| History | |
|---|---|
 United Kingdom | |
| Name | Marchioness Wellesley |
| Builder | Dublin |
| Launched | 1826 |
| Fate | Last listed 1838 |
| General characteristics | |
| Tons burthen | 117, [1] or 118 (bm) |
Marchioness Wellesley (Marchioness of Wellesley) was a packet paddle steamer launched in 1826 for the Dublin and Wexford Steam Co. She may have been the first steamship built in Ireland. She operated out of Dublin and was last listed in 1838.
By one account, she was the first steamship built in Ireland, and her engines were the first marine engines built there too. [2] The Ringsend Foundry (Ringsend Iron Works) were the builders of the steam engines and those were the first built in Ireland. [3] This same source named City of Cork as the first steam ship built in Ireland, but the source's date for the build year for Marchioness of Wellesley is three years too late.
Another account states that Marchioness Wellesley was constructed by the Horseley Ironworks, Staffordshire, under the supervision of her owner, John Grantham. She was built on the River Mersey and then sailed across to Dublin. She had two iron hulls with a paddle wheel between them. [4]
Marchioness Wellesley was the second steam ship to receive permission from the Grand Canal Company to steam from Dublin to Limerick. She arrived at Limerick on 2 February 1827. [4]
Marchioness Wellesley first appeared in Lloyd's Register (LR) in 1828 with P.Barry, master, and the Dublin and Wexford Steam Co. as owner. [1]
On 24 December 1827 she ran aground at Wexford. All on board were rescued. She had been refloated by 11 January 1828 and taken in to Wexford Harbour. [5] [6]
Neither the Shannon Steam Navigation Company nor the Dublin and Wexford Steam Company were successful and in 1829 the Irish Inland Steam Navigation Co. acquired them.
On 15 January 1833 Marchioness Wellesley towed into Waterford Calcutta, of Liverpool, Watson, master. Calcutta had left Liverpool for India but had lost her masts, boats, rudder, and anchor. [7]
Marchioness Wellesley was last listed in 1838, with stale data.
A steamship, often referred to as a steamer, is a type of steam-powered vessel, typically ocean-faring and seaworthy, that is propelled by one or more steam engines that typically move (turn) propellers or paddlewheels. The first steamships came into practical usage during the early 1800s; however, there were exceptions that came before. Steamships usually use the prefix designations of "PS" for paddle steamer or "SS" for screw steamer. As paddle steamers became less common, "SS" is assumed by many to stand for "steamship". Ships powered by internal combustion engines use a prefix such as "MV" for motor vessel, so it is not correct to use "SS" for most modern vessels.
SS Savannah was an American hybrid sailing ship/sidewheel steamer built in 1818. She was the first steamship to cross the Atlantic Ocean, transiting mainly under sail power from May to June 1819. In spite of this historic voyage, the great space taken up by her large engine and its fuel at the expense of cargo, and the public's anxiety over embracing her revolutionary steam power, kept Savannah from being a commercial success as a steamship. Originally laid down as a sailing packet, she was, following a severe and unrelated reversal of the financial fortunes of her owners, converted back into a sailing ship shortly after returning from Europe.
A paddle steamer is a steamship or steamboat powered by a steam engine that drives paddle wheels to propel the craft through the water. In antiquity, paddle wheelers followed the development of poles, oars and sails, where the first uses were wheelers driven by animals or humans.
The Grand Canal is the southernmost of a pair of canals that connect Dublin, in the east of Ireland, with the River Shannon in the west, via Tullamore and a number of other villages and towns, the two canals nearly encircling Dublin's inner city. Its sister canal on the Northside of Dublin is the Royal Canal. The last working cargo barge passed through the Grand Canal in 1960.
SS Great Western of 1838, was a wooden-hulled paddle-wheel steamship with four masts, the first steamship purpose-built for crossing the Atlantic, and the initial unit of the Great Western Steamship Company. She was the largest passenger ship in the world from 1837 to 1839, the year the SS British Queen went into service.
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The City of Dublin Steam Packet Company was a shipping line established in 1823. It served cross-channel routes between Britain and Ireland for over a century. For 70 of those years it transported the mail. It was 'wound-up' by a select committee of the House of Lords in 1922 and finally liquidated in 1930.
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The British and Irish Steam Packet Company Limited was a steam packet and passenger ferry company operating between ports in Ireland and in Great Britain between 1836 and 1992. It was latterly popularly called the B&I, and branded as B&I Line.
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PS Ocean was a paddle steamer built for and operated by the St. George Steam Packet Company from 1836, then the Cork Steamship Company and then the Chester and Holyhead Railway from 1853 to 1859 and the London and North Western Railway from 1859 to 1862.
John Grantham (1809–1874) was an English engineer, born in Croydon Surrey, who was involved in marine, railway and tramway engineering. He was the second son of another John Grantham. After leaving school, John (junior) worked with his father surveying routes for projected railway lines in England.
Captain Cook was a merchant ship built at Whitby, England in 1826. She made one voyage to Bombay under a license from the British East India Company (EIC) in 1828. She then made three voyages transporting convicts from Ireland and England to Australia. In August 1843 she was wrecked on her way with a cargo of coal from Shields to Aden.
William Fawcett was an engineer and manufacturer of guns and steam engines, supplying steam engines for some of the earliest steam ships in Britain and America, and for use on sugar plantations in America. He was a partner in the firm of Fawcett, Preston and Company, which supplied the steam engines for a number of ships, including the paddle steamer William Fawcett, described as the first ship operated by what would become the Peninsular and Oriental Steam Navigation Company (P&O).
Several vessels have been named Marchioness Wellesley for one of the wives of the Marquess of Wellesley:
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