Isle of Man Steam Packet Company
No steamer company holds a more honourable position in the coastal and passenger trade than the Isle of Man Steam Packet Company. The vessels in early years were known as “the little Cunarders,” a compliment which they well deserved. The appearance of the vessels of the two companies was much the same, and the red and black funnel has always been a distinguishing feature of both lines. The first boat of the Isle of Man Company was built by John Wood of Glasgow in 1830, and named the Mona’s Isle, a title which has been borne by more than one distinguished successor. She was schooner-bowed, and carried on her paddle-boxes, which were placed well forward, the familiar three-legged sign of Manxland. The engines of the first Cunarder built for the transatlantic service were by Napier, who also built the hull, and this steamer was to all intents and purposes a large edition of the Mona’s Isle, whose engines he had previously built. Her dimensions were 116 feet in length by 19 feet beam, with a depth of 10 feet, and 200 gross tonnage. She cost £7042, and when sold in 1851 after twenty-one years’ service, in which she proved a most profitable vessel, she fetched £580.
But the first steamer seen in Manx waters was the Henry Bell, named after the constructor of the historic Comet; she was on her way from the Clyde to Liverpool to be placed on the service between Liverpool and Runcorn and put in at Ramsey Bay. In May of the following year the Greenock arrived at Douglas, whence she took some passengers to Laxey, and, as a local chronicler puts it, “moved by apparent enchantment.” The Mona’s Isle was thought to be too large and valuable to risk being used in winter, and a smaller boat was therefore ordered from the same builder. This was the Mona, and after her arrival in July 1832, she was engaged in a service between the island and Whitehaven and in taking visitors on trips round the island. Even before the advent of the steamers, the Isle of Man had become a favourite place at which to spend the summer, especially among the people of the north and west counties. If affection for the island could induce so many hundreds of people to brave the discomforts of a voyage from the Mersey to Douglas and back again in the small sailing packets which then were the means of communication, it is little wonder that the advent of the steamers, restricted in dimensions as they were, poor in accommodation, and slow travellers, should have increased her popularity. Occasionally the sailing packet took as long as a week to make the trip, and it was hailed as an extraordinary circumstance that a vessel trading between Douglas and Whitehaven was able to make fifty-two voyages each way in the course of a year. In 1813 also, a sailer took three days and nights to get within sight of Liverpool, and was then driven back by stormy weather to the island.
The “Ben-my-Chree” (I.). Built 1845.
The Mona had one mast on which she could carry a jib, a forestay-sail, a mainsail, and a topsail, and her funnel was abaft the paddle-boxes, which were amidships. She was faster than her predecessor, and usually did the journey between Liverpool and Douglas in about seven and a half hours. She once reached Whitehaven from Douglas in a trifle over four and a half hours, which was claimed to be one of the fastest pieces of travelling on record. The Queen of the Isle, which was the company’s third ship, was the fastest vessel afloat at the time. These three boats, according to a bill issued in 1834, were known as the Royal Mail and War Office steam-packets, though they never had any connection, so far as the company has been able to ascertain, with the War Office. A Liverpool firm purchased the Mona in 1851 and sold her to the City of Dublin Company, who ran her for several years, until she was hopelessly outclassed in size and accommodation by newer boats. She was then used as a tug, and so spent the remainder of her days.
The first steamer ordered by the company to be built in the island was the first King Orry, by John Winram, with engines by Robert Napier. This boat was the last of the company’s wooden paddle-steamers. She was a very reliable boat but not particularly fast, for she usually took about seven hours for the trip each way. In 1843 the Queen of the Isle was relieved of her engines, sold, and turned into a full-rigged sailing ship and met her fate off the Falkland Islands.
The Ben-my-Chree, a three-masted schooner, the first of the company’s steamers to be built of iron, was fitted with the Queen of the Isle’s engines. The Tynwald, a larger steamer still, followed in 1845, and was herself followed by the Mona’s Queen, a rather smaller vessel but faster, and bearing a figure-head which the carver said was a likeness of Queen Victoria; be that as it may, the vessel was named in commemoration of the visit of the Queen to the island in 1847.
Hitherto the company’s steamers had been of little more than local interest; the Douglas was now ordered and she acquired international fame. This vessel was the first of the Manx boats in which the straight stem was adopted. She was built in 1858; her length between perpendiculars was 205 feet, with a beam of 26 feet and a depth of 14 feet, and a gross tonnage of 700. The Tynwald, which was of the same tonnage was 188 feet long, by 27 feet beam, and 13 feet 6 inches depth. The Douglas was thus longer in proportion to her beam than any of her predecessors, and being powerfully engined, made 17¹⁄₄ knots on her trial trip. She did the passage between Liverpool and Douglas in 4 hours and 20 minutes, and was the fastest sea-going paddle-steamer afloat.
