The first RMS St Patrick of the St. George Steam Packet Company was a wooden paddle steamer, launched by Mottershead & Hayes of Liverpool on 22 April 1822[lower-alpha 1] for passenger service. The ship first served on the line's Dublin to Liverpool route, with a stopover in Bristol. The ship was sold in 1824 to Portuguese interests and renamed the ship Restaurador Lusitano, which operated on the Lisbon to Oporto route. Civil war broke out in 1828 and the vessel was chartered for service by the Absolutists in 1832. While sailing with troops and supplies, Restaurador Lusitano was severely damaged in a storm while attempting to aid another vessel in trouble. The damage was too much and Restaurador Lusitano sank on 11 September 1832.
The builder's registration on 27 April 1822 stated the ship had a tonnage of 173 tons, was 130 feet (40m) long with a beam of 20feet 1inch (6.12m) and a draught of 13feet 8inches (4.17m).[2]St Patrick was powered by a double engine of 55 horsepower (41kW) made by Fawcett, Preston & Co. of Liverpool.[3]
Construction and career
St. Patrick was launched at 10:30am on 21 April 1822 (although another source says 22 April, without a time) and her sister the St. George was launched the following day. This excited those in Liverpool as she was the first steamer built in the port, and the finest ship built there yet. She was registered as BT107 in Liverpool on 29 April 1822 to T. Lance, K. Pringle, J. Watson and some others, and served the St. Patrick Steam Packet Company, an element of the St. George Steam Packet Company which served the Dublin-Liverpool route, although the St. Patrick herself also stopped at Bristol. The company was in fierce rivalry with the War Office Steam Packet Company, particularly against their PS Hibernia. The St. Patrick "did not carry troops for the War Office, nor was she out for more than a night" indicating her speed and mail contract meant she was considered supreme. Furthermore, the Hibernia was 'a bit of a flop' (Farr 4), though it was likely just out of bad luck rather than poor design.[4]
St. Patrick commenced service in May 1822, captained by J.P. Phillips, and arrived in Bristol on 10 May, and henceforth sailed the route Bristol-Dublin-Liverpool-Bristol, but also stopping at Tenby. The route took around 9/10 days to complete. The St. Patrick was a speedy packet ferry, doing Dublin-Bristol in 23.5 hours (an average of 9.3 knots, 17.2km/h, 10.7mph) in August 1822, and doing it in 23 hours (9.5kn, 17.6km/h, 10.9mph) the next month. On 19 August, she began a Cork-Bristol service to compete with the War Office SPC, and continued this route until September 1823 when she returned to the old route as it was more profitable.[5] On 27 June 1823, she got in a collision with the Hibernia and another ship called the Emerald Isle. The Emerald Isle suffered a crushed passenger, and lost rails, bulwarks, waterways and 30ft (9.1m) of her starboard planking, while the St. Patrick lost part of her head and cutwater. When she was sold in 1824, another St. Patrick was built in Liverpool to replace it. Later, because of the loss of that second St. Patrick near Waterford, a third St Patrick was built at Liverpool in 1833 to replace that one.
Portuguese service
1832 drawing of the SS Restaurador Lusitano
Antonio Julia da Costa, the owner of the Portuguese shipping company Joao Baptista Angelo da Costa and Co., had recently lost his steamship Paquete Lusitano (which provided the Lisbon-Oporto route) and so arranged to purchase a replacement steamer from Liverpool. The two-year-old St. Patrick was sold to his company and ran the route of the lost steamer. She was renamed Restaurador Lusitano (sometimes written as Luzitano), which meant "restored Lusitano"- or, in other words, 'replacement for the earlier ship Paquete Lusitano'. She left on her maiden voyage as the Restaurador Lusitano on 1/2 March and called at Lisbon to pick up 30 passengers, then arrived at Oporto around a day later. On her second voyage, she sailed Oporto-Belém in just 17 hours (an average of 11 knots, 20km/h, 13mph). However on two occasions, in bad weather, she sailed the route in 40 and 43 hours. In her first 8 months, she carried over 4,000 passengers. Disappointingly, she was described by a traveller in 1827 as poor- her engines were not very powerful and supposedly only doing 2 knots (3.7km/h; 2.3mph) when sailing against the wind, which meant she took twice as long as the advertised 24 hours to travel the route. In summer 1828, she briefly returned to Liverpool for repairs. Later that year, civil war broke out in Portugal. In 1832, due to a siege in Oporto, the Restaurador Lusitano was unable to continue her passenger service and was chartered to the Absolutionists.
Final voyage
The Restaurador Lusitano left Lisbon in September 1832 bound for north Portugal loaded with siege guns and troops. In stormy weather, one of the warships, the brigAudaz lost her forward topmast and the steamer was commissioned to tow her. However, the strain of the warship almost pulled off her entire stern, causing many leaks which caused her to sink there on 11 September, off Aveiro before the enemy fleet, which did not attack. 189 artillerymen and 19 crew were lost, despite the efforts of a nearby frigate to save some men. Her wreck's approximate position is at 40°38′N8°52′W / 40.633°N 8.867°W / 40.633; -8.867 (Restaurador Lusitano).[1]
↑ Dawson, Charles (June 2000). Shephard, John (ed.). "Three Early Steamers"(PDF). The Bulletin. Vol.44, no.1. The Liverpool Nautical Research Society. p.19.
