SS Ben-my-Chree (1965)

Last updated

East Float, Wallasey Docks + historic turbine steamer - geograph.org.uk - 749118.jpg
Ben-my-Chree at East Float, Wallasey Docks.
History
Civil Ensign of the Isle of Man.svg
NameBen-my-Chree
Owner1966–1984: IOMSPCo.
Operator1966–1984: IOMSPCo.
Port of registry
RouteDouglas to Liverpool / Dublin / Belfast / Ardrossan / Fleetwood / Heysham.
Ordered1964
Builder Cammell Laird
Cost£1,400,000 (£28,838,055 in 2021). [1]
Yard number1320
LaunchedFriday, 10 December 1965
Maiden voyage12 May 1966
Out of serviceSeptember 1984 (Re-chartered May 1985. Finally laid up June 1985)
Identification
Nickname(s)"The Ben"
FateScrapped at Santander, Spain, 1989
General characteristics
TypeCar Ferry
Tonnage2,762  gross register tons  (GRT)
Length325 ft 0 in (99.1 m)
Beam50 ft 0 in (15.2 m)
Draught12 ft 6 in (3.8 m)
Depth18 ft 0 in (5.5 m)
Decks6
Deck clearance8 ft 0 in (2.4 m) with a clear height of 7 ft 2 in (2.2 m) on the car deck and ramps
RampsSide loading spiral ramps over 5 levels
Installed power9,500  shp (7,100 kW)
PropulsionTwin fixed 3 bladed screws Pametrada geared turbines developing 9,500  shp (7,100 kW)
Speed21 knots (24 mph)
Capacity1400 passengers 80 cars or light vans
Crew60

TSS (RMS) Ben-my-Chree (V) was the second of four side-loading car ferries ordered by the Isle of Man Steam Packet Company. Built in 1965, she was the last of their vessels designed with two classes of passenger accommodation and the fifth company vessel to bear the name. She operated until 1984 and was broken up in 1989.

Contents

History

Ben-my-Chree is launched at Birkenhead, Friday, 10 December 1965 Launch of the Bne-my-Chree.jpg
Ben-my-Chree is launched at Birkenhead, Friday, 10 December 1965

Ben-my-Chree (No.186355) was constructed by Cammell Laird at a cost of £1,400,000 (equivalent to £28,838,055 in 2021). [1] She was the second of four car ferries ordered by the Isle of Man Steam Packet Company and was virtually identical to her sister Manx Maid, built four years earlier.

She was launched by Mrs Margaret Brownsdon on Friday, 10 December 1965, and entered service, having gone through her trials and been accepted, with Capt J.E. Quirk in command and J.S. Kennaugh as Chief Officer. Ben-my-Chree made her maiden voyage from Liverpool to Douglas on Thursday, 12 May 1966. This was a happy occasion for the Steam Packet, for as the "Ben" slipped away from the Prince's Landing Stage and proceeded downstream towards the sea, she received a rousing salute from her sister Manx Maid, lying alongside the Liverpool terminal.

The IOMSPCo Ltd's attitude and relationship with the Isle of Man Harbour Board bore significantly in the construction of the Manx Maid and Ben-My-Chree, as they were unable to agree to the building of, and who would pay the costs of linkspans required for a new RO-RO. However, it did result in a unique design that served the Isle of Man very successfully till the demise of the Lady of Mann in 2005. Ultimately what scrapped these beautiful streamlined, whilst archaic ships, was not their inability, more their lack of efficiency as the economy of operating turbine steamers was eclipsed by motor vessels.[ citation needed ]

Their nicknames by Steam Packet staff for both the "Maid" and the "Ben" in the 1960s and 1970s were "the money boxes", as they gained the Steam Packet all its profits through the carriage of cars and vans.

Layout

Ben-my-Chree was the last of the company's ships designed with two classes of passenger accommodation. [4]

She only operated in this configuration until the beginning of 1967, when all the company's ships, including Ben-my-Chree, were converted to single class. The two-class system had been employed for 136 years. [5]

Length 325'; beam 50'; and a depth of 18'; with accommodation for 1400 passengers and a crew of 60.

Ben-my-Chree had a Gross tonnage of 2762 and a designed service speed of 21 knots. The machinery lay-out was similar to Manx Maid, developing 9,500  shp (7,100 kW) shaft horse power.

During her annual overhaul in 1978, she was fitted with a bow thruster, driven by a steam turbine of 500 brake horse power. Also at this time, she was fitted with the ship's whistle from the scrapped Tynwald, a traditional organ type whistle, whose mighty reverberation was very much appreciated by lovers of Manx ships.

