PS Portsdown (1928)
{{Short description|Southern Railway paddle steamer (1928–1941)}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=February 2018}}
{{Use British English|date=February 2018}}
| {{Infobox ship begin}}
{{Infobox ship image | Ship image = | Ship caption = }} {{Infobox ship career | Hide header = | Ship name = PS Portsdown | Ship operator = Southern Railway | Ship registry = {{flagicon|UK|civil}} | Ship route = | Ship ordered = | Ship builder = Caledon Shipbuilding & Engineering Company, Dundee | Ship original cost = | Ship yard number = 320 | Ship way number = | Ship laid down = | Ship launched = 23 March 1928 | Ship completed = | Ship christened = | Ship acquired = | Ship maiden voyage = | Ship in service = | Ship out of service = | Ship identification = | Ship fate = Mined and sunk 20 September 1941 | Ship notes = }} {{Infobox ship characteristics | Hide header = | Header caption = | Ship type = | Ship tonnage = {{GRT|342|disp=long}} | Ship displacement = | Ship length = {{convert|190|ft|m}} | Ship beam = {{convert|25.1|ft|m}} | Ship draught = {{convert|8.7|ft|m}} | Ship depth = | Ship decks = | Ship deck clearance = | Ship ramps = | Ship ice class = | Ship power = | Ship propulsion = | Ship speed = | Ship capacity = | Ship crew = | Ship notes = }} |
PS Portsdown was a passenger vessel built for the Southern Railway in 1928.{{cite book |last1=Duckworth |first1=Christian Leslie Dyce |last2=Langmuir |first2=Graham Easton |date=1968 |title=Railway and other Steamers |language=English |location=Prescot, Lancashire |publisher= T. Stephenson and Sons }} She was one of the civilian ships that participated in the Dunkirk evacuation in 1940 and was sunk by a naval mine a year later.
History
The ship was built by Caledon Shipbuilding of Dundee and launched on 24 March 1928.{{cite news |author= |title=Launch from Dundee Shipyard |url=http://www.britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk/viewer/bl/0000564/19280324/130/0007 |newspaper=Dundee Courier |location=Scotland |date=24 March 1928 |access-date=14 November 2015|via = British Newspaper Archive |url-access=subscription }}
Portsdown was retained on the Portsmouth to Ryde run during the Second World War along with her sister ship {{PS|Merstone|1928|2}}. However, on 1 June 1940, she was employed as a naval transport ship and went unarmed to Dunkirk, where she used her own boats to load men from the beach, later putting her bow into the shore to rescue others. She returned to Ramsgate with 618 men.{{cite book |last=Plummer |first=Russell |date=1995 |title=Paddle Steamers at War 1939-1945 |location=Peterborough, England |publisher=GMS Enterprises |page=39 |isbn=1-870384-39-3 }} Portsdown hit a mine on 20 September 1941 at Spithead and sank with the loss of 23 lives{{cite web |url=http://www.naval-history.net/xDKWW2-4109-36SEP02.htm |title=Naval Events, September 1941, Part 2 of 2, Monday 15th – Tuesday 30th |publisher=Naval History |accessdate=16 December 2011}}
References
{{reflist}}
{{SR ships}}
{{September 1941 shipwrecks}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Portsdown}}
Category:Steamships of the United Kingdom
Category:Paddle steamers of the United Kingdom
Category:Ships built in Dundee