City of Dublin Steam Packet Co

1917.

1847.

1885.

Cargo vessels.

Admiralty Packets and the City of Dublin Steam Packet Companey's Packets.

of Eden Quay, Dublin

1823 The company was established, originally as Charles Wye Williams and Co

1833 The company was incorporated by Act of Parliament.

1837 Established the Transatlantic Steamship Co to operate between Liverpool and New York.

After three years, the Transatlantic Company was closed down.

1850 Started carrying the Irish mails between Holyhead and Kingstown

1860 Lairds built 3 paddle steamers, PS Ulster, PS Munster, and PS Connaught, for the company's mail service between Holyhead and Kingstown. Samuda Brothers built one, the Leinster.

1885 Lairds built the steamer Ireland for the company's mail service between Holyhead and Kingstown,

1897 A new mail contract started; operated by the company using four well-known fast and comfortable boats - the Ulster, Munster, Leinster and Connaught.

1909 The Steam Packet Company, which was carrying mails between Holyhead and Kingstown, claimed in court action against the Postmaster-General exclusive use of certain berths at Kingstown under its contract (which ran to 1917) but lost the case in certain aspects on appeal. The London and North-Western Railway Company was also running a service on the same route.

1920 When the contract for the Irish Mails was re-tendered, it was won by the London and North-Western Railway Company

1925 In the Dublin High Court Mr. Justice Johmon made an order for the distribution of the assets of the City of Dublin Steam ...

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‘Cross-Channel and Coastal Paddle Steamers’ by George Frank Burtt

It was in i8i6, but four years after the famous COMET had first demonstrated the possibilities of the steam paddle boat, that the Irish Sea was first crossed by this type of vessel. There were two pioneer boats - the HIBERNIA and BRITANNIA - both built by James Munn of Greenock and fitted with 20 n.h.p. engines made by James Cook of Tradestown, Glasgow. They were 77 feet long, 9 feet draught and of 112 tons burthen, and plied between Holyhead and the Royal Harbour of Howth, which was at that time the port at which mails and passengers for Dublin were landed.

Another early boat running between Holyhead and Dublin was the TALBOT. She was a paddle steamer of 150 tons register, having two engines of 30 n.h.p., and built in 1819 by J. and C. Wood of Glasgow. She was worked by a Mr. George Dodd and performed the journey in about eight hours. She was the first steamer to be fitted with feathering floats.

Up to this time, the mails between England and Ireland had been carried by private enterprise, originally by sailing cutters and later by steam packets. This arrangement was not altogether satisfactory, and the Government, recognising the importance of a regular connection between the two countries, decided to take over the boats and introduce a better and more reliable service. For this purpose, they had several new boats built.

This raised some controversy at the time and a Select Committee of the House of Commons was appointed to report on the matter. This Report is dated 1822 and Mr. F. C. Partington in his book, "The Steam Engine," published in London in 1826, quotes it. (not transcribed).

It was not long before steam definitely proved its superiority, and faster and larger boats were provided by the Admiralty, amongst them being the following: —

• PS Sprightly - 1823 Built at Blackwall. Engines by Boulton and Watt
• PS Dotterel - 1826 Built at Harwich. Engines by Boulton and Watt
• PS Zephyr - 1827 Built at Harwich. Engines by Boulton and Watt
• PS Otter - 1831 Built at Harwich. Engines by Boulton and Watt

These four steam packets were kept on the station until July, 1848, when they were replaced by four larger boats.

The four new boats commenced working the service on 1st August, 1848. They were the BANSHEE and CARADOC stationed at Holyhead, and the LLEWELLYN and ST. COLUMBA at Kingstown. All had a gross tonnage of about 700 and their principal details are given on page 233.

These boats were all fine specimens of the shipbuilder’s art and very fast for those days. The BANSHEE had a speed of 16.3 knots, the CARADOC 14 knots, the LLEWELLYN 15.2 knots and the ST. COLUMBA 14.2 knots. The ST. COLUMBA was 190 feet long, with 27 feet beam, and the other three vessels were similar.

The LLEWELLYN was re-boilered in 1864 and carried a pressure of 20 lb., while the others worked at 14 lb.

After working the service for nearly thirty years, the Government came to the conclusion that it would be more economical to sell their boats and to have the mails carried by contract.

