DEE 1841 paddlesteamer

[aukepalmhof]

Built as a wooden paddle ship by John Scott & Sons, Greenock, Scotland for account of the Royal Mail Line.
10 July 1841 launched under the name DEE, named after the river Dee in England.
Tonnage 1.849 gross, 1.285 net, dim. 83.8 x 18.3m. over paddle boxes.
Side-liver steam engine of 2-cyl. 400 nhp, manufactured by Scott, Sinclair & Co. The paddle wheels did have a diameter of 28.6ft., speed around 7 knots
She was built of British and African oak, copper sheated.
Rigged as three-mast barquentine, square rigged on the foremast, after about ten years brig rigged.
Passenger accommodation for 100 passengers.
Building cost around £60.000.

14 January 1842 sailed on her maiden voyage from Southampton to the West Indies under command of Captain C. Oman.
01 February 1849 when she was at Mobile, they got reports that a British steamer was well aground on the Nigrellos Rocks, one of the Alacranes Reefs, that had already taken one of her sisters the TWEED in 1847.
She left Mobile at once and on arrival off the Nigrellos Rocks she found that her sistership the FORTH had run aground. The FORTH was underway from Havana to Vera Cruz under command of Captain Sturdee, all were saved but the FORTH was lost.

October 1860 after the Civil War in Italy the Kingdom of Italy was founded. DEE repatriated the Irish Brigade back to home to Queenstown (Cobh), Ireland.

1862 Dry rot was found and repair to costly, she was sold for demolition.

Montserrat 1980 $2 sg485, scott?. St Vincent 1981 $2 sg659, scott?.

Source: Log Book. Royal Mail Line & Nelson, Merchant Fleets by Duncan Haws.

[AndyS]

Note that "Scott's Greenock" is, of course, in Scotland - not England.

Andy