Tod & Macgregor Shiplist

 

Yard No.:

 24 (estimated)

Name:

 PRINCE OF WALES

Year:

 1842

Description:

 Paddle Steamer

Webpage:

 

Picture:

 

Tonnage:

 500

Length:

 166.6

Width:

 30.8

H.P.:

 250

Type:

 Iron

Customer:

 North Lancashire SN Co.

Fate:

 1870

Points of Note:

 Built for Ardrossan & Belfast route

Date of Launch:

 

Notes:

            The first steamship owned by the North Lancashire SN Co was the iron-hulled Prince of Wales. She was built in 1842 for the company's Fleetwood-Ardrossan service. In March 1843 she opened the Belfast-Fleetwood-Ardrossan service. In March 1843 she opened the Belfast-Fleetwood route and for the next seventeen years was regularly employed on it.

 

            In the early 1860s she was chartered for a few weeks on both the Belfast-Liverpool and Belfast-Ardrossan routes and in 1863 was chartered by the Great Eastern Railway for the opening of the Harwich-Rotterdam service, fore-runner of today's Harwich-Hook route. After this she returned to Belfast and worked to Silloth until 1865. In her early days she was a popular excursion steamer.

 

            In June 1849 she and the Adrossan steamer Fire Fly went on what must have been, with two steamers, a monster excursion to Rathlin. In July of the same year she acted as flag-ship for the Belfast Harbour Commissioners at the opening of the Victoria Channel.

[Irish Passenger Steamship Services, D.B. McNeill]