The situation at this time between the Northern and Southern States of the United States of America was becoming strained, and there were already indications of the approaching conflict. After four years’ service the Douglas was sold, through a third party, to the Confederate agents.
The “Tynwald” (I.). Built 1846.
In a coat of grey paint, with her upper works altered, carrying two or three guns, and rechristened the Margaret and Jessie, the trim Manx boat became one of the most famous blockade-runners the Southern States possessed. Her career was brief, but exciting. In 1863 she was sighted off Abaco by the Federal steamer Rhode Island, which chased her to Eleuthera in the Bahamas and fired upon her when she was only 250 yards off shore. Shot and shell were rained at her by the gunboat, many of the missiles passing beyond the fugitive and striking the shore. At length a shot penetrated her boiler, and another struck her bows so that she had to be beached. This is her last recorded exploit. Contradictory stories are told of her. One states that she was patched up, refloated, and became a peaceful trader among the islands; another, that she was wrecked where she lay; yet another that she resumed her blockade-running under another name, though this may be explained by the fact that blockade-runners often changed their names and disguises, and that one of them may have had a name somewhat similar; and a fourth story is that she was turned into a sailing schooner and ultimately became a coal-barge.
The next boat built by the company was the no less famous Ellan Vannin, first named the Mona’s Isle. She was an iron vessel built in 1860. Her dimensions were: length 198 feet 6 inches, breadth 22 feet 2 inches, depth 10 feet 7 inches, with a gross tonnage of 380. Her indicated horse-power was 600 and her nominal horse-power 100. She averaged about 12 knots. She was lost with all on board at the mouth of the Mersey in the terrible gale of November 1909. She was originally a paddle-boat, but was converted into a twin-screw steamer in 1883, and was then renamed the Ellan Vannin. Her regularity of passage and her immunity from accident were as noteworthy under her new conditions as under the old, and until she ended her career under circumstances which make her loss one of the most remarkable mysteries of the shipping of the port of Liverpool, she was looked upon as the mascot of the fleet.
Three years later the Snaefell was ordered; she was 326 feet in length, by 26 feet beam, with a gross tonnage of 700, and was propelled by engines of 240 nominal horse-power. She brought down the passage from Douglas to Liverpool to 4 hours 21 minutes.
The Royal Netherlands Steamship Company, being in want of a fast steamer for the conveyance of the mails between Queenborough and Flushing, bought the Snaefell and afterwards chartered the second Snaefell built in 1876, of rather larger dimensions, and with a gross tonnage of 849, and engines of 540 nominal horse-power and 1700 indicated, capable of driving her at an average speed of 15 knots. In 1871 the second King Orry was built. She was 290 feet in length by 29 feet beam, with a depth of 14 feet 7 inches, and of 1104 gross tonnage, and was much the largest steamer the company had possessed up to this time. Her engines were of 622 nominal horse-power, and 4000 indicated, and her speed was 17 knots. Her original length was 260 feet, and another 30 feet were added in 1888. The second Ben-my-Chree was built to the order of the company in 1875, and was 310 feet in length, 1192 gross tonnage, and with a speed of 14 knots. She was the only passenger vessel for some time in the British Isles to be fitted with four funnels, two of which were carried before and two abaft the paddle-boxes. From this peculiarity of her construction she was known to her patrons and to the west of England shipping people as the floating coach-and-four. What advantage was gained by the four funnels is not known, for they held a lot of wind.
The second Mona, a much smaller vessel, followed in 1878 and was the first of the company’s fleet to be fitted with a screw. Three years later the Fenella, which in its general dimensions was almost a sister ship to the second Mona, was built and was the first to be fitted with twin screws. She was so successful that the conversion of the Mona’s Isle into a twin-screw boat followed. The company returned to paddle-wheels for their next vessel, the third Mona’s Isle, which was the first to be built of steel, of which material all the company’s subsequent boats have been constructed. The Mona’s Isle was 330 feet 7 inches between perpendiculars, 38 feet 1 inch beam, 15 feet 1 inch depth of hold, and of 1564 gross tonnage. Her engines were of 1983 nominal horse-power, and 4500 indicated, and her speed was 17¹⁄₂ knots. Two years later the little Peveril was launched, also bearing a name of historical association in the island. She was the company’s first steel twin-screw boat, and was lost in September 1899, not far from where the Ellan Vannin went down. The second Mona’s Queen, only slightly smaller than the second Mona’s Isle, followed in 1885, and in 1888 the sister vessels Prince of Wales and Queen Victoria were added to the fleet.
