The vessel initially had a tonnage of 1,520 grt and 467 nrt; length 310 ft 2 in, 94.54 m; beam 37 ft 1 in, 11.30 m; depth 16 ft 4 in, 4.98 m.[4]Duke of Lancaster had an operating speed of 19 knots (35 km/h; 22 mph).
In March 1911, Duke of Lancaster was sold to an organisation named the Turkish Patriotic Committee, who had the engines and boilers renovated at Cammell Laird.[3][nb 1] However, the outbreak of the Italo-Turkish War in September 1911, prevented the purchasers from taking delivery, and the vessel was sold in 1912 to the Isle of Man Steam Packet Company.[3][6]
The Isle of Man Steam Packet Company took delivery of the vessel in July 1912, and immediately changed the vessel's name to The Ramsey.[nb 2]
She had an uneventful career with the company as she established herself within the Steam Packet fleet.
The Ramsey
The Ramsey's service with the company was one of the shortest of any ship in its history, and concluded at the end of the 1914 season.
War service and loss
The Ramsey was the third of the Isle of Man Steam Packet Company's ships to be called up for service in the Great War.
On 28 October 1914 she was requisitioned and fitted out as an Armed Boarding Vessel by Cammell Laird with two 12-pounder guns and a ship's company of 98, and renamed simply HMS Ramsey.[7]
Ramsey was based at Scapa Flow under the command of Lieutenant Harry Raby.[8] Her work consisted of night patrols during the course of which she was usually accompanying two destroyers. It was dangerous work, directed by radio from headquarters, carried out without navigation lights, and with manned guns throughout. In the course of a few months Ramsey intercepted and challenged many ships, sometimes putting a prize crew aboard and taking the suspect into port.
On her last patrol she had steamed for 12 hours when, after dawn on 8 August 1915, smoke was seen from over the horizon. Ramsey gave chase and came upon a steamer flying the Russian flag. Ramsey proceeded alongside the vessel, which had duly stopped. The suspect, which was the German auxiliary minelayer SMS Meteor, then hoisted the German flag and fired at what amounted to point-blank range, killing the commander and crew members on the bridge of Ramsey.[9][10]
The next day British forces overwhelmed Meteor, whose prisoners were transferred to neutral ships before she was scuttled.[10]
Notes
^Also reported that Duke of Lancaster, along with near-sisters Duke of York and Duke of Cornwall, was sent by the Lancashire & Yorkshire Railway Company to H & G Grayson Ltd, Liverpool "for reboilering and extensive alterations" in Spring 1911.[5]
^The inclusion of "The" was reported to be a clerical error; just Ramsey had been intended.[3]
References
^Railway and other Steamers. C.L.D. Duckwork and G.E. Langmuir. Prescot, Lancashire. 1968.
^"Duke of Lancaster". Miramar Ship Index. R B Haworth, Wellington NZ. Retrieved 1 April 2015.
^ abcdeHaws, Duncan (1993). Britain's Railway Steamers: Eastern & North Western Companies. Hereford: TCL Publications. p. 88. ISBN0-946378-22-3.
^Mercantile Navy List. London: Spottiswoode, Ballantyne & Co. 1896. p. 95.
^"Ship Repairing Contracts". The Times. No. 39575. London. 3 May 1911. p. 27.
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