Drogheda Steam Packet Company
Encyclopedia
The Drogheda Steam Packet Company was founded in 1826 as the Drogheda Paddle Steamship Co. It provided shipping services between Drogheda
Drogheda
Drogheda is an industrial and port town in County Louth on the east coast of Ireland, 56 km north of Dublin. It is the last bridging point on the River Boyne before it enters the Irish Sea....

 and Liverpool
Liverpool
Liverpool is a city and metropolitan borough of Merseyside, England, along the eastern side of the Mersey Estuary. It was founded as a borough in 1207 and was granted city status in 1880...

 from 1825 to 1902, in which year it was taken over by the Lancashire and Yorkshire Railway
Lancashire and Yorkshire Railway
The Lancashire and Yorkshire Railway was a major British railway company before the 1923 Grouping. It was incorporated in 1847 from an amalgamation of several existing railways...

.

History

The company was founded in July 1825 with the issue of 300 shares at £50 each. It was founded as the Drogheda Paddle Steamship Co.

The board of directors included Robert Pentland, mayor of Drogheda, John Leslie Foster
John Leslie Foster
John Leslie Foster, FRS was an Irish Tory Member of Parliament in the United Kingdom Parliament.The son of Lord Bishop Foster , he was educated at Trinity College, Cambridge and St John's College, Cambridge. He represented Dublin University from 1807 to 1812, having first contested the seat in 1806...

, the MP for County Louth
County Louth (UK Parliament constituency)
County Louth, otherwise known as Louth County or Louth, is a former parliamentary constituency in Ireland, which was represented in the House of Commons of the Parliament of the United Kingdom...

, Blayacy T. Balfour, St. George Smith, James McCann, Patrick Ternan, Nathaniel Hill, Patrick Boylan, John Woolsey and William Rodger.

On 13 November 1826, PS Town of Drogheda arrived from Scotland. She made her maiden voyage to Liverpool on the 26 November in 14 hours. Until 1829 a weekly service was operated sailing from Drogheda on Fridays and returning on Tuesdays under its master, Captain M. Ownes. She was employed until 1846, when she was sold.

In 1829, the company temporarily chartered the PS Liffey and PS Mersey from the City of Dublin Steam Packet Company
City of Dublin Steam Packet Company
The City of Dubin Steam Packet Company was a shipping line established in 1823. It served cross-channel routes between Britain and Ireland for over a century. For 70 of those years it transported the mail...

 to increase the sailings to three per week. These were sent back when the new ship, PS Fair Trader was delivered at the end of the year.

Further expansion in the 1830s saw the arrival of PS Green Isle the PS Irishman and PS Grainne Ueile.

PS Faugh-a-Ballagh was acquired in 1844, the first iron hulled vessel. This was followed by PS Brian Boroimhe and PS St. Patrick in 1846.

Closure

In 1902 the assets of the company were taken over by the Lancashire and Yorkshire Railway
Lancashire and Yorkshire Railway
The Lancashire and Yorkshire Railway was a major British railway company before the 1923 Grouping. It was incorporated in 1847 from an amalgamation of several existing railways...

 for the sum of £80,000 (£ as of ),

Vessels

The company steamers had black funnels, the flag was green with a white five-pointed star between the horns.
Ship Launched Tonnage
(GRT
Gross Register Tonnage
Gross register tonnage a ship's total internal volume expressed in "register tons", one of which equals to a volume of . It is calculated from the total permanently enclosed capacity of the vessel. The ship's net register tonnage is obtained by reducing the volume of non-revenue-earning spaces i.e...

)
Notes
1851 Built in South Shields. Acquired in 1858. Disposed of in 1896.
1846. 649 Built by Robert Napier, Port Glasgow
Port Glasgow
Port Glasgow is the second largest town in the Inverclyde council area of Scotland. The population according to the 1991 census for Port Glasgow was 19426 persons and in the 2001 census was 16617 persons...