Service life

A happy Steam Packet occasion on the Mersey, as Manx Maid (right) greets her new sister Ben-my-Chree (left) as she departs on her maiden voyage to Douglas, Thursday May 12th, 1966. Ben's Maiden Voyage..jpeg
A happy Steam Packet occasion on the Mersey, as Manx Maid (right) greets her new sister Ben-my-Chree (left) as she departs on her maiden voyage to Douglas, Thursday May 12th, 1966.

"The Ben", as she was always known, entered service in 1966, the year of the seaman's strike. This resulted in her being laid up for the first part of the summer. She serviced the main Douglas-Liverpool route on her own for part of April 1975 while Mona's Queen was having her annual overhaul, and Manx Maid was forced to be idle through an industrial dispute.

She was generally one of the winter boats i.e. out of Douglas at 09:00, and back at 11:00 from Liverpool the following day until the Lady of Mann entered service. The winter job, and the boats that did it were sought after by the ratings, as they earned more sailing than when laid up.

Disposal

During the early 1980s, as a result of the formation of Manxline with its RO-RO vessel Manx Viking, the side-loading car ferries of the Steam Packet were seen as becoming increasingly inefficient, and the decision was made to retire both the Manx Maid and the Ben-my-Chree. Whilst their higher fuel consumption would initially be seen as the cost to dispose, the reality was the steam plants were very expensive to maintain, and just not as efficient. The Steamers averaged 9 tons of fuel on a Douglas - Liverpool trip whilst the motor ships Mona's Queen and Lady of Mann less than 4. A 30% price increase in heavy-grade fuel oil during 1984, finally rendered the vessels as totally uneconomic. [6]

Ben-my-Chree made her final voyage under Steam Packet ownership on 19 September 1984, ten days after her older sister. However, this wasn't quite the end for her, and in June 1985 she was chartered back from her new owners to cover the shortfall in capacity for the busy TT motorcycle races. Ben-my-Chree was finally laid up by Capt. Hall in Vittoria Dock, Birkenhead, on 10 June 1985.

In August 1989, she was sold to Spanish breakers Cantabra Metallurgica S.A. Santander broke her up, still with the name Ben-my-Chree between 18 September and 4 December 1989.

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Isle of Man Steam Packet Company</span> Manx shipping company

The Isle of Man Steam Packet Company Limited is the oldest continuously operating passenger shipping company in the world, having been founded in 1830.

MS <i>Ben-my-Chree</i> Isle of Man ferry

MV Ben-my-Chree is a Ro-Pax vessel which was launched and entered service in 1998. The flagship of the Isle of Man Steam Packet Company, she primarily operates on the Douglas to Heysham route until replaced by MV Manxman in Late 2023.

MS <i>Lady of Mann</i>

MS Lady of Mann (II) was a side-loading car ferry built in 1976 for the Isle of Man Steam Packet Company and operated on the Douglas–Liverpool crossing. She served the company for 29 years. In 2005, she was converted to a Roll-on/roll-off ferry and was operated by SAOS Ferries in Greece under the name MS Panagia Soumela until she was scrapped in August 2011.

HSC <i>Manannan</i> Ship built in 1998

HSC Manannan is a 96-metre (315 ft) wave-piercing high-speed catamaran car ferry built by Incat, Australia in 1998. After commercial service in Australia and New Zealand, she was chartered to the US military as Joint Venture (HSV-X1). Now owned and operated by the Isle of Man Steam Packet Company, she mainly provides a seasonal service between Douglas Harbour and Port of Liverpool.

SS <i>King Orry</i> (1946)

TSS (RMS) King Orry (IV) - the fourth vessel in the line's history to be so named - was the lead ship of the King Orry Class of passenger ferries and packet ships. More commonly referred to as the six sisters, they were built for the Isle of Man Steam Packet Company between 1946 & 1955 primarily to replace war-time losses. The company's previous King Orry was one of three company losses during Operation Dynamo - the evacuation of British and French troops from the port of Dunkirk during May 1940.

SS <i>Ben-my-Chree</i> (1908) Passenger steamer

TSS (RMS) Ben-my-Chree (III) No. 118605 – the third vessel in the company's history to be so named – was a passenger steamer operated by the Isle of Man Steam Packet Company between 1908 and 1915. Ben-my-Chree was requisitioned by the Admiralty in 1915 and converted to a seaplane carrier; commissioned as HMS Ben-my-Chree, she was sunk by Turkish batteries on 11 January 1917.

SS <i>Ben-my-Chree</i> (1927) Passenger ferry operated by the Isle of Man Steam Packet Company

TSS (RMS) Ben-my-Chree (IV) No. 145304 – the fourth vessel in the company's history to be so named – was a passenger ferry operated by the Isle of Man Steam Packet Company between 1927 and 1965.

