SS Viking (1905)
{{Short description|British steel ship}}
{{for|the wooden-hulled saling ship|SS Viking}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=January 2018}}
{{Use British English|date=January 2018}}
| {{Infobox ship begin}}
{{Infobox ship image | Ship image =File:SS Viking in Steam Packet service..JPG | Ship caption = Viking }} {{Infobox ship career | Hide header = |Ship flag= {{shipboxflag|Isle of Man|civil}} | Ship name = Viking | Ship owner = 1905 - 1954: Isle of Man Steam Packet Company. | Ship operator = 1905 - 1954: IoMSPCo. | Ship registry = Douglas, Isle of Man | Ship route = 1905 - 1954: Douglas - Fleetwood | Ship ordered = | Ship builder = Armstrong Whitworth, Newcastle on Tyne | Ship original cost =£83,900 | Ship yard number = | Ship way number =118604 | Ship laid down = 1905 | Ship launched =9 March 1905 | Ship completed = | Ship christened = | Ship acquired = | Ship maiden voyage = | Ship in service = 1905 | Ship out of service = 1954 | Ship identification =*Official Number 118604
| Ship fate = Scrapped at Barrow in Furness 1954 | Ship notes = }} {{Infobox ship characteristics | Hide header = | Header caption = | Ship type = Passenger Steamer | Ship tonnage = {{GRT|1957|disp=long}} | Ship length = {{convert|350|ft}} | Ship beam = {{convert|42|ft}} | Ship draught = | Ship depth ={{convert|17|ft|3|in|m|1|abbr=on}} | Ship decks = | Ship deck clearance = | Ship ramps = | Ship power = {{convert|10000|shp|lk=in|abbr=on}} | Ship propulsion = Three sets of direct-acting turbines manufactured by the Parsons Marine Steam Turbine Company, driving three shafts producing {{convert|10000|shp|lk=in|abbr=on}} | Ship speed = {{convert|22|kn|lk=in}} | Ship capacity = 2,000 passengers | Ship crew = 80 | Ship notes = }} |
SS (RMS) Viking was a steel, triple-screw turbine-driven passenger steamer operated by the Isle of Man Steam Packet Company between 1905 and 1954.
Construction & dimensions
Viking was built at Armstrong Whitworth's Walker Shipyard on the River Tyne and was launched by Miss Woodhead on Thursday 9 March 1905. Viking was the first turbine-driven vessel in the company's history.Island Lifeline. Connery Chapell (p37), T. Stephenson & Sons, 1980
A contemporary report at the time described her as: "The finest steamer that has ever bourne the shield of the company".Mona's Herald. Wednesday 8 March 1905.
Length 350 feet; beam 42 feet'; depth 17 feet 3 inches. Viking had accommodation for a crew of 80, and was certificated to carry 2,000 passengers;Mona's Herald. Wednesday 8 March 1905 saloon accommodation was aft and steerage passengers were carried forward.
Her engines developed 10,000 i.h.p., which gave her a service speed of 22 knots. Viking underwent her sea trials in late May 1905.
Viking's three propellers were driven by three sets of Parsons direct-acting turbines, the higher pressure in the centre and the lower pressure in each wing. She had a boiler steam pressure of 160 pounds p.s.i.
The astern turbines, which operated on the wing propellers, were incorporated in the low-pressure casings. She was in service until 1954, and became the last coal-burning passenger ship in Steam Packet service. Her furnaces would consume 60 tons of coal on a round trip between Douglas and Fleetwood.Ships of the Isle of Man Steam Packet Company (Fred Henry) Revised Edition (1977) p21
Service life
=1905–1915=
Although Viking's registered speed was {{convert|22|kn|km/h}} and the company's own records claim 22.5 knots, she was known to have made {{convert|24|kn|lk=in}} on occasions. It was said that only the senior Cunard liners were faster, and she was certainly the fastest in the Manx trade.
On 25 May 1907 Viking recorded the fastest time for passage between Fleetwood and Douglas, completing the journey 2 hours 22 minutes at an average speed of {{convert|23.2|kn|lk=in}}. On 22 July, operating in the return direction, she made passage in a time of 2 hours 24 minutes, averaging {{convert|22.6|kn|lk=in}}.
Viking was ordered and intended for the Fleetwood–Douglas service to oppose the Midland Railway Company's Manxman, which was also a turbine steamer and which ran from Heysham to the Isle of Man.
=[[World War I|First World War Service]]=
{{Main|HMS Vindex (1915)}}
The Viking was requisitioned by the Admiralty on 23 March 1915 and was purchased outright later that year. Following her fitting out she was commissioned at Liverpool on 11 August.
She was named Vindex by the Admiralty, who purchased her on 11 October. She had been converted to a Seaplane Carrier in similar fashion to the Ben-my-Chree and first served at the Nore and Harwich before proceeding to the Mediterranean.
Vindex carried four Short Type 184 seaplanes and could also carry up to four Bristol Scout fighters. The Bristol Scout was a landplane on wheels and consequently at the end of a mission it would have to ditch and remain supported by flotation bags until it could be lifted back on board by crane.
