Builders: John Elder & Co, Govan Glasgow 1875
Propulsion type: Paddle, two cylinder oscillating
Owners: Great Eastern Railway Co, Corporation of the City of London
Service dates: 1875 - 1897 (1914)
Tonnage: Gross 962
Comments:
This prestige iron hulled paddler was named after the Chairman of the GER and was a favourite of the Company and passengers alike. She lasted longer than later steamers of the fleet and served on the GER Continental route from Harwich. She is credited with enhancing the popularity of this service as she was large, comfortable and well appointed. Her well balanced lines graced the East Coast and English Channel for 22 years, when she was the Company's last steamer on the route. She was sold to the Corporation of the City of London for the somewhat humbler purpose of transporting cattle to the Deptford Foreign Cattle Market from Gravesend as the large foreign cattle boats could not travel as far as the market in Deptford, because the waters were too shallow for them to navigate the River Thames at that point. She lasted until 1914 when she was sold to Dutch shipbreakers for breaking up.