PS Great Western (1864)

History
Name
  • 1867-1891: PS Great Western
  • 1892-1904: PS Lovedale
Operator
  • 1867-1872: Ford and Jackson
  • 1872-1890: Great Western Railway
  • 1890-1891: Nathaniel Miller, Preston
  • 1891-1904: David MacBrayne
Port of registryUnited Kingdom
BuilderWilliam Simons and Company, Renfrew
Yard number124
Launched9 March 1864
Completed1867
Out of service1904
FateScrapped
General characteristics
Tonnage454 gross register tons (GRT)
Length220.4 ft (67.2 m)
Beam25.2 ft (7.7 m)
Installed power190 hp
Propulsion2 cylinder compound oscillating engine

PS Great Western was a passenger vessel built for Ford and Jackson in 1867 and then used by the Great Western Railway from 1872 to 1890.[1]

History[edit]

She was built by William Simons of Renfrew and launched on 9 March 1864. She was completed in 1867 and owned by Ford and Jackson and deployed on their Milford to Cork route. She was a twin-funnel sister to the PS South of Ireland.

In 1872 she was purchased by the Great Western Railway. In 1887 she was chartered to the Weymouth and Channel Islands Steam Packet Company.[citation needed] On 15 August 1888, she ran aground at Weymouth.[2] In 1893 she was rebuilt with one funnel.

She was obtained by David MacBrayne in 1891 and renamed PS Lovedale. On 13 November 1893 she was involved in a collision with the SS Brook off Broadford, Isle of Skye, which resulted in a court case for damages.[3]

She ended her career freighting sheep from Islay to Glasgow, and her master, Lachlan McTavish was convicted at Glasgow Central Police Court with causing unnecessary suffering to the sheep. She was licensed for 750 sheep but was carrying 1170 aboard. Three sheep were suffocated.[4]

In 1904 she was towed into Port Ellen with a broken crankshaft[5] and was scrapped.

References[edit]

  1. ^ Duckworth, Christian Leslie Dyce; Langmuir, Graham Easton (1968). Railway and other Steamers. Prescot, Lancashire: T. Stephenson and Sons.
  2. ^ "Latest Shipping Intelligence". The Times. No. 32466. London. 16 August 1888. col F, p. 5.
  3. ^ "Sequel to a Steamer Collision". Dundee Evening Telegraph. Dundee. 24 May 1894. Retrieved 10 October 2015 – via British Newspaper Archive.
  4. ^ "Overcrowding Sheep". Dundee Evening Post. Dundee. 29 October 1903. Retrieved 10 October 2015 – via British Newspaper Archive.
  5. ^ "Shipping Casualties". Dundee Courier. Dundee. 21 September 1904. Retrieved 10 October 2015 – via British Newspaper Archive.