Marguerite

LAUNCH AT WEST HARTLEPOOL

Northern Daily Mail, March 5/12

Yesterday, Messrs. William Gray and Company, Limited.  launched the handsome steel screw steamer,  Marguerite which they have built for Messrs. Plisson and Co., Paris.

She will take the highest class in Lloyd’s Register, and is of the following dimensions, viz.: Length over all, 346ft. 6in.; breadth, 47ft. 6in.; and depth, 25ft. 7½ in., with long bridge, poop, and top-gallant forecastle. The saloon, staterooms, captain’s, officers, and engineers’ rooms, etc., will be fitted up in houses on the bridge deck, and the crew’s berths in the forecastle.

The hull is built with deep frames, cellular double bottom, and large aft peak ballast tank, six steam winches, steam steering gear amidships, hand screw gear aft, patent direct steam windlass, large horizontal multitubular donkey boiler, shifting boards throughout, stockless anchors, telescopic masts, with fore and aft rig, and all requirements for a first class cargo steamer.

Triple-expansion engines are being supplied by the Central Marine Engineering Works of the builders, having cylinders 25in., 40 ½ in., and 67in. diameter, with a piston stroke of 45in., and three large steel boilers for a working pressure of 180lbs. per square inch.

The ship and machinery have been built under the superintendence of Captain Joseph Plisson, on behalf of the owners, and the ceremony of naming the steamer Marguerite was gracefully performed by Mrs. Humphrey Mackworth, a daughter of Mr. D.A. Thomas, and a director of Lysberg, Ltd., Cardiff, the agents of the owners in England.

THE s.s. MARGUERITE

Northern Daily Mail, May 1/12

Yesterday there was taken to sea the finely-modelled steamer Marguerite of Bayonne, built by Messrs. Wm Gray and Co, Ltd., of West Hartlepool, to the order of Messrs. Lysberg and Co., of Cambrian Buildings, Cardiff, and Paris.

The vessel is of the following dimensions: Length over all, 335ft. 6in.; beam, 47ft. 6in.; and depth moulded, 25ft. 7 ½ in. She is of the single-deck type, having five hatchways, fitted with shifting boards throughout, double winches, with cables and outriggers on deck.

The machinery and boilers have been built at the Central Marine Engineering Works, West Hartlepool, the boilers being of large dimensions and the cylinders 25in., 40in., and 65in. diameter, with 42in stroke. The piston rods are fitted with United States packing, and large ballast and feed donkeys of the “C.M.E.W.” type are fitted, with a view of pumping out the ballast rapidly.

The steamer was half loaded at Sunderland with 2,800 tons of coal, and ran on the measured mile for four hours, giving an average speed of 11 ½ knots, the machinery running beautifully against strong winds and a rough sea. Mr. Frederick Jones (who superintended the machinery during construction) was on board during the trial on behalf of the owners.

After the trial trip the steamer proceeded to Bordeaux to discharge her cargo.