Builders: Fairfield Ship Building & Engineering Co Ltd 1891
Propulsion type: Paddle compound diagonal
Owners: Liverpool & North Wales Steamship Co Ltd, Hamburg-Amerika Line (MacIver Steamship Company)
Service dates: 1891 - 1922
Tonnage: Gross 794
Comments:
This picture is from the W E Groom collection and has been kindly supplied by his grand daughter Victoria.
Launched in April 1891 St Tudno (II) was built for service to the Welsh Coast from Liverpool and also sailed from Llandudno to the Isle of Man. With an operational speed of 19 knots and a passenger capacity of 1061 she was described at the time as "a magnificent vessel" and provided good service. However, she was a heavy coal burner and even after reboilering in 1911, she was using as much as 7 tons per hour in service. Due to rising coal prices, she was sold in 1912 to the Hamburg-Amerika line for tender duties in Southampton water to that company's liners, sometimes tendering up to 32 ships per month. As it was deemed peferable that she remained under British ownership, at least nominally, she was registered under the name of the MacIver Steamship Co, who were the Hamburg Co's agents in Liverpool at the time. In October 1912, she sailed for use from Southampton and was later altered at Hamburg, where she was given a flying bridge between the funnels which assisted in the speedy movement of passengers. In the Great War she was requistioned at Southampton for use as a troop ship, to Spithead and the Solent. She had been seized as a prize, due to her German interests. In 1916 she was used as a cross Channel troop transport and was later used between Havre and Rouen. After a spell at Tilbury, St Tudno (II) was then handed to the US Government for trooping duties under the name of USS Tudno, and was utilised for taking American soldiers across the English Channel. Three pictures of her in this role can be seen if you click here. She did not return to service as a tender after the Great War but was laid up and then broken up in Holland shortly afterwards, in 1922.