The Isle of Man Steam Packet Company Limited is the oldest continuously operating passenger shipping company in the world, having been founded in 1830.
SS (RMS) Ellan Vannin was built as an iron paddle steamer in 1860 at Meadowside, Glasgow for the Isle of Man Steam Packet Company. She was originally named Mona's Isle - the second ship in the company's history to be so named. She served for 23 years under that name before being rebuilt, re-engined and renamed in 1883. As Ellan Vannin she served for a further 26 years before being lost in a storm on 3 December 1909 in Liverpool Bay.
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.
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.
TSS (RMS) Mona’s Queen (IV) was a passenger vessel operated by the Isle of Man Steam Packet Company from 1946 to 1962. Sold to the Chandris group in 1962, she was adapted for cruising and operated as Carina and, from 1964 Fiesta until scrapped in Greece in 1981.
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.
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.
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.
SS (RMS) Fenella (I), No.76303, was an Iron twin-screw steamer operated by the Isle of Man Steam Packet Company, and was the first ship in the company's history to bear the name.
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 (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.
RMS Snaefell (III) – the third ship in the line's history to be so named – was a packet steamer operated by the Isle of Man Steam Packet Company from 1910 to 1914. She was then acquired by the Admiralty at the outbreak of the First World War, until she was torpedoed and sunk in the Mediterranean on 5 June 1918.
SS (RMS) Peveril (I) No. 76307 – the first vessel in the company's history to be so named – was a packet steamer which was operated by the Isle of Man Steam Packet Company until she sank off Douglas following a collision with SS Monarch in 1899.
SS (RMS) Mona's Queen (II) No. 76308, was an iron-built paddle steamer which served with the Isle of Man Steam Packet Company. She was the second vessel in the company's history to be so named. Mona's Queen served from 1885 until 1929. In 1917, during the Great War, she collided with a German submarine.
TSS (RMS) King Orry (III) – the third ship in the history of the Company to bear the name – was a passenger steamer which served with the Isle of Man Steam Packet Company, until she was sunk in the evacuation of Dunkirk in 1940.
SS (RMS) Douglas (III) – the third vessel in the line's history to bear the name – was a packet steamer which entered service with the London and South Western Railway in 1889 under the name Dora until she was purchased by the Isle of Man Steam Packet Company in 1901 for £13,500.
MV Conister (II) No. 187114 was a cargo vessel operated by the Isle of Man Steam Packet Company, the second vessel in the Company's history to bear the name.
The passenger steamer SS Peel Castle was operated by the Isle of Man Steam Packet Company from her purchase in 1912 until she was sold for breaking in 1939.
SS Monarch No. 90117 was a tramp steamer which was operated by Alexander King Ltd, Belfast. She was involved in a collision with the Isle of Man Steam Packet Company steamer RMS Peveril, off Douglas, Isle of Man in the early hours of 17 September 1899, resulting in the sinking of the Peveril.
James Teare was a Manx merchant navy officer who served as a seaman and later as an officer on numerous Isle of Man Steam Packet Company vessels. Capt. Teare is best known as the Master of the RMS Ellan Vannin on her ill-fated voyage from Ramsey, Isle of Man to Liverpool on 3 December 1909.
Peveril is positioned to the fitting out basin at Cammell Laird following her launch
A scene at the inner harbour, Douglas. Connister can be seen in the foreground at the Coffee Palace Berth, with Peveril in the background at the Office Berth