The contract was placed with the City of Dublin Steam Packet Company, a company that was operating a service between Liverpool and Dublin. They commenced to work the Holyhead-Dublin Mail Service on May 1st, 1850, and for this purpose purchased from the Government the LLEWELLYN, the ST. COLUMBA and also another paddle boat named EBLANA, of 612 tons register and 350 h.p. Subsequently, a fourth boat, the PRINCE ARTHUR, built in London in 1851, was added. She was a two-funnelled boat, 198.8 feet long, 26.5 feet beam, and II feet 8 inches deep, 396 tons register and engines of 200 h.p. by John Penn.

These four steamers continued to run until i860, when the mail contract was renewed and four new vessels built.

The LLEWELLYN was sold and re-named ST. PATRICK. According to the Mercantile Navy List of 1885, it was then owned by W. Watson of Dublin. It was 239.6 ft. long, 27.2 ft. beam and 15.7 ft. deep from main deck, and of 826 tons gross register. The author has been unable to trace what became of the other three vessels.

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‘Cross-Channel and Coastal Paddle Steamers’ by George Frank Burtt

The City of Dublin Steam Packet Company was formed in 1823 and incorporated by Act of Parliament ten years later. It was the earliest company to maintain a regular service between England and Ireland and carried the mails from 1850 until 1922. In later years its famous black and white steamers, named after the four Irish provinces, were familiar to all travellers to the Emerald Isle. The Company was proud of the fact that from 1853 until the foundering of the twin-screw LEINSTER they had never lost a passenger. The LEINSTER, it will be remembered, was a war casualty, being sunk by an enemy submarine off Kingstown on October loth, 1918, with a loss of 500 lives.

At first, regular sailings were maintained between Liverpool and Dublin by four small steamers named CITY OF DUBLIN, TOWN OF LIVERPOOL, MERSEY and LIFFEY, all vessels of little more than 200 tons burthen. There soon followed the HIBERNIA and BRITANNIA, two boats of 135 feet length, 24 feet beam and 10 feet 6 inches depth. A seventh boat, the COMMERCE, was added in 1825, and another, the ATHLONE, a year later.

The fleet was soon after augmented by the QUEEN VICTORIA, ROYAL WILLIAM, DUCHESS OF KENT and DUKE OF CAMBRIDGE, each successive ship being larger than its predecessors.

Laird’s of Birkenhead built two boats of 90 n.h.p. as under: —

LADY LANSDOWNE (1833) Length 133 feet, beam 17 feet, depth 934 feet.

GARRYOWEN (1834) Length 130 feet, beam 21^ feet, depth 9^ feet.

THE ROYAL WILLIAM. This famous little vessel was built by Wilson’s of Liverpool in 1837. The engines, of 270 n.h.p., were made by the firm of Fawcett, Preston & Co. of the same town, and were of the side-lever type, having two cylinders 48.5 inches diameter by 66 inches stroke. Her length was 175.8 ft., beam 26.5 ft., depth 15.8 ft. She had clipper bows, two masts and one funnel aft of the engines.

The paddle wheels were 24 feet in diameter and the speed about eight knots. She was the first steamer to be divided into watertight compartments by iron bulkheads, of which she had four.

In June, 1838, she was chartered by the Transatlantic Steamship Company to run from Liverpool to New York, and sailing from Liverpool on July 5th, 1838, was the first real passenger steamer to cross the Atlantic. On her arrival in New York, she was advertised for the return trip as follows: —

"BRITISH STEAMSHIP 'ROYAL WILLIAM,' 617 Tons. Captain Swainson, R.N.R., Commander. This fine steamer, having lately arrived, will be despatched again to Liverpool on Saturday, August 4th, at 4 p.m. She is only sixteen months old, and from her peculiar construction (being divided into five sections, each watertight) she is considered one of the safest boats to England. Her accommodations are capacious, and well arranged for comfort. The price of passage is fixed at 140 dols., for which wine and stores of all kinds will be furnished. Letters will be taken at the rate of 25 cents for the single sheet, and in proportion for larger ones, or one dollar per ounce weight. For further particulars apply to Abraham Bell and Co., or Jacob Harvey, 28, Pine Street.”

After making a few passages across the Atlantic, she was returned to her owners and took up the less exacting duties of a cross channel steamer.

In 1885, the ROYAL WILLIAM was still on Lloyds’ Register, but later became a coal hulk, and in 1888 was sold for £11.

THE WILLIAM HUSKISSON.

