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Ownership
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1910 Great Central Railway Company
1923 LNER
1948 British
Transport Commission
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Capacity
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100 1st class, 10 2nd class and 300 emigrant class.
Post-1945, 12 passengers only.
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Routes
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Grimsby
to Rotterdam,
later Hamburg.
1951-59: Harwich-Antwerp
|
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Shipbuilder
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Earle's Ship Building & Engineering Co. Ltd., Hull (yard no. 564)
Launched
14/04/1910
Completed 06/1910
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Dimensions
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GRT: 1631grt
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Length: 265ft.
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Beam: 36ft.
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Engine builder
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Earle's Ship Building & Engineering Co. Ltd., Hull
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|
Propulsion
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Steam triple expansion, 22", 35", 60" x 42", 309NHP.
Single screw, 13 knots.
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Notes
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The first of five sisters one of which,
BLACKBURN, was lost on her maiden voyage. DEWSBURY was
delivered in time to join the celebrations at the opening of her owner's
new dock at Immingham in June 1910. Wartime service saw her on irregular
services to the Netherlands, and later on the
Fishguard - Rosslare service of the GWR, and post-war chartered to
the GER for repatriation voyages from
Rotterdam
to Harwich. Reverted to Rotterdam
then Hamburg
services before being upgraded in 1936 and moving to the Hull-Rotterdam
route under AHL management opposite the MELROSE ABBEY.
From September 1939 she was on the Heysham -
Belfast
run, then in 1940 on English Channel
services. Between July and September 1941 she was fitted out as a Convoy
Rescue Ship, making her first sailing in the December. This role
continued until June 1945 and she gained a reputation as a 'lucky ship'
due to the few casualties incurred in the convoys she accompanied.
Post-war saw her refitted for the Rotterdam service
but soon moved to the former GER Harwich - Antwerp run which she
served with limited passenger accommodation (12) until withdrawn in
January 1959 and being broken up at Antwerp, arriving there on 10 March
1959.
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