History | |
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Name | 1925–1960: TSS St Julien |
Operator |
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Port of registry |
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Route |
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Builder | John Brown and Company, Clydebank |
Yard number | 509 |
Launched | 23 February 1925 |
Out of service | 12 April 1961 |
Fate | Scrapped 1961 |
General characteristics | |
Tonnage | 1,885 gross register tons (GRT) |
Length | 282.2 feet (86.0 m) |
Beam | 40 feet (12 m) |
Draught | 13 feet (4.0 m) |
Propulsion | 4 parsons steam turbines |
Speed | 18 kts |
TSS St Julien was a passenger vessel built for the Great Western Railway in 1925. [1]
TSS St Julien was built by John Brown and Company as one of a pair of vessels, with TSS St Helier for the Weymouth to the Channel Islands service. She arrived in Weymouth from the Clyde on 4 May 1925. [2]
The captain, Charles Hamon Langdon, was found dead in his cabin during a voyage from the Channel Islands to Weymouth in September 1927. [3]
She had two funnels but one was a dummy and this was removed in 1928.
On 1 October 1937 she went to the assistance of the French steamer Briseis which had struck the rocks near Grand Roccque, Guernsey. [4]
When war broke out in 1939 she was put to use ferrying troops but very quickly converted into a hospital ship. She took part in the evacuation of British troops from Dunkirk and Cherbourg in 1940. She spent the remainder of the war as a hospital ship, including a period operating in the Mediterranean and supporting the D Day landings. She was damaged by a mine on 7 June 1944 but repaired and resumed service on 24 June 1944.
Afterwards she returned to Weymouth for further railway service which lasted until 27 September 1960. [5] She was sent to Van Heyghen Freres, Ghent in March 1961 for scrapping.