Builders: William Denny & Bros Dumbarton 1930
Propulsion type: Single reduction geared turbine
Owner: Southern Railway
Service dates: 1930-1963
Tonnage: Gross 2143
Comments:
This picture comes from the Cyril Perrier collection and is previously unpublished. It was taken by Cyril's father in August 1939 between Jersey & Guernsey. I am grateful to Cyril for allowing me to share it with you here.
The picture was taken on 23 August 1939, from 'TS Brittany' while the family was having a day trip from Jersey to Sark. The Isle of Jersey was on the overnight sailing from Southampton and this picture shows her at about 9 am. Cyril's family should have remained on Jersey until 2 September, but his father had a telegram from work at Woolwich summoning him back, and they left on Thursday 31 August. They travelled on Isle of Jersey, which, exceptionally appeared at St. Helier in the morning from St. Malo, instead of having remained at St. Helier overnight as was usual. She had already many passengers clearing out of France, and Cyril's family joined them, nevertheless getting an excellent breakfast! The war began a couple of days later, on Sunday 3 September 1939.
TS Isle of Jersey and her sister Isle of Guernsey were amongst the last twin funnelled steamers to be built for the cross channel service. Launched by Denny's in late 1929 she was flat bottomed, allowing her to rest on the seabed at low tide, thus allowing access where otherwise there would be none for a ship of this size. She was a two class ship, capable of carrying up to 1400 passengers from Southampton to the Channel Isles and St Malo. Isle of Jersey also carried out cross channel services from Folkestone. During the Second World War she served as a hospital ship, making eleven trips to the Normandy beaches and bringing back over 2000 casualties. After the war, Isle of Jersey continued the Channel Isles service from Southampton until it was withdrawn in 1961. She was then sold for use as a pilgrim ship in Libya until she was broken up in 1963.