TSS Chelmsford (1893)

Chelmsford illustrated in 'Holiday Handbooks. Practical guides to less frequented districts'.
History
Name:	1893-1910: TSS Chelmsford 1910-1911: TSS Bretonne 1911-1920: TSS Esperia 1920-ca.1925: TSS Syros 1925-1934: TSS Esperia
Operator:	1893-1910: Great Eastern Railway 1910-1911: Great Western Railway 1911-1934: National Steam Navigation Company, Greece
Port of registry:
Builder:	Earle’s Shipbuilding and Engineering Company, Hull
Launched:	21 February 1893[1]
Out of service:	1934
Fate:	Scrapped
General characteristics
Tonnage:	1,635 gross register tons (GRT)
Length:	300 feet (91 m)
Beam:	34.6 feet (10.5 m)
Draught:	16 feet (4.9 m)

TSS Chelmsford was a passenger vessel built for the Great Eastern Railway in 1893.^[2]

History

She was built by Earle’s in Hull for the Great Eastern Railway. She was launched on 21 February 1893 and launched by the Mayoress of Chelmsford. She was intended for the new route from Harwich to the Hook of Holland. She was described as

having an awning deck extending almost the entire length of the ship and a complete lower deck all fore and aft. The first class dining saloon is forward of the boilers on the main deck, and extends from side to side. It is 32ft long, and is entered through a spacious lobby formed in the large deck-house on the awning deck, the illumination being mainly got by means of a handsome painted glass dome. The remainder of this house is occupied by state rooms, the captain’s room, and a large ventilating truck for affording light and air to the dining room below. Forward of the saloon is a cabin and state-rooms specially arranged for ladies, and abaft the saloon on each side of the engines and boilers are other state-rooms, pantries, bar, lavatories, and officer’s accommodation. Abaft the engines and boilers on this deck are also further state rooms for first-class passengers with a separate entrance lobby from a deck-house in which is a spacious smoke-room.^[1]

In 1910 she was purchased by the Great Western Railway for the route from Plymouth to Brest and renamed Bretonne.^[3] She was sold in the following year to the National Steam Navigation Company of Greece when she was renamed Esperia. For a short time in the early 1920s she was renamed Syros, but was renamed Esperia again until she was scrapped in 1934.

References

1. "A magnificent passenger steamer". Hull Daily Mail. Hull. 21 February 1893. Retrieved 13 October 2015 – via British Newspaper Archive. (subscription required (help)).
2. Duckworth, Christian Leslie Dyce; Langmuir, Graham Easton (1968). Railway and other Steamers. Prescot, Lancashire: T. Stephenson and Sons,.
3. "new G.W.R. Steamer for the Plymouth and Brest Route". Western TImes. England. 29 July 1910. Retrieved 13 October 2015 – via British Newspaper Archive. (subscription required (help)).