You need to get 'Steamin'!!
The Steamboats
He’s steamin! She’s steamboats! They’re steamin! That group’s steamboats! Let’s get steamin!
We’ve all heard the saying, and some of us have even said it, but did you know where it originated from? Well read on and I’ll tell you, because here at Smadug we not only sell quality, trendy t-shirts, but we give you a history lesson as well. If only my standard grade history teacher could hear me now… he’d be shocked at how much I love Scottish history, shame we didn’t learn the cool stuff at school! Anyway…
Back in the 1840’s drinking had become a common pastime in Scotland (what’s changed :P) especially in Glasgow.
The city’s population began bulging due to the heavy industrial activity and a whopping 2000 pubs were in operation bustling with patrons! You can imagine the amount of alcohol that was consumed and the level of drunkenness – it was getting out of hand. People were sick of all the trouble it brought, so protests began to stop it.
The temperance movement in Scotland started around 1830 inspired by the prohibition movement in the United States. These guys managed to influence politics at the time resulting in the Forbes-Mackenzie Act being introduced to get some order to the drinking problem.
In the city the act prohibited the sale of alcohol after 10pm and all day Sunday. However, the act did not include pleasure craft so allowed the sale of alcohol on to the bona fide traveller. So to get around this and abuse the ‘loophole’, steamboat proprietors began running Sunday sailings down the Clyde so they could sell booze all day! No one would go dry!
The only way you could get drunk in Glasgow on a Sunday, at this time, was on the steamboats. Hence the term ‘steamboats’ or ‘steaming’ for all their drunk patrons.
So there you have it! Now you know...
Now it’s time to get Steamin’… and by that I mean the Smadug top which you can get on our website in either a t-shirt or in a raglan/baseball style. I’ve used blanks by Bella & Canvas as they are lightweight and fashionable. And like always, they were hand printed in the ‘deen and hand finished here in good old Elgin.
Hope you like them and thanks for reading.
Sharon