This was one of the Company’s early steamers. She was wrecked on January 12th, 1840, whilst on a trip from Dublin to Liverpool. During dredging operations early in 1919 at Burbo Bank in the Mersey, remnants of this old wooden paddle steamer were found. The machinery, after being submerged seventy-nine years, was found to be practicallv perished, but the engine bed-plate and the funnel remained. Relics of pottery and other articles were also found.

THE MONA.

In 1841, the Isle of Man Steam Packet Company disposed of their paddle boat MONA* to a Liverpool firm, who in turn sold her to the City of Dublin Company. After running for a time on the Dublin service, she was withdrawn and used as a tug.

THE QUEEN VICTORIA.

On February 15th, 1853, the QUEEN VICTORIA, sailing from Liverpool to Dublin, encountered a heavy snowstorm that completely obscured all the lights of the Irish Coast and the ship ran on the Bailey Light Rock off Howth Head. The engines were reversed and the QUEEN VICTORIA backed into deep water but, although only about twenty yards off the shore, she rapidly sank. There were some 120 persons aboard and of these no less than eighty lost their lives.

THE ULSTER, MUNSTER, LEINSTER AND CONNAUGHT.

It has already been stated that this Company took over from the Government the Holyhead-Kingstown service in 1850. They continued to work it with the same boats for some years. On October ist, i860, however, the service was entirely remodelled. Two regular services daily were inaugurated and special trains were run from London to connect with new fast paddle steamers at Holyhead. The time taken for tlie whole journey from London to Kingstown was reduced to eleven hours.

These new steamers were amongst the largest and fastest of their day and it would be no exaggeration to say that they were the most famous of all cross-channel boats.

Named after the four provinces of Ireland - ULSTER, MUNSTER, CONNAUGHT and LEINSTER - the first three were built by Laird’s of Birkenhead and the last by Samuda of London.

The CONNAUGHT and LEINSTER presented a unique appearance in that they had four funnels all in line, two in front of the paddles and two aft, whilst the other two boats had only one funnel fore and aft. The four- funnelled boats had engines by Ravenhill, Salkeld & Co. whilst the others were engined by James Watt & Co. of Birmingham.

All four were provided with nine watertight bulkheads dividing the vessel into ten compartments, and in many respects they were greatly in advance of anything else afloat at that time. They all had oscillating engines of 750 n.h.p.

Superheaters were at first fitted to the boilers of the ULSTER and MUNSTER but their use did not show any advantage either in a reduction of fuel consumption or in superior performance. On the trial trips, there was no great difference in the relative speeds of the four boats, the shortest passage being that of the CONNAUGHT in 3 hours 14 minutes with a mean speed of 20.75 statute miles per hour, whilst the times of the other three boats were only a few minutes more. The CONNAUGHT was the first vessel that ever recorded a speed of 18 knots on a measured mile trial, this speed being attained by her in Stokes Bay as the mean of four runs on September 27th, i860. The ULSTER was the first to take the water, but the LEINSTER was the first to be ready for trials, preliminary runs being made with her on July 21st, i860, when she attained a mean of 16.975 knots, a speed that would cover the distance between Holyhead and Kingstown in 3 hours 5 minutes, with a mean of 26.75 revolutions of engines per minute. On 26th July, however, her official trial took place in Stokes Bay, when she ran the measured mile four times and attained the average speed of 17.97 knots, the greatest ever reached at that time on the measured mile or within of a knot of that attained by the sister ship CONNAUGHT two months later, the steam pressure at the time being 25 lb. per sq. inch, the engines making 26 revolutions per minute.

From the foregoing, it will be seen that the contract with the Government, which was to run the distance across the Irish Sea—63 miles—in every kind of weather in 3 hours 45 minutes was well within the limits of the ships.

Nothing could be more satisfactory than their performances as sea boats, a statement which is proved by the great regularity of their passages. During fourteen years the mean time of the passage between Holyhead and Kingstown was 3 hours 56 minutes, and there was, on the average, only five minutes difference between the winter and summer half-years. As originally built, these vessels had clipper bows and were fitted with hurricane decks forward, and with upper decks about fifty feet long above the engine rooms. In 1885, they were sent to Laird’s, for alteration and improvement, and the accommodation was greatly extended by the addition of hurricane decks aft; at the same time, forced draught appliances were fitted to the boilers, with the result that the average length of the voyage was reduced, and at the end of twenty-eight years’ incessant employment, these vessels were better and faster than when first built. Their principal dimensions are given on page 233.

