The Midland Railway (MR) operated ships from Heysham to Douglas and Belfast.[1]
Ship
Launched
Tonnage (GRT)
Notes and references
SS Antrim
1904
2,100[2]
Built by John Brown & Company at Clydebank, the first of a series of four similar ships.
She was the first vessel to use the new facilities at Heysham and made her maiden voyage in September 1904. She was the first cross-channel ship with wireless.
Requisitioned between 1914 and 1919, used mainly for cross channel trooping. Transferred to London, Midland and Scottish Railway (LMS).
Sold in 1928 to the Isle of Man Steam Packet Company and renamed Ramsey Town.
Scrapped at Preston in November 1936.[2][3]
SS City of Belfast
1893
1,055[4]
Built by Laird Bros. of Birkenhead. Bought from Barrow Steam Navigation Company in 1907.
In war service named HMS City of Belfast. Transferred to LMS in 1923.
Sold in 1925 to a Greek owner, renamed Nicolaos Togias.
Renamed Kephallina in 1933. Sank on 13 August 1941 off the Egyptian coast.[4][5]
SS Donegal
1904
1,997[6]
A sister of Antrim built by Caird & Company of Greenock.
Requisitioned during the First World War as a hospital ship. Torpedoed and sunk on 17 April 1917 near Spithead.[3][6]
PS Duchess of Buccleuch
1888
838
Built by Fairfield Shipbuilding and Engineering Company at Govan for the London, Brighton and South Coast Railway and named Rouen.
Sold to J. W. and R. P. Little for the Barrow S. N. Company and renamed Duchess of Buccleuch. Served the Barrow-Douglas route.
Absorbed into MR fleet with the takeover of 1907. Sold for scrapping in 1909, the final paddler on the Barrow route.[5]
SS Duchess of Devonshire
1897
1,265[7]
Built by Naval & Armament Construction Co., at Barrow for James Little and the Barrow S. N. Company. Taken over by MR in 1907.
Requisitioned for war service and used as an armed boarding vessel. Suffered a boiler explosion in 1919 that killed three people.
Sold in 1928 to Bland Line, Gibraltar, renamed Gibel Dersa and requisitioned again in 1940 based principally at Gibraltar as an accommodation ship.
Sold on to Dalhousie Steam and Motor Ship Co. of London in 1943 and in 1947 to A. Benamin and Co. of Gibraltar. After nine years of inactivity was scrapped in 1949 at Málaga, Spain.[7][8]
SS Londonderry
1904
2,086[9]
Built by William Denny and Brothers of Dumbarton, the first ship with Lodge-Muirhead wireless telegraphy.
Requisitioned for trooping in 1914 and in 1923 transferred to the LMS. Sold in 1927 to Angleterre-Lorraine-Alsace, renamed Flamand.
Scrapped at Altenwerder, Germany in 1937.[3][9]
SS Manxman
1904
2,174[10]
Built by Vickers, Sons and Maxim Ltd of Barrow-in-Furness. Similar in design to the other 1904 built vessels but slightly longer and faster.
Requisitioned in 1914 for trooping and purchased in 1915 by the Admiralty as HMS Manxman and converted to an aircraft carrier.
Returned to MR in 1919. Sold to the Isle of Man Steam Packet Company in 1920 and converted to oil burning in 1921. Requisitioned by as HMS Caduceus.
Transferred to Ministry of War Transport in 1945 and worked as a troop carrier in the English Channel. Transferred to British Army of the Rhine (B.A.O.R.) military service as Manxman, carrying troops on the Harwich-Hook of Holland service.
Withdrawn in February 1949, no longer fit for use, scrapped in August 1949 at Preston.[10][11]
PS Manx Queen
1880
989
Built by J. & G. Thomson Ltd of Glasgow for the South Eastern Railway as the Duchess of Edinburgh.
On delivery she failed to perform at the contracted design speed and after a short time in service was returned to her builders. She re-entered service in May 1841 following a compromise agreement between the builder and owner but after only five days in service she broke a paddle wheel, resulting in the owners returning her again to her builders.
Laid up at Folkestone and later Sheerness until purchased by Barrow S .N. Co., which placed her on the Barrow-Douglas service. Renamed Manx Queen in 1887 and transferred to MR following the takeover of Barrow S. N. Co.
Scrapped by J. J. King and Company at Garston in November 1907.[8]
SS Wyvern
1905
232[12]
Built as a tug by Ferguson Bros. of Port Glasgow. Used for pleasure excursions from Heysham to Fleetwood until the Second World War. Transferred to London, Midland and Scottish Railway(LMS) in 1923 and British Transport Commission- London Midland Region in 1948.
Scrapped in June 1960.[13]
^"Midland Railway". Simplon Postcards. Retrieved 15 December 2009.
^ ab"1116015". Miramar Ship Index. Retrieved 15 December 2009.
^ abcHaws, Duncan (1993). Merchant Fleets-Britain's Railway Steamers – Eastern & North Western Companies + Zeeland and Stena. Hereford: TCL Publications. p. 118. ISBN 0-946378-22-3.
^ ab"1099938". Miramar Ship Index. Retrieved 15 December 2009.
^ abHaws 1993, p. 121
^ ab"1116018". Miramar Ship Index. Retrieved 15 December 2009.
^ ab"1099941". Miramar Ship Index. Retrieved 15 December 2009.
^ abHaws 1993, p. 122
^ ab"1116017". Miramar Ship Index. Retrieved 15 December 2009.
^ ab"1118603". Miramar Ship Index. Retrieved 15 December 2009.
^Haws 1993, p. 119
^"1084974". Miramar Ship Index. Retrieved 15 December 2009.
^Haws 1993, p. 120
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