PS Cheshire (1889)

History
Name: 1889-1913: PS Cheshire
Operator:
Port of registry: United Kingdom
Builder: Canada Works Engineering and Shipbuilding Company, Birkenhead
Launched: 1889
Out of service: 1913
Fate: Wrecked
General characteristics
Length: 142 feet (43 m)
Beam: 48 feet (15 m)
Draught: 10 feet (3.0 m)
Installed power: 510 hp
Propulsion: Two diagonal compound S.C. engines

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

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for sale, but the highest bid of £4,500 (equivalent to £448,565 in 2015)[2] did not meet the reserve price, so she was withdrawn.[3]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 wrecked in 1913.

References

  1. Duckworth, Christian Leslie Dyce; Langmuir, Graham Easton (1968). Railway and other Steamers. Prescot, Lancashire: T. Stephenson and Sons,.
  2. UK CPI inflation numbers based on data available from Gregory Clark (2016), "The Annual RPI and Average Earnings for Britain, 1209 to Present (New Series)" MeasuringWorth.
  3. "The Value of Shipping Property.". Fife Free Press, & Kirkcaldy Guardian. Scotland. 23 November 1889. Retrieved 14 October 2015 via British Newspaper Archive. (subscription required (help)).
  4. "Sales by Auction". Hampshire Advertiser. Hampshire. 9 May 1903. Retrieved 14 October 2015 via British Newspaper Archive. (subscription required (help)).
  5. "Collisions at Sea". Lichfield Mercury. Lichfield. 15 December 1905. Retrieved 14 October 2015 via British Newspaper Archive. (subscription required (help)).
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