PS ''Lily'' was a

passenger A passenger (also abbreviated as pax) is a person who travels in a vehicle, but does not bear any responsibility for the tasks required for that vehicle to arrive at its destination or otherwise operate the vehicle, and is not a steward. The ...

paddle steamer A paddle steamer is a steamship or steamboat powered by a steam engine that drives paddle wheels to propel the craft through the water. In antiquity, paddle wheelers followed the development of poles, oars and sails, where the first uses wer ...

operated by the

London and North Western Railway The London and North Western Railway (LNWR, L&NWR) was a British railway company between 1846 and 1922. In the late 19th century, the L&NWR was the largest joint stock company in the United Kingdom. In 1923, it became a constituent of the Lo ...

from 1880 to 1900.

History

She was built by

Laird Brothers Cammell Laird is a British shipbuilding company. It was formed from the merger of Laird Brothers of Birkenhead and Johnson Cammell & Co of Sheffield at the turn of the twentieth century. The company also built railway rolling stock until 1929, ...

Birkenhead Birkenhead (; cy, Penbedw) is a town in the Metropolitan Borough of Wirral, Merseyside, England; historically, it was part of Cheshire until 1974. The town is on the Wirral Peninsula, along the south bank of the River Mersey, opposite Liver ...

for the

in 1880. She was a

sister ship A sister ship is a ship of the same class or of virtually identical design to another ship. Such vessels share a nearly identical hull and superstructure layout, similar size, and roughly comparable features and equipment. They often share a ...

to , and built to the same specification. They were intended to operate a new overnight service between

Holyhead Holyhead (,; cy, Caergybi , "Cybi's fort") is the largest town and a community in the county of Isle of Anglesey, Wales, with a population of 13,659 at the 2011 census. Holyhead is on Holy Island, bounded by the Irish Sea to the north, and is ...

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 ...

. The service previously had only been during the day time. The ship had new boilers and engines fitted in 1890–91 to increase the speed from to . In 1892 she suffered a failure in a piston rod when between Dublin and Holyhead. She was towed for a time by the ''Irene'' but after three hours the hawser parted. ''Cambrian'' was sent out to rescue her, but when she was found, ''Lily'' was making slow progress under her own steam. She took 10 hours to reach Holyhead. She was sold in April 1900 to Liverpool and Douglas Steamers Ltd, and scrapped at Preston in September, 1905.https://shippingandshipbuilding.uk/view.php?year_built=&builder=&ref=200829&vessel=LILY

Specification

In 1883 '' The Engineer'' published specifications for ''Violet'' and sister ship ''Lily'' as follows: Dimensions : 310 feet long overall, 300 feet 6 inches between perpendiculars, 33 feet beam, drawing 14ft 4inches. Passengers : Certified by Board of Trade to carry 475 deck passengers and 415 saloon passengers. Engines : Twin cylinder oscillating engines with jet condensers. Cylinder bore 78 inches, stroke 7 feet with double piston rods and crossheads. Crankshaft 18inch diameter. Each cylinder had two slide-valves operated by link motion. Mean indicated horsepower over 3 hours is 3220 and propeller speed is 30 revolutions per minute. Boilers : Eight rectangular boilers supplying steam at 30 psi. The boilers contained a total of 2152 tubes, total heating surface of 12215 square feet, and total grate area of 470 square feet. Paddle Wheels : 27 feet 8 inches diameter, with floats 11 feet wide, and 4 feet 6 inches deep. It was stated in the article in The Engineer regarding the sister ships that "the Violet is a little the faster of the two", but it did not elaborate on how this conclusion was reached.

References

1880 ships Passenger ships of the United Kingdom Steamships Ships built on the River Mersey Ships of the London and North Western Railway Paddle steamers of the United Kingdom Steamships of the United Kingdom {{DEFAULTSORT:Lily