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.