General History
The vessel was ordered by the Crown Agents in Trinidad which operated the Trinidad Government Railway. She was designed in 1904 and built by J I Thornycroft and Co. Ltd. of Chiswick. The construction was under the inspection of Sir Edward Reed. She was launched on the 7th March 1905. She was purchased to run from end of the railroad at San Fernando down to Cedros, a journey of some 40 miles. Further details can be read in Glen Beadons notes included in the appendix on page 23 of this report.
She left London on the 19th May 1905 arriving in Barbados on the 16th June and motored on to Port of Spain Trinidad the following day arriving at 2.00pm, some 28 days after leaving England.
There are a number of advertisements placed in the newspaper over her life showing that she traveled to Tobago on occasion particularly during holiday periods such as Easter and Christmas. This means that over time she took on an expanded role by becoming a true coastal steamer for both islands instead of simply an extension to the railroad service from San Fernando to Cedros. The photograph above no.7 shows the remanence of the jetty at Cedros the most southerly point of her route.
The ship was designed to accommodate 40 first class passengers on a promenade deck which also offered a refreshment department and dining room. The kitchen was on the main deck connecting to the promenade deck by a lift. The main deck catered to 100 second class passengers.
Details of the ship.
Length 140 '
Width 21'
Depth 6'
Freight 42 tons.
We were able to find a reference at the National Maritime Museum in Greenwich in box No. THY B0137 No. 367 which contains the original plans for the coastal steamer. They have been very helpful in the past in providing copies of a number of the ships that are part of the history of Trinidad and Tobago. There are 7 plans which are available for purchase. The cost of the plans is £370 as such we will only purchase these just before starting the build project.
"We do charge for the digitization of our ship plans which for private use is £70 for the first plan and then £50 per subsequent plan placed in the same order. This process takes 2-3 weeks to complete and we supply exact scale 300 dpi jpegs via ftp link via email. The total cost therefore with all the ship plans below would come to £370 +VAT (if applicable)."
In the past I have purchased plans from various sources only to find that they provided me with no additional information. I decided to take the plunge and order all the plans
I am actually going to build two models. The first is a solid hull while the second is a plank on frame.
