Builders: John Elder & Co Glasgow 1878
Propulsion type: Paddle two cylinder compound diagonal
Owners: London Brighton and South Coast Railway, Pockett's Bristol Channel Steam Packet Co Ltd
Service dates: 1878 - 1927
Tonnage: Gross 531
Comments:
This picture is displayed by courtesy of Bristol Museum who own the copyright of this picture. My thanks go to Andy King, Curator of Industrial & Maritime History, Bristol Industrial Museum, for permission to display it here.
As the name would suggest, PS Brighton was built originally for use on the South Coast. She and her sister ship, Victoria, were built by the same builder in 1878 to cope with the anticipated increase in passengers intending to visit the great Paris Exhibition. They were the first steel hulled ships to be built for the company and had a top speed of 16 knots. Brighton could cross the channel in in under four hours from Newhaven. Victoria was lost in an accident near Dieppe in 1887, when some 19 people were drowned. In 1893, Brighton suffered a similar accident at Dieppe, when she struck a pier and sank. Fortunately it was only in shallow water and she was refloated and sold shortly after. She was purchased by Pockett's, who were operating in opposition to the ever expanding P&A Campbell empire and she was employed by Pockett's on the Swansea to Ilfracombe service, with occasional visits to Lundy, Clovelly and Lynmouth. Here the passengers were transferred by local boat owners to and from the land. For a picture of some of her passengers aboard an autumn trip from Ilfracombe please click here, note the wonderful hats! After requisitioning in 1915 for naval service in the Eastern Mediterranean in the First World War she was sold to Turkish owners. They operated her in the Aegean until 1927, when she was broken up.