hotel in Helensburgh, they needed a way to get tourists to visit the small seaside town. Henry Bell soon hit on an idea – a paddle steamer, which would ferry visitors from Glasgow and Greenock along to Helensburgh. In doing so, the vessel, the Comet, would go down in history for being the first commercially successful steamboat service in Euope.

Henry Bell | Illustrated London News | 7 September 1912

Although the PS Comet was launched in 1812, and our new title the Helensburgh and Gareloch Times first appeared in 1880, there is still much we can learn about the steamboat through its pages. For example, on 11 October 1882 the newspaper published an article entitled ‘The Story of the Comet,’ which explains how the vessel ‘was built in the year 1811, the year of the famous comet, from which the little historic steamer derived its name.’

The piece in the Helensburgh and Gareloch Times must have caused the community to reminisce about the Comet, as the newspaper printed another article about the steamboat a week later on 18 October 1882. This time, printed under the headline ‘Reminiscences of the Comet,’ the paper featured the recollections of Mrs. James Buchanan, the sister of Robert Bain, one of the Comet’s former captains.

Illustrated London News | 23 May 1908

Born in 1801, Mrs. Buchanan was ten years the junior of her brother Robert, and she ‘frequently sailed in the Comet when her brother was captain.’ Whilst on board the Comet, the now elderly lady remembered travelling to Ardentinny, a village on Loch Long.

Another week later, on 25 October 1882, and the Helensburgh and Gareloch Times was again printing more correspondence and memories regarding the Comet. The wonderful way in which community memories are immortalised by local newspapers in this fashion is evident here, as the paper reprinted some correspondence, dated 1868, from James Steel, who had ‘witnessed the launch of the Comet in 1812.’

Illustrated London News | 8 September 1962

The Comet, remembered some 70 years on in the pages of the Helensburgh and Gareloch Times, was a great success. Indeed, the first article on 11 October 1882 described how the Comet ‘sailed successfully for about six years,’ when it was lengthened to make longer voyages. Meanwhile, the Comet put Helensburgh on the map, increasing the town’s population and representing a pioneering force in Scottish tourism and shipping.

However, the Comet’s sailing tenure was not destined to be a long one. The Helensburgh and Gareloch Times on 11 October 1882 recounts how ‘the Comet was wrecked on Craignish Point in 1820.’ The cause? The newspaper tells of how ‘it was probably thrown on the rocks by the strong current which at times runs there.’

A model of the Comet | The Scots Magazine | 1 July 1973

Back now to Mrs. Buchanan, who attested that ‘beyond doubt’ her brother Robert Bain was ‘on board the Comet when the little craft perished in December 1820,’ during ‘the last voyage of the season’ back from Fort William. Thankfully, there were no passengers, and all the crew members survived. Another Comet followed, however, which as, the Helensburgh and Gareloch Times tells us, ‘sank almost at once.’ This shipwreck sadly caused the loss of ‘many valuable lives,’ although Robert Bain, by that time, had transferred to another vessel.

We are delighted to be able to celebrate the legacy of the PS Comet, of which there is now a replica in Port Glasgow’s town centre, and of Henry Bell, her innovater. Tragically, as the Helensburgh and Gareloch Times tells us on 28 November 1888, Bell ‘died in 1830, almost in poverty and neglect.’

Shown top left is the fly-wheel of the Comet | The Scots Magazine | 1 October 1930

Discover more about the PS Comet, Henry Bell and steam navigation through the pages of our Archive today.

New Titles

Updated Titles

This week we have updated 21 of our existing titles.

You can learn more about each of the titles we add to every week by clicking on their names. On each paper’s title page, you can read a free sample issue, learn more about our current holdings, and our plans for digitisation.

You can keep up to date with all the latest additions by visiting the recently added page.  You can even look ahead to see what we’re going to add tomorrow.