Design and Construction
SS Ben-my-Chree was ordered in 1907 by the Isle of Man Steam Packet Company. She was built at the Vickers shipyard in Barrow-in-Furness at a cost of GB£112,000. She was powered by Vickers direct-drive steam turbines coupled to triple screws which moved her over the water at 24.2 knots (44.8 km/h), although in one sea trial she reached a speed of 24.6 knots (45.6 km/h). The ship had a certificate for 2,549 passengers, and she had a crew of 119. Her engines burnt up to 95 tons of coal a day, which made her an expensive ship to run unless she had a full complement of passengers. This proved difficult to achieve by the Steam Packet Company, and so for nine months of the year Ben-my-Chree found herself laid up.
Read more about this topic: HMS Ben-my-Chree
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