Vindex was attached to the Grand Fleet at Harwich in November 1915. On 3 November one of her fighter aircraft, piloted by Sub. Lieut. H. F. Towler was launched from her flying off platform, soon to be called the Flight deck. This was the first instance of a land plane with a wheeled undercarriage taking off from the deck of an aircraft carrier.{{cite web|url=http://www.rafmuseum.org.uk/research/history-of-aviation-timeline/interactive-aviation-timeline/british-military-aviation/1915.aspx|title=1915|website=www.rafmuseum.org.uk}}
Towler's achievement soon led to Bristol Scouts taking off regularly from the short platforms of these small aircraft carriers.
In 1916 Vindex conducted more flying experiments at sea, and again they were successful. She carried Sopwith 1½ Strutter fighters that had been fitted with skids instead of wheels. Using these skids as slides, the aircraft were able to fly off from the carrier's forward trackway, which was {{convert|64|ft}} long.
After her work with the Harwich and other North Sea forces, Vindex went to the Eastern Mediterranean in 1918, where she did work similar to the Ben-my-Chree. She operated there until the end of the War and returned to Plymouth in March 1919.
=1919–1939=
File:Viking pictured in the Mersey..JPG
Vindex was sold back to the Isle of Man Steam Packet Company in April 1919, and reverted to her original name, rejoining the fleet after her conversion back to a passenger steamer in July 1920.
For another ten years she dominated the Fleetwood–Douglas service until she was replaced following the introduction into service in 1930 of the Lady of Mann.
When the Lady of Mann commenced her sailings to Fleetwood, Viking, although still serving the port, also began to undertake more general work.
=[[World War II|Second World War Service]]=
Viking was requisitioned in the first week of the War, in September 1939, and operated as a personnel vessel. She acted as a transport, mainly to Cherbourg from Southampton.
Although actively engaged in transporting the men and matériel of the British Expeditionary Force to France at the outbreak of hostilities, the Viking did not take part in the critical Operation Dynamo, for she had recently been bombed in the Thames Estuary and was undergoing repairs. Nonetheless, she was active in the latter stages of the BEF's withdrawal from France.
Captained by James Bridson, with Edward Gelling and Harry Kinley as chief and second officers, Viking was involved in Operation Aerial at Le Havre and later Cherbourg. Following this she was despatched to Guernsey to assist in the Evacuation of the Channel Islands. Viking arrived at Saint Peter Port prepared to take off evacuees and consequently evacuated 1,800 schoolchildren, almost the entire juvenile population of the island. The children were safely landed at Weymouth.
Following that phase of the War, she made passage to Barrow in Furness and then was laid up at the Tongue in Douglas Harbour before resuming her civilian run between Fleetwood and Douglas.
Viking was requisitioned again, initially she was involved in the trooping service to Orkney and Shetland and then served as a Fleet Air Arm target vessel based on Crail for seven months from June 1942.
From December 1943 until 1945 she was again used as a personnel ship.
Viking was in service off the French Coast during the D-Day. On 28 June 1944 she was hit by a flying bomb whilst undergoing maintenance in the Surrey Commercial Docks, London.
She was taken out of war support in June 1945 and subsequently returned to the Steam Packet.
=Post war=
Following her war service Viking returned to the Steam Packet in June 1945. Her refit following her de-requisition had been hurried and this led to her having to undergo a more comprehensive refit at the yards of Cammell Laird in 1949. Over the winter of 1950/51 she returned to Laird's for further work which included her turbines being rebladed.
Disposal
Viking finished her Steam Packet service on the Fleetwood schedule on 14 August 1954.
Two days later she sailed for Barrow under her own steam to be broken up.
After 49 years of service, Viking was broken up by Thos. W. Ward at Barrow.
Trivia
Viking had a long association with the Port of Fleetwood. To commemorate this, on 24 May 1955, the Directors of the Isle of Man Steam Packet Company presented Viking's Ship's bell to the Borough of Fleetwood as a memento of the long association of the ship and the town.
The engraved bell was for many years hanging in the 'Viking Bar' on Fleetwood Pier until the pier's closure.
Official number and code letters
Official numbers are issued by individual flag states. They should not be confused with IMO ship identification numbers. Viking had the UK Official Number 118604 and originally used the Code Letters H R C S {{ICS|Hotel}}{{ICS|Romeo}}{{ICS|Charlie}}{{ICS|Sierra}}. Following her Great War Service these were changed to G P M D {{ICS|Golf}}{{ICS|Papa}}{{ICS|Mike}}{{ICS|Delta}}.
References
{{Reflist|50em}}
;Bibliography
- Chappell, Connery (1980). Island Lifeline T.Stephenson & Sons Ltd {{ISBN|0-901314-20-X}}
External links
{{commons category-inline|Viking (ship, 1905)}}
{{Steam Packet Ships}}
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Category:Ships of the Isle of Man Steam Packet Company
Category:Steamships of the United Kingdom
Category:World War I merchant ships of the United Kingdom
Category:World War I merchant ships of the Isle of Man
Category:Ferries of the Isle of Man
Category:World War II merchant ships of the Isle of Man
Category:World War II merchant ships of the United Kingdom