SS Mersey

History
United Kingdom
Name	1906–1940: SS Mersey
Operator	1906–1922: Lancashire and Yorkshire Railway 1922–1923: London and North Western Railway 1923–1935: London, Midland and Scottish Railway 1935–1940: Associated Humber Lines, Goole
Port of registry
Builder	Swan Hunter and Wigham Richardson[1]
Yard number	752
Launched	23 February 1906
Completed	April 1906
Fate	Sunk by a mine 20 April 1940 near Midrake Buoy. 51°17′N 01°28′E
General characteristics
Tonnage	1,087 gross register tons (GRT)
Length	255 feet (78 m)
Beam	36 feet (11 m)
Draught	16.3 feet (5.0 m)

SS Mersey was a freight vessel built for the Lancashire and Yorkshire Railway in 1906.^[2]

History

She was built in 1906 by Swan Hunter and Wigham Richardson as a sister ship to SS Irwell, and launched on 23 February 1906 for the Lancashire and Yorkshire Railway to provide freight services from Goole to Rotterdam.

In 1915 she was switched to the Great Western Railway's Weymouth to the Channel Isles service. In 1917 she was converted with to a cable layer in 1917. In 1920 she was released back to her owners.

She transferred to the London and North Western Railway in 1922, the London, Midland and Scottish Railway in 1923 and Associated Humber Lines in 1935.

She was sunk after being mined on 20 April 1940. Nine men were rescued, two of whom since died. Eleven men were reported missing^[3] People from the shore saw a great column of water thrown into the air, and the vessel sank in three minutes.

References

1. "SS Mersey (1906)". www.tynebuiltships.co.uk. Retrieved 30 June 2017.
2. Duckworth, Christian Leslie Dyce; Langmuir, Graham Easton (1968). Railway and other Steamers. Prescot, Lancashire: T. Stephenson and Sons.
3. "British Steamers Sunk". Western Daily Press. England. 22 April 1940. Retrieved 22 October 2015 – via British Newspaper Archive.