↑ Dawson, Charles (June 2000). Shephard, John (ed.). "Three Early Steamers"(PDF). The Bulletin. Vol.44, no.1. The Liverpool Nautical Research Society. p.22.
Sources
Dawson, Charles (June 2000). Shephard, John (ed.). "Three Early Steamers"(PDF). The Bulletin. Vol.44, no.1. The Liverpool Nautical Research Society.
Sea Breezes, Volume 3, (Liverpool, 1947), Public Record Office, Kew Gardens, London, Transcripts & Transactions, BT 107/129 Liverpool 1822/33 Grahame Farr, West Country Passenger Steamers (Prescot, 1967), 12. Farr recounts the riposte from the competitor and a new attack on page 29. Farr,29 Farr, 13
Related Research Articles
SS Great Western of 1838, was a wooden-hulled paddle-wheel steamship built of Dantzic pine, 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, which was then passed by the SS British Queen. Designed by Isambard Kingdom Brunel, Great Western proved satisfactory in service and was the model for all successful wooden Atlantic paddle-steamers. She was capable of making record Blue Riband voyages as late as 1843. Great Western worked to New York for 8 years until her owners went out of business. She was sold to the Royal Mail Steam Packet Company and was scrapped in 1856 after serving as a troop ship during the Crimean War.
The Isle of Man Steam Packet Company Limited is the oldest continuously operating passenger shipping company in the world, celebrating its 190th anniversary in 2020.
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.
Turbine Steam Ship (RMS) Manxman was a passenger ferry launched from the Cammell Laird shipyard, Birkenhead, on 8 February 1955. She was the final vessel in a class of six similar ships, the Six Sisters, ordered by the Isle of Man Steam Packet Company, and was the second of the Company's ships to carry this name. She was withdrawn from service in 1982. Following a failed preservation attempt, and featuring in a music video in the process, the ship was broken up at Sunderland in 2012.
SS Sirius was a wooden-hulled sidewheel steamship built in 1837 by Robert Menzies & Sons of Leith, Scotland for the London-Cork route operated by the Saint George Steam Packet Company. The next year, she opened transatlantic steam passenger service when she was chartered for two voyages by the British and American Steam Navigation Company. By arriving in New York a day ahead of the Great Western, she is usually listed as the first holder of the Blue Riband, although the term was not used until decades later.
Packet boats were medium-sized boats designed for domestic mail, passenger, and freight transportation in European countries and in North American rivers and canals, some of them steam driven. They were used extensively during the 18th and 19th centuries and featured regularly scheduled service.
TSS Colleen Bawn was a twin screw passenger steamship operated by the Lancashire and Yorkshire Railway from 1903 to 1922.
TSS Mellifont was a twin screw passenger steamship operated by the Lancashire and Yorkshire Railway from 1903 to 1928.
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.
SS (RMS) Tynwald (III), No. 95755, was an iron passenger steamer which served with the Isle of Man Steam Packet Company, and was the third vessel in the Company to bear the name.
SS (RMS) Mona's Isle (I) was the first vessel ordered for service with the Isle of Man Steam Packet Company when it began its operation in 1830. No Official number is recorded for the vessel, as formal registration was not introduced until the Merchant Shipping Act 1854.
SS (RMS) Mona (I) - the first vessel in the Company's history to be so named - was a wooden paddle steamer which was operated by the Isle of Man Steam Packet Company. No Official number is recorded for the vessel, as formal registration was not introduced until the Merchant Shipping Act 1854.
SS (RMS) Snaefell (I) – the first ship in the Company's history to bear the name – was an iron paddle steamer that served with the Isle of Man Steam Packet Company until she was sold in 1875.
PS (RMS) Prince of Wales No. 93381 was a steel built paddle steamer which was purchased together with her sister PS Queen Victoria, by the Isle of Man Steam Packet Company from the Isle of Man, Liverpool and Manchester Steamship Company in 1888 - referred to as The Manx Line.
William Patterson Shipbuilders was a major shipbuilder in Bristol, England during the 19th century and an innovator in ship construction, producing both the SS Great Western and SS Great Britain, fine lined yachts and a small number of warships.
William Gill was a Manx merchant navy officer who served as commanding officer of numerous Isle of Man Steam Packet Company vessels. Gill was the first recognised captain of the line, retiring with the rank of Commodore.
The SS Nile was an iron-hulled cargo steamship. She is best remembered for her sinking in bad weather on 30 November 1854 with the loss of all hands, most likely after colliding with The Stones, a notoriously dangerous reef off Godrevy Head in Cornwall.
Hibernia was a passenger ship built at Prince Edward's Island in 1828. She was transporting passengers from Liverpool to Australia when a shipboard fire in the South Atlantic on 5 February 1833 destroyed her.
The St George Steam Packet Company - also referred to as the Liverpool and Isle of Man Steam Packet Company or the St George Steamship Company - was a privately owned maritime transportation company incorporated in 1821. In the early 1840s the business was acquired by the Cork Steamship Company.
The second RMS St. Patrick was a steam packet ferry of the St George Steam Packet Company which served entirely in Ireland, running from Cork to Waterford. She was ordered in 1825 following the selling of the first St. Patrick the previous year. She continued serving the company until 1831, when she grounded with no loss of life. She was launched on 19 August 1825 in Liverpool with a tonnage of 203 or 300 depending on the source. She measured 130 ft (40 m) in length by 22 ft (6.7 m)
This page is based on this Wikipedia article Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply. Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.
United Kingdom 
Portugal 
