PS Cheshire (1889)

PS Cheshire was a passenger vessel built for the Town Council of Birkenhead in 1889 for use as a Mersey ferry.[1]

History
Name1889-1913: PS Cheshire
Operator
Port of registryUnited Kingdom
BuilderCanada Works Engineering and Shipbuilding Company, Birkenhead
Launched1889
Out of service1913
FateBroken up 1911
General characteristics
Length142 feet (43 m)
Beam48 feet (15 m)
Draught10 feet (3.0 m)
Installed power510 hp
PropulsionTwo diagonal compound S.C. engines

History

She was built in Canada Works, Birkenhead in 1889 for the Town Council of Birkenhead for use as a Mersey Ferry. There was some dispute with the builder as she was refused by the commissioners, and was put up for sale, but the highest bid of £4,500 (equivalent to £529,153 in 2021)[2] did not meet the reserve price, so she was withdrawn.[3]

In 1903 she was put up for sale by the Birkenhead Corporation[4] and eventually she was sold to the Great Western Railway who deployed her as a tender in Plymouth.

On 9 December 1905 she was in collision with the Maggie Hough of Liverpool in dense fog in Plymouth sound. The Cheshire had just taken on board from the American liner SS City of New York 47 passengers and mail bags, and did not see the Maggie Hough which was anchoring in the channel for the fog to lift.[5]

She was broken up in Germany in October 1911.[6]

References
  1. Duckworth, Christian Leslie Dyce; Langmuir, Graham Easton (1968). Railway and other Steamers. Prescot, Lancashire: T. Stephenson and Sons.
  2. UK Retail Price Index inflation figures are based on data from Clark, Gregory (2017). "The Annual RPI and Average Earnings for Britain, 1209 to Present (New Series)". MeasuringWorth. Retrieved 11 June 2022.
  3. "The Value of Shipping Property". Fife Free Press, & Kirkcaldy Guardian. Scotland. 23 November 1889. Retrieved 14 October 2015 – via British Newspaper Archive.
  4. "Sales by Auction". Hampshire Advertiser. Hampshire. 9 May 1903. Retrieved 14 October 2015 – via British Newspaper Archive.
  5. "Collisions at Sea". Lichfield Mercury. Lichfield. 15 December 1905. Retrieved 14 October 2015 – via British Newspaper Archive.
  6. "Cheshire (1097754)". Miramar Ship Index. Retrieved 17 January 2021.
This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.