Southsea

SOUTHSEA - IMO : 5335838

Built 1948, by William Denny and Bros, Dumbarton (Yard # 1411) as SOUTHSEA

GRT : 837 / DWT : 179

Overall Length : 61.1 metres x Beam 14.5 metres.

Machinery : 2 shafts each driven by a SULZER - ? stroke single acting 8 cylinder oil engine manufactured by Sulzer Brothers Ltd., Winterthur

Speed : 12.0 knots

 

History POR = Port of Registry

1948: SOUTHSEA : British Transport Commission : POR Portsmouth

1963: SOUTHSEA : British Railways Board : POR Portsmouth

1979: SOUTHSEA : Sealink (U.K.) Ltd : POR Portsmouth

1990: SOUTHSEA : Wightlink Ltd : POR Portsmouth

1998: SOUTHSEA : Brasspatch Ltd : POR Portsmouth

2005: Broken up at Esbjerg. After a long lay up, possible preservation was looking likely and renaming to SOUTHSEA SAGA but she was sold to Indian breakers and eventually broken up by Danish Shipbreakers Smedegaard at Esbjerg.

 

1st September 1948

Nationalisation. The big four railway companies and their shipping divisions are amalgamated to form British Railways. Their first ships are two motor vessels ordered by the Southern Railway in 1946 for the Ryde Pier service. Brading and Southsea are built by the famous William Denny Bros. of Dumbarton, and are 60 metres long and very broad at 13 metres wide. They are 837 gross tonnes and carry over 1,000 passengers in two classes. Their crossing speed is 14½ knots and they are the first Isle of Wight ships to carry RADAR.

29th March 1986

Modernisation at Ryde. Replacements for Brading and Southsea had been sought for some time, but the government decides that Sealink’s new owners should decide if conventional or high-speed vessels are needed. The answer comes from Tasmania in the shape of the 470 passenger Our Lady Patricia. Named after one of Lord Louis Mountbatten’s daughter’s, she crosses the Solent at 29½ knots, making Ryde in 15 minutes. She is joined by a sister, Our Lady Pamela in July, replacing the 38-year-old Southsea

 

SOUTHSEA photographed on 15 May 1986 arriving at Portsmouth

Ship Details : Miramar / www.clydeships.co.uk/

 

3,371 views
5 faves
2 comments
Uploaded on April 2, 2018
Taken on May 15, 1986