p.s. 'Privateer' - about to depart on a cruise from Bideford, circa 1890. The upper photograph is courtesy of the King's Arms public house which may be seen beyond the bow of the vessel. [001] The lower photograph is held within the North Devon Maritime Museum at Appledore. [1339]

The vessel was built at the yard of T. & W. Toward at St. Lawrence-on-Tyne and was launched during May 1883. She was of iron-hulled construction and of 104 gross registered tonnage being 96.5 ft. long x 18.6 ft. wide and 9.2 ft. depth.

From 1883 until 1895 she was owned by various companies at the port of Swansea her ownership being transferred to Boston in Lincolnshire until 1915. She was then with owners at Middlesbrough and South Shields prior to her loss when she ran ashore at Equihen near Boulogne in December 1918. Many thanks, once again, to the Tyne Tugs website for this detailed info. [800]

The vessel represented the intense competition between the various companies operating passenger steamers along the coasts of the Severn Sea and Bristol Channel as the working classes became more and more mobile and could finally escape their toil and strife and breath the sea air for a while!