Paddle Steamer Picture Gallery

TS Rushen Castle (ex Duke of Cornwall)

Builders: Vickers Sons & Maxim Ltd 1898

Propulsion type: 8 cylinder steam turbines

Owners: London & North Western Railway Co, London, Midland & Scottish Railway Ltd, Isle of Man Steam Packet Co Ltd

Service dates: 1898 - 1946

Tonnage: Net 699 Gross 1724

Comments:

Built for the Fleetwood to Belfast run, Duke of Cornwall was employed sailing to Douglas at weekends. She was first chartered to then purchased by the Isle of Man Steam Packet Co Ltd in 1928, when she was renamed Rushen Castle. It is in this guise that she is shown here. After acquisition by the IOMSP Co, she was given an extensive overhaul, with her shade deck extended to her fore mast and her passenger accommodation largly renewed. She continued in service from Liverpool and then Fleetwood throughout the Second World War until 1947 when she went to the breakers yard in Belgium. At one time she was the oldest Isle of Man steamer in operation.

Visitor Ken Callow remembers being on board her in the Mersey in 1946 when she was stranded on a sandbank. Ken distinctly remembers the steep angle of the deck throughout the night as he was wedged on some rope coils in between a holidaymaker and a music teacher, surrounded by suitcases and a violin case. Rushen Castle was safely refloated on the morning tide and Ken remembers that she appeared very old and near the end of her useful life. She was scrapped the following season.

Dittmar & Colledge's British Warships 1914-1919 gives the following information regarding her service in the Great War:

Built 1898, 1,528 tons gross, hired from commercial owner 31 Nov 1914 to 14 Nov 1919 (served right through), armed with 1-4 inch and 1-12 pounder gun, Admiralty Pendant Number M.10, changed to MI.05 January 1918 ARMED BOARDING STEAMERS - These vessels were employed on examination duties at sea for the purpose of enforcing the naval blockade. The great volume of traffic carried on by neutral ships made it necessary that constant checks be made to ensure that materials of benefit to the enemy were not allowed to slip through. The boarding vessels worked with cruiser squadrons and since they were much smaller and less valuable than the cruisers, they were exposed in the risky work of stopping at sea to perform the checks on merchant ships.

I am grateful to Robert Monk for the above detail regarding her WW1 requisitioning. Robert's great uncle, Laurence Stanley Church, served onboard HMS Duke of Cornwall between January 1917 and March 1919 as a sub Lieutenant in the Royal Naval Reserve. A picture of Lt. Church and the rest of the wartime Officers has survived and is shown below. This comes from a Christmas card posted whilst in service and is reproduced here by courtesy of David Church. Lt. Church is in the front row, second from the left.

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