SS <i>Tynwald</i> (1947)

TSS (RMS) Tynwald (V), No. 165248, was a passenger vessel operated by the Isle of Man Steam Packet Company from 1947 to 1974, and was the fifth vessel in the history of the line to bear the name.

TSS <i>Manx Maid</i> (1962)

TSS (RMS) Manx Maid (II) was built by Cammell Laird at Birkenhead in 1962, and was the second ship in the Company's history to bear the name.

MV <i>Monas Queen</i> (1971)

MV (RMS) Mona's Queen (V) Official No. 307621 was a car-ferry built in 1971–72 for the Isle of Man Steam Packet Company. From 1972 to 1990, she operated to and from Douglas, Isle of Man. After a lengthy lay-up, she was sold in 1995, renamed Mary the Queen and operated as a ferry in south-east Asia, mainly sailing between Manila and Boracay. She was sold to Indian shipbreakers and beached in 2008.

RMS <i>Lady of Mann</i>

TSS (RMS) Lady of Mann, was a passenger ship, built by Vickers Shipbuilding and Engineering for the Isle of Man Steam Packet Company at Barrow-in-Furness in 1930, at a cost of £249,073. Certificated to carry 2,873 passengers and 81 crew, she was commissioned to operate on the Island's busy Douglas–Liverpool and Douglas–Fleetwood routes, and had a maximum speed of 23 knots. Her hull was at first the company's conventional black, but was changed to white and green in 1933, only to revert to black after her war service.

SS <i>Monas Queen</i> (1934)

TSS (RMS) Mona's Queen (III) No. 145308, was a ship built for the Isle of Man Steam Packet Company in 1934. The steamer, which was the third vessel in the company's history to bear the name, was one of five ships to be specially commissioned by the company between 1927 and 1937. They were replacements for the various second-hand steamers that had been purchased to replace the company's losses during the First World War. However, the life of the Mona's Queen proved to be short: six years after being launched she was sunk by a sea mine during the Dunkirk evacuation on 29 May 1940.

SS <i>Tynwald</i> (1846)

SS (RMS) Tynwald (I), No. 21921, was an iron paddle-steamer which served with the Isle of Man Steam Packet Company, and was the first vessel in the Company to bear the name.

MV <i>Peveril</i> (1963)

MV Peveril was a coastal cargo vessel operated by the Isle of Man Steam Packet Company. Peveril, the third ship in the company's history to bear the name, was built by Ailsa Shipbuilding Company at Troon, Scotland, in 1964.

SS <i>Tynwald</i> (1891)

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.

TSS <i>Manx Maid</i> (1910)

TSS (RMS) Manx Maid (I) No. 131765 - the first ship in the Company's history to be so named - was a packet steamer which was bought by the Isle of Man Steam Packet Company from the London and Southwestern Railway Company, and commenced service with the Steam Packet in 1923.

SS <i>Queen of the Isle</i> Scottish paddle steamer, launched 1834

SS (RMS) Queen of the Isle was a paddle steamer which was constructed by Robert Napier & Co. Glasgow. No Official number is recorded for the vessel, as formal registration was not introduced until the Merchant Shipping Act 1854.

MV <i>Tynwald</i> (1967)

MV Tynwald was a roll-on-roll-off car and cargo vessel operated by the Isle of Man Steam Packet Company between 1986 and 1990, the sixth ship in the history of the line to bear the name. Built as Antrim Princess for service on the Stranraer–Larne route, she was chartered under her original name until 1986.

SS <i>Mona</i> (1889)

SS (RMS) Mona (III), the third ship of the Company to bear the name, was a steel paddle-steamer which was originally owned and operated by the London, Chatham and Dover Railway Company, who then sold her to the Liverpool and Douglas Steamship Company, from whose liquidators she was acquired by the Isle of Man Steam Packet Company in 1903.

SS <i>Viking</i> (1905)

SS (RMS) Viking was a steel, triple-screw turbine-driven passenger steamer operated by the Isle of Man Steam Packet Company between 1905 and 1954.

References

  1. 1 2 UK Retail Price Index inflation figures are based on data from Clark, Gregory (2017). "The Annual RPI and Average Earnings for Britain, 1209 to Present (New Series)". MeasuringWorth. Retrieved 11 June 2022.
  2. ↑ "Ben-My-Chree". Shipspotting. Retrieved 6 October 2013.
  3. ↑ Ships of the Isle of Man Steam Packet Company (Fred Henry) p.66
  4. ↑ Connery Chappell. - Island Lifeline (1980) p64.
  5. ↑ Connery Chappell. - Island Lifeline (1980) p64.
  6. ↑ Steam Packet 175 (Manxline and the Merger, Chapter 9, p.78)

Bibliography

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.