If you fancy a stroll along the Clyde, you'll reach Rhu in about 35mins where there’s a cache near the graveyard (GC534Y6) and two along the way (GC586VF and GC4Z3K2). Clyde shipbuilder Robert Napier, who lived at Shandon, erected a large monument to Bell’s memory in the churchyard.
Bell was a Scottish engineer famous for introducing the first successful passenger steamboat service in Europe. I should maybe add that he wasn’t exactly a successful engineer, but rather the hero of a thousand blunders and one success.
Bell moved to Helensburgh in 1806 and built the Baths Hotel (later the Queen’s Hotel) in East Clyde Street to run as a spa with his wife Margaret.
From 1807 – 1809 Henry Bell, Esq., was the First Provost of the Burgh of Helensburgh. Many changes occurred in the area under his care.
In 1811 he constructed the Comet, weighing 30 tons, and named after a great comet which had been visible for several months. The Comet made a delivery voyage from Port Glasgow 21 miles upriver to the Broomielaw, Glasgow, and then sailed from Glasgow 24 miles down to Greenock, making five miles an hour against a head-wind.
The exact date of the Comet’s true maiden voyage is a little murky but it is thought to be the 7th August 1812, certainly it is around this date that Bell started advertising a passenger service on the Comet between Glasgow, Greenock and Helensburgh three times a week.
In 1819 the service was extended to run to Oban and Fort William via the Crinan canal.
On 13th December 1820 the Comet was wrecked by strong currents at Craignish Point near Oban. Its engine survived for use in a Greenock brewery, but it is now in London's Science Museum. A replica of the original Comet, made by shipyard apprentices, is now on display in the centre of Port Glasgow. The flywheel from the first engine in the ship survives and is on display on the East Esplanade at Helensburgh (GC50512).
Henry Bell built a second steamboat Comet II, but on the 21st October 1825 it collided with another steamer and sank very quickly, killing 62 of the 80 passengers on board. Bell then gave up his efforts in steam navigation.
On the initiative of James Lumsden, later Lord Provost of Glasgow, an obelisk was erected in honour of Bell and his achievements. It stands in the grounds of Dunglass Castle (ruin) a couple of miles above Dumbarton. A further obelisk monument was erected on the seafront at Helensburgh in 1872.
Sources:
http://www.helensburghheroes.com/heroes/henry_bell
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Henry_Bell_(engineer)#Early_career
http://www.armadale.org.uk/henrybell.htm
We first placed the cache about 5 metres away from the obelisk, however there was another cache placed close by very shortly before ours. Therefore the cache is now about 100 metres from the obelisk. Maximum stealth is required.