SS Gallic (1894)
SS Gallic was a paddle wheel steamship, built in 1894 as SS Birkenhead by John Scott & Co., Kinghorn, Fife. She was owned and operated by Birkenhead Corporation as a ferry on the River Mersey until being sold to the White Star Line in 1907 for use as a passenger tender to the company's various ocean liners.
| History | |
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| Operator: | Owner operated |
| Port of registry: | Liverpool |
| Builder: | John Scott & Co., Kinghorn, Fife |
| Launched: | 1894 |
| Fate: | Scrapped in 1913 |
| General characteristics | |
| Tonnage: | 461 tons |
| Length: | 150 ft (45.7 m) |
| Beam: | 28 ft 3 in (8.6 m) |
| Decks: | 1 |
| Propulsion: | 2 double compound cylinder engines powering 2 paddle wheels |
| Speed: | 12 knots (22 km/h; 14 mph) |
| Capacity: | 1,200 passengers and mail |
She was based at Cherbourg, but was soon considered too small for tending the increasingly large ships of the White Star Line's fleet. When Joseph Bruce Ismay proposed building the Olympic-class liners, the company decided to build two new tenders, the SS Nomadic (for first- and second-class passengers) and the SS Traffic (for third-class passengers and mail). Nomadic also tended to Traffic's overspill of third-class passengers.
Gallic was retained for a short time at Cherbourg, where she was occasionally used as a baggage vessel. The success of Nomadic and Traffic obviated the need for Gallic and she was scrapped in 1913 after a short period of being laid up.