Builders: John I Thorneycroft Southampton 1924
Propulsion type: Paddle
Owner: Southern Railway, Cosens & Co
Service dates: 1924 - 1960
Tonnage: Net 177 Gross 412
Comments:
Launched as Shanklin, she was constructed for the Portsmouth to Ryde service for the Southern Railway. She was similar in appearance to the Duchess of Norfolk (later Embassy) and initiated the Southern Railway practice of naming their steamers after place names. During the Second World War she remained on the Isle of Wight ferry service and was later laid up in 1949. Two years later she was purchased and reconditioned for excursion work by Cosens and renamed Monarch, after a Cosens ship of the same name was withdrawn from service in 1950. She operated mainly from Bournemouth to Swanage and had a passenger capacity of 746 and a service speed of 13 knots. In her final season she sailed on 18 June 1960 to view the Royal Yacht Britannia, after she had returned from taking HRH Princess Margaret to start her honeymoon. She was broken up at Cork in 1961. The above picture is previously unpublished and comes from a private photograph taken in the Solent.