SS Gallic was a paddle steamer that built in Scotland 1894 as Birkenhead, renamed Gallic in 1907 and scrapped in Liverpool in 1914. She was designed and built as a Mersey Ferry for Birkenhead Corporation. White Star Line bought her in 1907 to use as a passenger tender, and renamed her Gallic.[1]
John Scott & Co built Birkenhead at its Abden shipyard in Kinghorn in Fife as yard number 87. She was launched on 7 June 1894 and completed that same month.[1] Her registered length was 150.0 ft, her beam was 28.2 ft and her depth was 10.2 ft. Her tonnages were and .[2]
Birkenhead was a side-wheel paddle steamer. Each wheel was driven by a four-cylinder diagonal compound steam engine. Between them her two engines were rated at a total of 177 NHP[2] and gave her a speed of 13 kn.[3]
Birkenhead Council registered Birkenhead at Liverpool. Her United Kingdom official number was 102164.[4]
White Star Line based Gallic at Cherbourg. She was soon considered too small for tending the company's increasingly large ocean liners. When J. Bruce Ismay proposed the Olympic-class ocean liners, the company ordered two new tenders: SS Nomadic (1911) (for first- and second-class passengers) and the SS Traffic (1911) (for third-class passengers and mail). Gallic was retained for a short time at Cherbourg, where she was occasionally used as a baggage vessel. The success of Nomadic and Traffic obviated the need for Gallic and she was scrapped at Garston, Liverpool in the summer of 1914 after a short period of being laid up.[1][5]
External links
References
- Birkenhead Scottish Built Ships, Caledonian Maritime Research Trust, retrieved 5 July 2022^
- Lloyd's Register of Shipping Lloyd's Register of Shipping, 1914^
- Marine Engineer and Motorship Builder 1895^
- Mercantile Navy List 1895, retrieved 5 July 2022^
- Google^