I was on board on its trip from Liverpool to Preston Dock. It lightly grounded a couple of times (the river hadn`t been dredged for years) and apart from a gentle jerk, the passenger hardly noticed. Coming into the dock from the small basin, to the main dock, there was very little clearance and everybody went to the port side of the vessel to wave to the spectators on the quayside. This gave the Manxman a pronounced list to port. With the clearance being so tight, an announcement came over the Tannoy asking people to move away from that side of the boat, but very few did. The Captain got us through anyway and without any help in the form of tugs. He must have been one Hell of a mariner !
@ 5.26 that was the Manx clover owned by ex dock policeman Bill Danby, and at 9.57 the boat in the centre of the picture was a 32' ex royal navy pinnace, purchased by myself and brother in law from Canvey island Essex, brought upto Preston and refurbed, it was later sold to Chris Miller who ran the Marina and was converted and had a name change to the Preston Puffin, it was used to take boat trips around the dock.
Should never ever have gone there! Even cammel lairds where she was built in 1955 said they would happily have taken her back and restored her to steam packet standards! An absolute disgrace allowing the last of a line to end up this way.
The Manxman was not the last "intact" Irish Sea steamer, the TSS Duke of Lancaster was built a year after the Manxman but still exists having been purposely run aground near Mostyn in N.Wales It survives but is derelict 40 years after being bought as a floating shop, but floating businesses always sink financially.
@@paulmason4616 You're right. and I should've known better as two of the Dukes were built in Hartland & Wolff where my father worked on their construction. Yip I visited the Lancaster two years ago at Mostyn. Sad. I have a special affection for it as my best friend in 1968 and I ran away to England on her. We'd just turned 16 and wanted to work in London.
The Manx Maid of 63 and Ben-My-Chree of 68 both sideloaders , but built in the conventional form, were oil fired steamers and outlived the Manxman in service with the Iomspco till the 85/86 season 👍🇮🇲
One thing has always puzzled me about things maritime and that is, why, in broad daylight and with clear visibility, the Radar scanner has to be turning ? Surely the need is at night and in foor visibility ? I would be grateful for an answer to this question.
Plenty of Money about, but greedy investors are more interested in higher profits and quick gains. Pity some billionaire did not save it for his own private use like shiek Abul amhed Abdulleh shamalub. The lad with the 20 747s.
You are partly correct Eric, but the life of a ship is not measured by the state of the fittings, fixtures and memories, but by its hull life. A time arrives, when the hull plates need to be replaced for the vessel to be safe in heavy seas etc. and the Manxman had had a long life and the machinery was old and expensive to maintain and operate.
