Rock Ferry - Ferry Service and Shipping

Ferry Service and Shipping

There are records of a ferry service from Rock Ferry pier to Liverpool from 1709 onwards, until being discontinued on 30 June 1939. Although the ferry landing stage was removed in 1957 and the terminal building demolished, the pier now forms part of Tranmere Oil Terminal, although much modified. A stone slipway originally used by the ferry service also remains.

The Royal Mersey Yacht Club was founded at Rock Ferry in 1844. Rock Ferry was home to the Enterprise Small Craft Company, which built a number of notable boats in the 1920s and 1930s. Among these were 11 Seabird Half Rater one design sailing yachts in 1924 and Robinetta in 1937.

The Naval training school vessels HMS Conway and HMS Indefatigable were moored at the Sloyne, in the River Mersey near the pier. These were ships converted for the purpose of training boys for a life at sea. During the nineteenth century, the reformatory ships HMS Akbar and HMS Clarence were also moored there. In the early years of the Second World War, both the Conway and Indefatigable were moved from the Mersey to avoid damage.

Isambard Kingdom Brunel's SS Great Eastern was beached at Rock Ferry for breaking up in 1889, which took eighteen months to complete.