Jeanie Deans | |
History | |
---|---|
United Kingdom | |
Name |
|
Owner |
|
Operator | London and North Eastern Railway |
Builder | Fairfield Shipbuilding and Engineering Company, Govan [1] |
Cost | £52,650 [2] |
Yard number | 644 [3] |
Launched | 7 April 1931 |
In service | 1931 |
Out of service | 1967 |
Renamed | Queen of the South |
Homeport | Glasgow |
Fate | Sold for scrap, December 1967 |
General characteristics | |
Class and type | Paddle steamer |
Tonnage | 635 GRT; 259 NRT |
Length | 76.35 m (250 ft 6 in) |
Beam | 9.16 m (30 ft 1 in) |
Installed power | Three-crank diagonal triple expansion (26, 41.5 and 66 in x 60 in) [4] |
Propulsion | Paddle |
Speed | 18.5 kn (max) |
PS Jeanie Deans was a Clyde paddle steamer, built in 1931 for the London and North Eastern Railway. [5] She was a popular boat, providing summer cruises from Craigendoran until 1964.
PS Jeanie Deans was built for the London and North Eastern Railway in 1931 to compete with the CSP turbine steamer, Duchess of Montrose. She was built by the Fairfield Shipbuilding and Engineering Company, Govan, as a paddler, rather than the more popular turbine steamer, allowing her a shallow draught to visit Craigendoran and Helensburgh. She took the name of an earlier fleet member, continuing the tradition of the North British Railway naming their vessels after characters from Sir Walter Scott's novels; Jeanie Deans being a character in Scott's The Heart of Midlothian. [6]
An earlier Clyde steamer of the same name was built by Barclay Curle & Co in 1884 for the North British Steam Packet Co. She operated out of Craigendoran until 1896, when she was sold for service on Lough Foyle. Returning to the Clyde in 1899, as Duchess of York she ran cruises from Glasgow, becoming Isle of Cumbrae in 1904 and serving Rothesay.
From 1916, she was chartered to the Glasgow and South Western Railway and operated between Princes Pier and Dunoon. She did not return to peacetime service and was broken up at Dumbarton in 1920. [7] [8]
Jeanie Deans was the first Clyde steamer with a three-crank engine, giving a speed of 18.5 knot in trials.
As built, she had two small deckhouses, one forward, supporting the open bridge and one aft of the twin funnels, covering the companionway. [6]
After her first season, a large first class observation saloon was added forward on the promenade deck, providing welcome shelter during poor weather. The funnels were also lengthened to reduce the cinders deposited on passengers.
After war service, she was extensively refitted, including a new deckhouse, increasing tonnage to 814. [9]
During the winter of 1956/7, she was converted from coal to oil burning and radar was also installed a year later in 1960.
Jeanie Deans was built for summer cruising from Craigendoran. In 1931, she took up the company's flagship Lochgoilhead and Arrochar service. On Sundays, she provided cruises down the Firth. These lower Firth cruises were extended from the 1932 season, visiting Ayr and offering cruises around Ailsa Craig and bringing her into direct contact with the Duchess of Hamilton. [6]
By the outbreak of war, she was the longest and fastest paddle steamer on the Firth. [1] She was requisitioned by the government and saw war service as a minesweeper and operated initially as flotilla leader of the 11th Minesweeping Flotilla first at Ardrossan then from Portland, Dorset, during the Battle of Britain in 1940. At the end of the year, she was docked at Milford Haven for repair to storm damage. In April 1941, she went to the Royal Albert Dock in London for conversion to an anti aircraft vessel, entering service in the following month in the Thames Local Defence Flotilla during the final phase of the London Blitz. [10] She remained on that station, later being used against V-1 flying bombs approaching London, claiming three shot down. [11]
She was returned to her owners late in 1944 and resumed to her peacetime duties in 1946; [12] she launched the popular "Round Bute" cruise in the 1950s. [6] Jeanie Deans was withdrawn after the 1964 season and sold for further cruising on the River Thames. As Queen of the South, she operated for the Coastal Steam Packet Company until 1967, but technical problems made the new venture a failure.
In December 1967, she left the Thames for breaking up at Antwerp, Belgium.
A clockwork model of the second Jeanie Deans is central to the plot of Down the Bright Stream by BB.
The ship was memorialized by the Battlefield Band in the song "The Bonny Jeannie Deans" on their 2002 album Time and Tide .
The Firth of Clyde is the mouth of the River Clyde. It is located on the west coast of Scotland and constitutes the deepest coastal waters in the British Isles. The firth is sheltered from the Atlantic Ocean by the Kintyre peninsula, which encloses the outer firth in Argyll and Ayrshire. The Kilbrannan Sound is a large arm of the Firth of Clyde, separating the Kintyre Peninsula from the Isle of Arran. Within the Firth of Clyde is another major island – the Isle of Bute. Given its strategic location at the entrance to the middle and upper Clyde, Bute played a vital naval military role during World War II.
