TSS Sir Francis Drake (1908)

TSS Sir Francis Drake was a passenger tender vessel built for the Great Western Railway in 1908.[1]

Men unloading mail from the Sir Francis Drake at Millbay Docks, Plymouth in 1926
History
Name1908–1954: TSS Sir Francis Drake
Operator
Port of registryUnited Kingdom
BuilderCammell Laird, Birkenhead
Yard number682
Launched18 February 1908
FateScrapped in Sutton Harbour, Plymouth 1954
General characteristics
Tonnage478 gross register tons (GRT)
Length151.5 feet (46.2 m)
Beam38.5 feet (11.7 m)
Draught9 feet (2.7 m)
Depth14.6 feet (4.5 m)

History

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TSS Sir Francis Drake was built by Cammell Laird as one of a pair of vessels, with TSS Sir Walter Raleigh. She operated as a tender in Plymouth for 46 years and also sometimes at Fishguard.

She was hired to the Admiralty as a tug from 1914 to 1919. In August 1939 she was again hired to the Admiralty for use at Plymouth and later at Scapa Flow, returning to the GWR at Plymouth in 1946. She was broken up in Sutton Harbour, Plymouth, in 1954.[2]

References

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  1. ^ Duckworth, Christian Leslie Dyce; Langmuir, Graham Easton (1968). Railway and other Steamers. Prescot, Lancashire: T. Stephenson and Sons.
  2. ^ Kittridge, Alan (1993). Plymouth – Ocean Liner Port of Call. Truro: Twelveheads Press. ISBN 0-906294-30-4.