The “Mona’s Isle” (II.). Built 1860 as a Paddle Steamer.
They were each 330 feet between perpendiculars, 39 feet 1 inch beam, 15 feet 2 inches depth of hold, with a gross tonnage of 1557. The engines of each were of 925 nominal horse-power, and of 6500 indicated, and their average speed was 20¹⁄₂ knots. Both these were paddle-vessels. The third Tynwald was launched in 1891, and is a twin-screw ship. The Empress Queen, the biggest paddle-steamer the company ever possessed, was ordered in 1896 from the Fairfield Company. She is 360 feet 1 inch between perpendiculars, 42 feet 3 inches beam, and 17 feet depth of hold. Her gross tonnage is 2140; her engines, of 1290 nominal horse-power and 10,000 indicated, gave her then a speed of 21¹⁄₂ knots, which has since sometimes been exceeded. The third Douglas and the third Mona call for no special comment, except that the former was the Dora of the London and South-Western Railway, from which the Manx Company purchased her in 1901, and that the last-named steamer was the last paddle-boat ordered by the company. The directors in 1905, finding the need of newer and faster vessels, ordered the steamer Viking, propelled by triple screws driven by turbine machinery, and so successful was she that the third Ben-my-Chree was added in 1908.
It may be questioned if any other of the coasting companies presents in its vessels such an illustration of the development of steam-ships and steam-engines, from the insignificant little tubs no bigger than river barges to the latest examples of the shipbuilder’s art.
The opposition which the Manx Company has had to fight has been severe. Its first steamer, the Mona’s Isle, on her first voyage found herself pitted against the Sophia Jane, the boat which afterwards made the first steam voyage to Australia. It would be more correct to say that in this case the Mona’s Isle was the opposition boat, as the Sophia Jane, which belonged to the St. George Company, was already on the service. The older boat got in first by something less than two minutes. But new steamers seldom attain their best speed at first, and the newcomer soon developed such speed that the old boat was left behind on every voyage afterwards in which they competed, and once came in after a rough trip three and a half hours behind. The rivalry resulted in the usual rate war, and the St. George Company brought its fares down to 6d. single. But neither this step nor the placing of the splendid steamer St. George on the service did the Manx Company any harm. The first race between their vessels was remarkable for an ingenious piece of seamanship on the part of the commander of the Mona’s Isle. The little paddle-boats of those days usually felt a strong beam wind to such an extent that the paddle on the windward side would be out of the water half of the time, and that on the lee side half buried owing to the boat heeling over. The captain, judging that the dirty weather which then prevailed would continue next day, spent the night before the race in shifting the cargo and coal on board his boat to the windward side. When the two vessels left the Mersey in the morning the St. George was in beautiful trim, and the Manx boat was leaning over on one side in a fashion which caused those who did not understand what had been done to laugh at her. When the open sea was reached it was the St. George’s turn to heel over before the gale, and the Mona’s Isle went along practically on an even keel, using both her paddles to the best advantage, while the St. George had one nearly buried and the other beating the air uselessly much of the time. Of course the Mona’s Isle won. This incident is interesting as it shows the daring nature of the expedients which the captains of the little steamers of those times were prepared to adopt.
The “Ellan Vannin” (the foregoing altered to a Screw Steamer and renamed, 1883).
This rivalry was destined to end in the wreck of the St. George. The Manx captain, having probably a better knowledge of local conditions than the commander of the St. George, foresaw that a south-easterly gale was rising, which always blows inshore at Douglas. As soon, therefore, as he landed his passengers he put to sea again, but the St. George was anchored in the bay, and during the night as the gale freshened she was blown on the Connister Rocks and went to pieces. All on board were saved by the Douglas lifeboat, whose captain was one of the founders of the Royal Lifeboat Institution. The St. George Company maintained the opposition for a little while longer, until another vessel, the William the Fourth, was lost. They then retired from the service altogether.
The St. George Company was itself an opposition line at first to that established by Messrs. Little and Co.; but the last-named firm have maintained their steamship connection with the island until within the last few years. It is little wonder that the Manx Company was started to supersede the St. George Company, for the latter, having no opposition during the winter months, used for that station its slowest and smallest boats, which were devoid alike of adequate comfort and shelter for the passengers.