Builders: William Denny & Bros Dumbarton 1933
Propulsion type: Single reduction geared turbine
Owner: Southern Railway, Viking Lines
Service dates: 1933-1972
Tonnage: Gross 1445
Comments:
Built by Denny's for the Southern Railway's excursion and holiday traffic to France, Brittany was not fast compared to other cross channel traffic of the time, having a speed of around 16.5 knots. She was a popular ship and spent much of her time in the summer on excursions from Jersey and during each week during the year she also sailed to to St Malo. Whilst her home port was Southampton she was rarely seen there and following her Channel Islands service she operated out of Folkestone to Calais in early 1940, prior to requisitioning later in the year. She served at Dunkirk during the evacuation and saw later war service as far away as Bombay, Port Said, Freetown and Malta. In 1947 she resumed sailings from the Channels Isles to the French ports. The Brittany was sold to Viking Lines for use in the Baltic from Kapellskär to Mariehamn. She was scrapped in the late seventies, and is commemorated in The Brittany Bar at a hotel in Mariehamn, or at least was in 1981 when Alistair Deayton visited there. Thanks go to Alistair for updating this information.