The feathering float paddle wheels were 34 feet diameter, having floats 12 feet long and 4 feet wide.

It is of passing interest to record that in January, 1862, the ULSTER carried the despatches from the U.S.A. Government re the Slidell-Mason incident. These despatches were in the nature of a reply to the British ultimatum, when a question of peace or war was involved.

Considerable diplomatic friction was caused at the time by the action of the American authorities in i86i, when the British mail steamer TRENT was stopped on the high seas by a U.S.A, ship of war, and Messrs. Slidell and Mason, two commissioners of the Confederate States proceeding to Europe, were taken out of her and afterwards imprisoned in the United States.

The CONNAUGHT on 28th March, 1885, whilst on the trip from Dublin to Holyhead broke her starboard crank in mid-channel. By skilful seamanship she got into Holyhead all safe under sail and with her port paddle wheel working.

In 1896, the MUNSTER and LEINSTER were purchased by a syndicate headed by a Mr. Higginbottom to run a service between Douglas and Liverpool, but the scheme failed and the boats were taken over by the Isle of Man Steam Packet Company and disposed of. The Manx Company also bought the ULSTER in 1897, presumably to prevent its being run in competition with their own boats.

In 1897, the CONNAUGHT was sold to H. E. Moss & Co., who sold her to a French firm in 1898 to be broken up.

THE IRELAND.

In the year 1885, the fleet was supplemented by the famous paddle steamer IRELAND, built by Messrs. Laird. This vessel of 2,400 tons displacement was, in respect of size, accommodation and speed, a marked improvement on her predecessors, being the longest and largest boat on any cross-channel service, and at that time regarded as the acme of perfection, both as regards design and construction. She was, however, the last paddle boat built for the Kingstown - Holyhead mail service, and the last example of a clipper bow paddle steamer. The paddle steamer on this route continued until the year 1897, when the Company, having secured the mail contract for a further ten years, put on this service four very fast screw boats, built to suit the requirements of the Government.

The principal dimensions of the IRELAND were length over all 380 feet, length between perpendiculars 360 feet, breadth 38 feet and depth of hold 19 feet 3 inches.

The engines were of the non-compound oscillating type and had cylinders 102 in. diameter with 102 in. stroke, each cylinder having two piston rods. The boiler pressure was 30 lb. per square inch. The indicated horse power under natural draught amounted to 5,000 and under forced draught to 6,000. The speed on trial was 20.25 knots, equal to 23.28 statute miles. The paddle wheels were 33 feet 4 inches diameter over the floats, which were 13 feet long by 5 feet 9 inches wide. She was, in the writer’s opinion, the fastest and most beautiful cross-channel steamer afloat and easily made the passage from Holyhead to Kingstown in three hours.

The distinguishing feature of all these vessels from the ULSTER onwards was their fine shape and narrow beam. The IRELAND, however, was not so successful in service as the four older boats. The immense cylinders caused a good deal of trunnion trouble and, after several mishaps, she was sold in 1899 to Mr. Higginbottom, who had formed a company styled The Liverpool & Douglas Steamers, Limited, to which reference is made in the chapter on the Isle of Man Steam Packet Company’s boats.

The design of the IRELAND’S engines was the subject of criticism at the time and the following letter that appeared in “Engineering” of September 18th, 1885, summarises the points at issue: — (See Engineering 1885/09/18)

When the City of Dublin Company started to work the Holyhead service in 1850, they ceased running a passenger service between Liverpool and Dublin, but they continued to run the cargo service between those ports, which was a very important one although involving a sea journey of about 120 miles. The remaining service of the company was a coastal one between Dublin and Belfast and was principally used for cargo. The company ceased to exist after it lost the mail contract in 1922.

Apart from those used on the mail service, the company owned the following paddle boats (See tables for details): —

Cargo Vessels

• PS Albert
• PS Kildare
• PS Mullingar
• PS Longford
• PS Leitrim
• PS Cavan
• PS Mayo
• PS Meath
• PS Galway

Admiralty Packets. Holyhead-Howth Service

• PS Banshire
• PS Caradoc
• PS Llewellyn
• PS St. Columbus

City of Dublin Steam Packet Co Packets

• PS Ulster
• PS Leinster
• PS Connaught
• PS Munster

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See Also

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