| History | |
|---|---|
| Name | SS Chester |
| Operator |
|
| Port of registry |  |
| Builder | Edward Withy and Company, Hartlepool |
| Launched | 29 April 1884 |
| Fate | Sunk in collision 28 September 1910 |
| General characteristics | |
| Tonnage | 1,010 gross register tons (GRT) |
| Length | 238.6 feet (72.7 m) |
| Beam | 32.2 feet (9.8 m) |
| Depth | 14.1 feet (4.3 m) |
SS Chester was a passenger and cargo vessel built for the Manchester, Sheffield and Lincolnshire Railway in 1884.[1]
Chester was built by Edward Withy and Company in their Middleton Yard at Hartlepool and launched on 29 April 1884, sponsored by Miss Florence Withy.[2] She was designed for the passenger and cargo service between Grimsby, England, and Hamburg, Germany. She had a long poop deck, a long bridge house, and a long topgallant forecastle. The bridge house was fitted up for the accommodation of thirty first-class passengers (including ladies’ cabin), the captain, and so on. There was accommodation in the forecastle for second-class passengers, and in the poop aft for officers and crew. In the ‘tween decks were fittings for 100 emigrants.
On 4 December 1885, Chester was involved in a collision with her sister ship Wakefield, which resulted in the sinking of Wakefield and the drowning of her stewardess.[3]
In 1897, Chester passed to the Great Central Railway. On 28 September 1910 she was in a collision in the River Elbe with a Swedish steamer which resulted in her being badly damaged. She was beached to prevent sinking.[4] However, she sank quickly into the soft moving sand and became a total wreck, the water having flooded her holds.[5]
