TSS ''Duke of Lancaster'' is a former railway steamer

passenger ship A passenger ship is a merchant ship whose primary function is to carry passengers on the sea. The category does not include cargo vessels which have accommodations for limited numbers of passengers, such as the ubiquitous twelve-passenger freig ...

that operated in Europe from 1956 to 1979, and is beached near Mostyn Docks, on the River Dee, north-east Wales. It replaced an earlier 3,600-ton ship of the same name operated by the London Midland and Scottish Railway company between

Heysham Heysham ( ) is a coastal town in Lancashire, England, overlooking Morecambe Bay. It is a Heysham Port, ferry port, with services to the Isle of Man and Ireland, and the site of two Heysham nuclear power station, nuclear power stations. Demogra ...

and Belfast.

In service

Along with her sister ships the TSS ''Duke of Rothesay'' and the TSS ''Duke of Argyll'' she was amongst the last passenger-only steamers built for

British Rail British Railways (BR), which from 1965 traded as British Rail, was a state-owned company that operated most of the overground rail transport in Great Britain from 1948 to 1997. It was formed from the nationalisation of the Big Four British rai ...

ways (at that time, also a ferry operator). She was a replacement for the 1928 steamer built by the London Midland and Scottish Railway, RMS ''Duke of Lancaster''. Built at Harland & Wolff, Belfast, launched on 1 December 1955 and completed in 1956, she was designed to operate as both a passenger ferry (primarily on the

to Belfast route) and as a cruise ship. In this capacity, the ''Duke of Lancaster'' travelled to the

Scottish islands This is a list of islands of Scotland, the mainland of which is part of the island of Great Britain. Also included are various other related tables and lists. The definition of an offshore island used in this list is "land that is surrounded by ...

and further afield to Belgium, Denmark, Netherlands, Norway and Spain. From the mid-1960s, passenger ships such as the ''Duke of Lancaster'' were gradually being superseded by car ferries. Rather than undertake the expensive option of renewing their entire fleet, British Railways instead began a part-programme of conversion. In order to maintain ferry services whilst these modifications took place, the ''Duke of Lancasters duties as a cruise ship ceased. On 25 April 1970 the ship returned to service, having had her main deck rebuilt to accommodate vehicles via a door at her

stern The stern is the back or aft-most part of a ship or boat, technically defined as the area built up over the sternpost, extending upwards from the counter rail to the taffrail. The stern lies opposite the bow, the foremost part of a ship. Ori ...

. The ship now provided space for 1,200 single-class passengers and 105 cars, with a total cabin accommodation for 400 passengers. The three ships continued on the Heysham to Belfast route until the service was withdrawn on 5 April 1975. The ''Duke of Lancaster'' was then briefly employed on the Fishguard to Rosslare crossing, before becoming the regular relief vessel on the

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 ...

to Dún Laoghaire service until November 1978. The ship was then laid up at Barrow-in-Furness.

Fun Ship

The ''Duke of Lancaster'' arrived in Llanerch-y-Mor, North Wales, in August 1979 to start her new life as "the Fun Ship". However, there were frequent legal battles with the local councils and the owners closed the business in 2004. As a result of this the owners "walked away". Subsequent owners have faced similar issues. Despite having large amounts of its exterior paintwork covered in rust, the interior of the ship is in good condition. It was featured in the 2011 series of

BBC Two BBC Two is a British free-to-air public broadcast television network owned and operated by the BBC. It covers a wide range of subject matter, with a remit "to broadcast programmes of depth and substance" in contrast to the more mainstream an ...

's '' Coast''. In early 2012 several local arcade game collectors made a deal with Solitaire Liverpool Ltd and were able to purchase most of the coin-operated machines left behind inside the ship at the time the Fun Ship closed. Removing the games required the use of cranes and other heavy lifting equipment.

Art gallery

The plan was to transform the ship into the largest open air art gallery in the UK. As of August 2012, the Latvian graffiti artist " KIWIE" was commissioned to spraypaint a design on the ship. The ship was covered with graffiti described as "bright and surreal". The first phase of the project saw Kiwie and other European graffiti artists paint murals on the ship between August and November 2012, and the second phase (starting at the end of March 2013) included the work of British-based artists such as Snub23, Spacehop, Dan Kitchener and Dale Grimshaw. One of the artworks is a picture of the ship's first captain, John 'Jack' Irwin. However in 2017 both sides of the ship were painted black. As of 2021 the interior of the ship was undergoing restoration work and deck areas refurbished for use as a dockside attraction.

References

External links

GoogleMap location
{{DEFAULTSORT:Duke of Lancaster (1955) Passenger ships of the United Kingdom Ferries of the United Kingdom 1955 ships Ferries of Wales Ships built in Belfast Ships of British Rail Ships built by Harland and Wolff Ships and vessels on the National Register of Historic Vessels