TSS City of Belfast (1893)
The TSS City of Belfast was a passenger vessel built for the Barrow Steam Navigation Company in 1893.[1]
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Builder: | Laird Brothers, Birkenhead |
Yard number: | 593 |
Launched: | 1893 |
Fate: | Sank 13 August 1941 |
General characteristics | |
Tonnage: | 1,055 gross register tons (GRT) |
Length: | 280.5 feet (85.5 m) |
Beam: | 32.05 feet (9.77 m) |
Draught: | 13.33 feet (4.06 m) |
History
The TSS City of Belfast was built by Laird Brothers of Birkenhead for the Barrow Steam Navigation Company. She was launched in January 1893 by Mrs Little, Mayoress of Barrow-in-Furness.[2] She was used on the Barrow-in-Furness-to-Belfast route, although she occasionally made trips to Douglas on the Isle of Man.
She was sold to the Midland Railway in 1907[3]
In 1914 she was commissioned into the Royal Navy as HMS City of Belfast for service during World War I; she reverted to her original name after the war. In 1923 she was acquired by the London Midland and Scottish Railway, but in 1925 they sold her to Constantine Togias and she was renamed Nicolaos Togias. In 1933 she was renamed Kephallina. She foundered and sank on 13 August 1941 in the Mediterranean Sea off Alexandria, Egypt, during a voyage carrying supplies to Allied forces Tobruk, Libya, during World War II. The Royal Navy destroyer HMS Hero stood by her and rescued her survivors.[4]
References
- Duckworth, Christian Leslie Dyce; Langmuir, Graham Easton (1968). Railway and other Steamers. Prescot, Lancashire: T. Stephenson and Sons.
- "Birkenhead". Cheshire Observer. Cheshire. 14 January 1893. Retrieved 17 October 2015 – via British Newspaper Archive.
- Haws, Duncan (1993). Merchant Fleets-Britain's Railway Steamers – Eastern & North Western Companies + Zeeland and Stena. Hereford: TCL Publications. p. 118. ISBN 0-946378-22-3.CS1 maint: ref=harv (link)
- "Naval Events, August 1941, Part 1 of 2, Friday 1st - Thursday 14th". Naval History. Retrieved 15 December 2011.