Liverpool and North Wales Steamship Co
of 40 Chapel Street, Liverpool
1890 Liverpool, Llandudno and Welsh Coast Steamboat Co - 1890 Adverting sea excursions of the PS Bonnie Princess and the PS Prince Arthur.[1]
1890 Advertising Liverpool to Llandudno on the PS Cobra.[2]
1891 The company was registered on 19 January. [3]
1899 Absorbed the Snowdon Passenger Steamship Co
From the foregoing pages it will readily be seen that the Liverpool and North Wales Steamship Co. had an interesting fleet of paddle steamers which earned a reputation of which any company might be proud; they lost a boat except under War conditions when the screw turbine steamer ST. SEIRIOL was lost in 1918. vessel was the company’s first departure from the honoured paddle, having been built in 1914. The funnels of this Company’s steamers are painted cream colour.
The steamer routes of the L. & N.W.S.S. Co. are Liverpool to Llandudno (37 miles), Llandudno to Blackpool (40 miles), Llandudno to Douglas (54 miles), and Llandudno to Anglesey (80 miles).
Ships
- PS Bonnie Princess
- PS St. Tudno
- PS St Tudno (1891)
- PS St. Elvies
- PS Snowdon (1892)
- PS La Marguerite
- PS St. Elian
- PS St. Trillo
‘Cross-Channel and Coastal Paddle Steamers’ by George Frank Burtt
STEAM navigation on the North Wales coast dates from the earliest days of steam packets being built.
On the 15th April, 1843, the City of Dublin Steam Packet Co took over the North Wales passenger and cargo business from the St. George Steam Packet Co and placed their new steamer ERIN-GO-BRAGH on the Menai Bridge service, later on to be followed by the well known paddle steamers BONNIE DOON, FAIRY, PRINCE OF WALES and PRINCE ARTHUR. These latter vessels were transferred to the Liverpool, Llandudno and Welsh Coast Steamship Co on its formation in 1881, and the new company carried on the service.
By 1885, all these original steamers had been disposed of with the exception of the PRINCE ARTHUR; she had been built on the Thames in 1851, and was 198.8 feet in length, 26.5 feet beam and 11.8 feet deep with a gross tonnage of 402 and engines of 220 n.h.p.
In 1890, a Mr. R. Barnwell purchased a paddle steamer named COBRA from the owners of the Burns line of steamships. He re-named her ST. TUDNO and ran her between Liverpool and Llandudno during the summer months. After running for one season, the company entered into negotiations with Mr. Barnwell to avoid cutthroat competition and, as a result, the present Liverpool and North Wales Steamship Company was registered on the 19th May, 1891.
The new company took over the BONNIE PRINCESS and the business of the Liverpool, Llandudno and Welsh Coast Steamship Company and the ST. TUDNO was sold to the Hamburg-America Line, who re-instated her old name of COBRA, and ran her between Hamburg and Heligoland. After the War, she was in the ownership of the French Government who sold her to the German shipbreakers, Mahr and Beymer, of Wismar, who broke her up in April, 1922.
In 1899, the L. & N.W.S.S. Co. amalgamated with the Snowdon Passenger Steamship Co and thus acquired the saloon paddle steamer SNOWDON
Ships
- PS Bonnie Princess
- PS St. Tudno
- PS St Tudno (1891)
- PS St. Elvies
- PS Snowdon (1892)
- PS La Marguerite
- PS St. Elian
- PS St. Trillo