MV ''Leinster'' was a passenger ferry operated across the Irish Sea between 1937 and 1966. She was renamed ''Ulster Prince'' to replace the 1929 motorship of that name, lost during WWII.

History

MV ''Leinster'' was a passenger ship built by

Harland and Wolff Harland & Wolff is a British shipbuilding company based in Belfast, Northern Ireland. It specialises in ship repair, shipbuilding and offshore construction. Harland & Wolff is famous for having built the majority of the ocean liners for the W ...

for the

British and Irish Steam Packet Company The British and Irish Steam Packet Company Limited was a steam packet and passenger ferry company operating between ports in Ireland and in Great Britain between 1836 and 1992. It was latterly popularly called the B&I, and branded as B&I Line ...

in 1937. She was initially chartered to

Belfast Steamship Company The Belfast Steamship Company provided shipping services between Belfast in Ireland (later Northern Ireland) and Liverpool in England from 1852 to 1975.''Sea breezes: the ship lovers' digest'', Volume 42. Pacific Steam Navigation Company. 1968. ...

for the

Belfast Belfast ( , ; from ga, Béal Feirste , meaning 'mouth of the sand-bank ford') is the capital and largest city of Northern Ireland, standing on the banks of the River Lagan on the east coast. It is the 12th-largest city in the United Kingdo ...

Liverpool Liverpool is a city and metropolitan borough in Merseyside, England. With a population of in 2019, it is the 10th largest English district by population and its metropolitan area is the fifth largest in the United Kingdom, with a popul ...

service, until a new terminal was completed at Dublin. ''Leinster'' and her sister took up their intended service between

and

Dublin Dublin (; , or ) is the capital and largest city of Republic of Ireland, Ireland. On a bay at the mouth of the River Liffey, it is in the Provinces of Ireland, province of Leinster, bordered on the south by the Dublin Mountains, a part of th ...

in 1938. They were the largest vessels in the

Coast Lines Coast Lines Limited provided shipping services in the United Kingdom, Ireland and the Channel Islands from 1917 to 1971. History Powell, Bacon and Hough Lines Ltd was formed in 1913 in Liverpool. The name of Coast Lines Limited was adopted in 1 ...

fleet and were to prove too large for that route. Their original buff hulls were later changed to dark green. The new ferries did not have capacity for cattle, an important cargo on the Dublin route. Two cattle carriers were built in 1937: ''Kilkenny'' (1,320 tons from the Liffey Dockyard), and ''Dundalk'' (630 tons from Ardrossan, Scotland). Shortly after the outbreak of World War II, the B&I ships were removed from their normal routes. ''Leinster'' was converted into a hospital ship and then a troop carrier. After the war, she was refitted and renamed ''Ulster Prince'' (2) for the Liverpool - Belfast service, along with , the only one of the 1929/30 trio to return from war service. In 1966, she was renamed ''Ulster Prince I'' to make way for her replacement . Withdrawn in October 1966, the service was provided by and until the new car ferries arrived. In 1967, she was sold to Epirotiki Line, renamed ''Odysseus''. By 1976, she was used as accommodation at

Kyle of Lochalsh Kyle of Lochalsh (from the Scottish Gaelic, Gaelic ''Caol Loch Aillse'', "strait of the foaming loch") is a village in the historic county of Ross-shire on the northwest coast of Scotland, located around west-southwest of Inverness. It is loca ...

, and later at Glasgow. She was scrapped at Faslane in 1980.

Service

(1937) *

(1937–46) *

(1946–66)

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Leinster 1937 Ferries of the United Kingdom 1937 ships Ships built by Harland and Wolff