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Side-Wheeled Paddle Steamers
Isle of Man, Liverpool & Manchester Steamship Co (1887)
The company was set up in competition to the incumbent Isle of Man Steam Packet Company
in an apparent manoevre by the Govan-based Fairfield Shipbuilding &
Engineering Co to pressurise it to purchase vessels from the company.
Two
large paddle steamers were put in service in 1887 and led to such
ruinous competition that the Steam Packet Company bought them, not
being willing to endure more than one season of such disruption. They
had not bought from Fairfield before but their next purchase, their
last new paddle steamer, and the largest ever on the Isle of Man run,
Empress Queen of 1897 came from the same yard. The
Fairfield-owned company had served its purpose
Queen Victoria and Prince of Wales
Built in 1887 by Fairfield Shipbuilding & Engineering Co at Govan
330.5 ft : 1567 GRT
Engine : 2 x Compound 61 and 112 in x 78 in : HP cylinder horizontal, LP cylinder diagonal
Both
requisitioned by the Admiralty as a netlayer in 1915 and subsequently
purchased. Prince of Wales became HMS Prince Edward. Scrapped in 1920
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