. Scrapped in 1880.
1862 609 or 679 Built by Randolph, Elder & Co Ltd, Govan
Govan
Govan is a district and former burgh now part of southwest City of Glasgow, Scotland. It is situated west of Glasgow city centre, on the south bank of the River Clyde, opposite the mouth of the River Kelvin and the district of Partick....

 in 1862. Scrapped at Preston, Lancashire in 1901.
1829 200 Built by John Scott & Sons Ltd, Greenock. Bought new in 1829.
1844. Sold in 1879.
1835 245 Built by John Scott & Sons, Greenock
Greenock
Greenock is a town and administrative centre in the Inverclyde council area in United Kingdom, and a former burgh within the historic county of Renfrewshire, located in the west central Lowlands of Scotland...

. Caught fire on 14 April 1847 north of Lambay Island
Lambay Island
Lambay lies off the coast of Fingal / north County Dublin, Ireland in the Irish Sea. It is located north of Ireland's Eye at and is the easternmost point of the Republic of Ireland...

. A total of 22 people killed, 68 rescued by fishing smack Bessy of Ringsend
Ringsend
Ringsend is a southside inner suburb of Dublin, the capital of Ireland. It is located on the south bank of the River Liffey, about two kilometres east of the city centre, and is the southern terminus of the East Link Toll Bridge....

.
1833 213 Built by John Scott & Sons, Greenock. Sold in 1845, scrapped in 1853.
1834 Built by John Scott & Sons, Greenock.
1895 995 Taken over by the Lancashire and Yorkshire Railway
Lancashire and Yorkshire Railway
The Lancashire and Yorkshire Railway was a major British railway company before the 1923 Grouping. It was incorporated in 1847 from an amalgamation of several existing railways...

 in 1902. Scrapped in 1912 by Messrs T.W. Ward.
1885 988 Taken over by the Lancashire and Yorkshire Railway
Lancashire and Yorkshire Railway
The Lancashire and Yorkshire Railway was a major British railway company before the 1923 Grouping. It was incorporated in 1847 from an amalgamation of several existing railways...

 in 1902. Scrapped in 1903 in Holland.
1849 Built by Robert Napier, Port Glasgow.
Chartered from City of Dublin Steam Packet Company
City of Dublin Steam Packet Company
The City of Dubin Steam Packet Company was a shipping line established in 1823. It served cross-channel routes between Britain and Ireland for over a century. For 70 of those years it transported the mail...

 during 1829.
1871 803 Built by A. & J. Inglis, Port Glasgow. Wrecked in 1888.
Chartered from City of Dublin Steam Packet Company
City of Dublin Steam Packet Company
The City of Dubin Steam Packet Company was a shipping line established in 1823. It served cross-channel routes between Britain and Ireland for over a century. For 70 of those years it transported the mail...

 during 1829.
1878 894 Taken over by the Lancashire and Yorkshire Railway
Lancashire and Yorkshire Railway
The Lancashire and Yorkshire Railway was a major British railway company before the 1923 Grouping. It was incorporated in 1847 from an amalgamation of several existing railways...

 in 1902. Scrapped in April 1912 in France.
1846 Used as a French
France
The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...

 troopship
Troopship
A troopship is a ship used to carry soldiers, either in peacetime or wartime...

 during the Crimean War
Crimean War
The Crimean War was a conflict fought between the Russian Empire and an alliance of the French Empire, the British Empire, the Ottoman Empire, and the Kingdom of Sardinia. The war was part of a long-running contest between the major European powers for influence over territories of the declining...

.
1826 185 (as built) Built by William Simons & Co Ltd, Greenock. Rebuilt in 1835. Lengthened and increased in tonnage to 234 GRT. Sold in 1848, converted to sail. Foundered some 100 nautical miles (185.2 km) east of Gibraltar
Gibraltar
Gibraltar is a British overseas territory located on the southern end of the Iberian Peninsula at the entrance of the Mediterranean. A peninsula with an area of , it has a northern border with Andalusia, Spain. The Rock of Gibraltar is the major landmark of the region...

 in 1849.
1876 901 Entered service June 1876. Taken over by the Lancashire and Yorkshire Railway
Lancashire and Yorkshire Railway
The Lancashire and Yorkshire Railway was a major British railway company before the 1923 Grouping. It was incorporated in 1847 from an amalgamation of several existing railways...

in 1902. Scrapped in 1904.
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