Builders: T Wingate & Co Glasgow 1864
Propulsion type: Paddle, simple 2 cylinder diagonal
Owner: Bangor & Larne Steamboat Co, Belfast & County Down Railway, Red Funnel (on charter), Plymouth Excursion Steamboat Co Ltd
Service dates: 1864 - 1899
Tonnage: Gross 246
Comments:
Built in Glasgow as Palmerston, there is some disagreement about her early career. Once source has her built as a blockade runner for the Confederate states of America in the Civil War, but I cannot find this substantiated elsewhere. Other sources have her as serving on the River Thames until 1873 and there was certainly a vessel of that name running on 23 August 1872 on a "Special Trip to see the American Fleet", sailing from Old Swan Pier to Gravesend. Another source has her as being acquired as PS Bangor Castle by the Bangor & Larne Steamboat Co in 1866, passing to the Belfast & County Down Railway in 1893. What is certain is that the vessel shown here in a rare private photo was on the South Coast for three months in 1888, when chartered by the Southampton, Isle of Wight and South of England Royal Mail Steam Packet Co Ltd, otherwise known as the Red Funnel Co. This photo was taken in August 1888 off Cowes. She was chartered by Red Funnel to take the place of the ill fated PS Princess of Wales, which sunk on trials when she was run down and cut in two by the steamer Balmoral Castle, with the loss of three painters who were working below. After her initial sailing for Red Funnel on 26 June 1888, she broke down on 19 September whilst on a "Round the Island" cruise and had to be towed back to Cowes by PS Princess Beatrice who transferred her passengers and and finished the cruise for her. In 1894 she went to the West Coast, being purchased by the Plymouth Excursion Steamboat Co, with whom she remained until scrapped in 1899