TSS Duchess of Devonshire (1897)

The TSS Duchess of Devonshire was a passenger vessel built for the Barrow Steam Navigation Company in 1897.[1]

History
Name:
  • 1897-1928:TSS Duchess of Devonshire
  • 1928-1949:Gibel Dersa
Operator:
Port of registry:
Builder: Naval and Armament Construction Company, Barrow
Launched: 21 January 1897
Maiden voyage: 9 April 1897
Out of service: 1949
Fate: Scrapped
General characteristics
Tonnage: 1,265 gross register tons (GRT)
Length: 300 feet (91 m)
Beam: 35.1 feet (10.7 m)
Draught: 15.7 feet (4.8 m)
Speed: 18 knots
Capacity: 1250 passengers

History

The TSS Duchess of Devonshire was built by Naval and Armament Construction Company of Barrow for the Barrow Steam Navigation Company. She was launched on 21 January 1897 by Louisa Cavendish, Duchess of Devonshire.[2]

She contained four decks - lower, main, promenade and shade. First class accommodation was amidships, with sleeping accommodation for 124 passengers. The promenade deck had fourteen staterooms, a smokeroom and bar, and first-class entrance, with staircase descending to the dining saloon on the main deck. The ladies’ saloon and staterooms were on the lower deck.

Her maiden voyage from Barrow to Belfast was on 9 April 1897[3] under the command of Captain Myerscough, in a journey time of just under six hours.

She was sold to the Midland Railway in 1907[4]

In 1914 she was requisitioned by the Admiralty and used as an armed boarding vessel. In 1919 she suffered a boiler explosion which killed three people. On 25 September 1922 she was involved in a minor collision with the coasting steamer Trevor which was between Laxey and Douglas.[5]

In 1923 she was acquired by the London Midland and Scottish Railway, but in 1928 they sold her to Bland Line in Gibraltar who renamed her Gibel Dersa. She was requisitioned in 1941. In 1943 she was sold to the Dalhousie Steam and Motor Ship Company in London, and in 1947 sold again to A Benjamin and Company of Gibraltar, and scrapped in 1949 at Malaga.

References
  1. Duckworth, Christian Leslie Dyce; Langmuir, Graham Easton (1968). Railway and other Steamers. Prescot, Lancashire: T. Stephenson and Sons.
  2. "The Barrow Route to England. Launch of a new steamer. Interesting proceedings". Belfast News-Letter. Belfast. 22 January 1897. Retrieved 17 October 2015 – via British Newspaper Archive.
  3. "The Barrow Route to England". Belfast News-Letter. Belfast. 10 April 1897. Retrieved 17 October 2015 – via British Newspaper Archive.
  4. Haws, 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.CS1 maint: ref=harv (link)
  5. "I.O.M. Steamer in Collision". Yorkshire Post and Leeds Intelligencer. Yorkshire. 26 September 1922. Retrieved 17 October 2015 – via British Newspaper Archive.
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