Builders: John Brown & Co Ltd Clydebank
Propulsion type: Turbine Steamer
Owners: Glasgow & South Western Railway Co, Blackpool Steam Navigation Co
Service dates: 1906 - 1947
Tonnage: Gross 486
Comments:
Built at a tender price of £21000, Atalanta was the only ship of her class to be buit for the G&SWR. Her engines had been built by Denny/Parsons to give their engineers experience of manufacturing turbines prior to constructing the somewhat larger Lusitania. The hull of Atalanta was designed around these engines and her wide beam caused her to roll somewhat in heavy seas. She was used originally on the Princes Pier to Ayr run in the summer and maintainting the mail run to Arran from Ardrossan in the winter. She was reboilered almost immediately as her speed was deemed unsatisfactory. She was further altered in 1908 to try to reduce her rolling tendencies. After war service as a minesweeper, she returned to the Firth of Clyde and continued until withdrawn in 1936 for use from Weymss Bay, being sold a year later for use from Blackpool. Here she was used for local trips and on excursions to Llandudno. In 1937 she sailed between Fleetwood and Barrow in Furness, although this was abandoned after one season as being unprofitable. She saw further war service in 1940-1945 as a net layer but was not deemed worth reconditioning after the war and was sold for scrapping in Ghent in 1947.