TSS Atalanta was a passenger vessel built for the London and South Western Railway in 1907.[2]

History
Name
  • 1907–1915: TSS Atalanta
  • 1915–1919: TSS Atalanta III
  • 1919–: TSS Atalanta
Operator
Port of registryUnited Kingdom
OrderedJanuary 1907
BuilderGourlay Brothers, Dundee
Laid down29 January 1907
Launched26 April 1907[1]
FateScuttled 11 June 1940
General characteristics
Tonnage550 gross register tons (GRT)
Length170 feet (52 m)
Beam32 feet (9.8 m)
Draught16.5 feet (5.0 m)

History

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She was built by Gourlay Brothers in Dundee for the London and South Western Railway. She was launched on 26 April 1907[3] by Miss Drummond, daughter of Mr Drummond, chief engineer of the Highland Railway Company, in the presence of her father and Mr. Douglas Drummond, chief engineer of the London and South Western Railway Company; Mr Drummond, jun. She was employed as a tender until 1910 when she was sold to the Great Western Railway. In 1913 she was in collision with a submerged rock near Bolt Head in Devon, when she was on an excursion trip from Plymouth to Torquay.[4]

During the First World War she was hired by the Admiralty and used as a rescue tug around the Isles of Scilly. She was renamed Atalanta III.

She returned to Plymouth after the war but was laid up out of use until sold to the Royal Mail Steam Packet Company in 1923[5] who purchased her as a tender for Bermuda.[6]

The ship was scuttled on 11 June 1940 at Le Havre under the name La Brettoniere.[7]

References

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  1. ^ "Important Dundee Launch". Dundee Courier. Dundee. 27 April 1907. Retrieved 13 October 2015 – via British Newspaper Archive.
  2. ^ Duckworth, Christian Leslie Dyce; Langmuir, Graham Easton (1968). Railway and other Steamers. Prescot, Lancashire: T. Stephenson and Sons.
  3. ^ "Important Dundee Launch". Dundee Courier. Dundee. 27 April 1907. Retrieved 13 October 2015 – via British Newspaper Archive.
  4. ^ "Excursion Mishap". Cheltenham Chronicle. Cheltenham. 12 July 1913. Retrieved 13 October 2015 – via British Newspaper Archive.
  5. ^ Kittridge, Alan (1993). Plymouth – Ocean Liner Port of Call. Truro: Twelveheads Press. ISBN 0-906294-30-4.
  6. ^ "The Atalanta". Western Morning News. England. 18 May 1923. Retrieved 13 October 2015 – via British Newspaper Archive.
  7. ^ "Atalanta (1124469)". Miramar Ship Index. Retrieved 2 June 2022.