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.
PS Waverley is the last seagoing passenger-carrying paddle steamer in the world. Built in 1946, she sailed from Craigendoran on the Firth of Clyde to Arrochar on Loch Long until 1973. Bought by the Paddle Steamer Preservation Society (PSPS), she has been restored to her 1947 appearance and now operates passenger excursions around the British coast.
The Clyde steamer is the collective term for several passenger services that existed on the River Clyde in Scotland, running from Glasgow downstream to Rothesay and other towns, a journey known as going doon the watter.
MV The Second Snark is a small passenger ferry, built in 1938 by William Denny of Dumbarton, later operated by Clyde Marine Services on the Firth of Clyde, Scotland.
The Caledonian Steam Packet Company provided a scheduled shipping service, carrying freight and passengers, on the west coast of Scotland. Formed in 1889 to complement the services of the Caledonian Railway, the company expanded by taking over rival ferry companies. In 1973, they were merged with MacBraynes as Caledonian MacBrayne.
PS Duchess of Montrose was a paddle steamer launched in 1902 and operated by the Caledonian Steam Packet Company as a River Clyde excursion steamer. She saw active service during the First World War after being requisitioned by the Admiralty and converted into a minesweeper. She was lost near Dunkirk on 18 March 1917 after striking a mine.
Duchess of Norfolk was a 381 GRT paddle steamer built in 1911 for the London, Brighton and South Coast Railway and London and South Western Railway, who operated a joint service to the Isle of Wight. She was requisitioned by the Royal Navy for use as minesweeper HMS Duchess of Norfolk during the First World War, returning to her owners after the war ended. She passed to the Southern Railway on 1 January 1923.
MV Keppel is a passenger-only ferry built in 1961 for the Tilbury to Gravesend crossing. She had twenty years of service on the Largs to Millport route. Since 1993, she has operated in Malta.
PS Caledonia was a paddle steamer built in 1934. She principally provided an Upper Clyde ferry service, later moving to Ayr and then Craigendoran.
DEPV Talisman was the world's first diesel-electric paddle vessel. Built in 1935, she was a passenger ferry on the Clyde, seeing wartime service as HMS Aristocrat. From 1953, she served for 14 years on the Millport station.
PS Iona was a MacBrayne paddle steamer, which operated on the Clyde for 72 years, the longest-serving Clyde steamer.
Jeanie Deans is a fictional character in Sir Walter Scott's novel The Heart of Midlothian first published in 1818. She was one of Scott's most celebrated characters during the 19th century; she was renowned as an example of an honest, upright, sincere, highly religious person. The name "Jeanie Deans" was given to several pubs, ships, railway locomotives, an opera, a play, a poem, a song, a hybrid rose, an antipodean potato, and a geriatric unit in a hospital. They all take their name from Scott's heroine. There was also a so-called Jeanie Deans' Cottage in Edinburgh. It was demolished in 1965.
PS Minerva was a 306 GRT passenger paddle steamer that J&G Thomson launched in 1893 for the Glasgow and South Western Railway (G&SWR). She served with the Royal Navy from 1916 and was sold into civilian service in Turkey in 1924. She was scrapped by 1928.
PS Glen Rosa was a 306 GRT passenger paddle steamer that J&G Thomson launched in 1893 for the Glasgow and South Western Railway (G&SWR). She served with the Royal Navy in the First World War as HMS Glencross. She was absorbed into the London, Midland and Scottish Railway fleet in 1923, transferred to the Caledonian Steam Packet Company in 1938 and scrapped in 1939.
PS Waverley was a Clyde-built paddle steamer that carried passengers on the Clyde between 1899 and 1939. She was requisitioned by the Admiralty to serve as a minesweeper during World War I and again in World War II, and was sunk while participating in the Dunkirk evacuation in 1940. The current PS Waverley, launched in 1946, was built as a replacement for this vessel.
PS Eagle III was a passenger-carrying paddle steamer that was built and sailed on the Clyde, and was twice requisitioned by the Admiralty to serve as a minesweeper during the world wars.
PS Duchess of Fife was a paddle steamer built in 1903 for the Caledonian Steam Packet Company. She spent most of her career serving passenger routes in the Firth of Clyde and was requisitioned for use as a minesweeper during both World Wars. In 1940 she took part in the Dunkirk evacuation, rescuing a total of 1,633 allied troops.
PS Waverley was a Clyde-built paddle steamer that carried passengers on the Clyde between 1885 and 1887, then on the Bristol Channel from 1887 until 1916, when she was requisitioned by the Admiralty to serve as a minesweeper during World War I.
PS Lucy Ashton was a Clyde-built paddle steamer that carried passengers on the Clyde between 1888 and 1949. She was one of the longest serving Clyde steamers.
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