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Published: 11th Feb
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Peter Elson of the Daniel Adamson Preservation Society tells of the battle to save a highly important vessel.
When the furnaces of the “SS Daniel Adamson” are lit at Cammell Laird, in Birkenhead, and steam wafts through this historic vessel’s newly refitted pipework, it will be the first time in more than 30 years that the UK’s last surviving tug tender has felt fire in her belly.
But this isn’t so much as waking a sleeping beauty, but a full-scale Lazarus-type resurrection of one Britain’s most historic ships, which many people believed to be an impossible task. Withdrawn in 1984 with boiler problems and laid-up, it seemed that the only future for the increasingly derelict vessel was the scrapyard.
Yet this venerable old ship rated as “highly important” on the UK National Register of Historic Vessels, which has been a fixture on the River Mersey and Manchester Ship Canal for an astounding 113 years, is now entering the final stage of a £3.8m, six month restoration at the shipyard where the vessel was built more than a century ago.
That this stage has been achieved is due to the dedication of the ship’s owner, the SS DANiel Adamson LEADINGEDGE Daniel Adamson Preservation Society (DAPS). Led by DAPS’ stoic founder and chairman, Capt Dan Cross, the ship was bought for £1 from the Manchester Ship Canal Co days before being sold for scrap. Even before entering Cammell Laird, 150 DAPS volunteers spent 100,000 hours on basic restoration since 2004.
Soon Daniel Adamson will be moved from Cammell Laird shipyard’s ‘Alabama’ No 4 Drydock to the Fitting Out Berth, which is almost where the ship was launched in 1903.
‘The Danny’ was built by a Cammell Laird subsidiary, Tranmere Bay Development Co, for the Shropshire Union Railway & Canal Co.
Originally named "Ralph Brocklebank", she served as a ferry on the River Mersey between Ellesmere Port and Liverpool’s Manchester Dock, carrying up to 200 passengers and towing barges, later being sold to the Manchester Ship Canal Co.
After being elevated to become the MSC directors’ inspection vessel, the passenger accommodation required a major upgrade. A board member had sailed on the new Cunard flagship "RMS Queen Mary", in 1936, and was so impressed that the superliner’s builder, John Brown & Co, of Clydebank, was invited to refit the little Edwardian ship’s double deck saloon in art deco ocean liner style.
In this form, the coal-fired ship hosted numerous VIPs, including King Fuad of Egypt, the King of Denmark and Gen Dwight D Eisenhower when he inspected D-Day preparations at Salford Docks. The stylish saloon will be a big attraction in Daniel Adamson’s future public cruising role from May 2016, when she will return to passenger service for the first time since 1921.
The restoration, paid for by a Heritage Lottery Fund £3.8m grant (which also covers support and start-up costs), is now 80 per cent complete. Major steelwork has been completed (including 200sq ft of new hull plates), the twin propeller shafts overhauled, new sea valves fitted, plus the boiler refurbished and hydraulically tested.
The 150 gross ton ship’s restoration must comply both with the Heritage Lottery Fund’s grant terms to ensure historical authenticity and the stringent contemporary safety requirements to receive the Maritime & Coastguard Agency (MCA) Class V certificate for carrying 100 passengers. While, subcontractor MPE Interiors is entirely restoring the art deco saloon, bridge, wheelhouse and other woodwork. A new electrical power supply system is being installed.
Trials in the River Mersey will then take place during March, 2016, under the supervision of the Maritime & Coastguard Agency. Once approved by the Agency, Daniel Adamson will be handed over to DAPS.
The vessel will be formerly relaunched at a special ceremony at Canning Half- Tide Dock, in the Albert Dock complex, Liverpool, on Friday, 6 May, 2016, followed by opening to the public at the Steam In The Dock event, with traction engines on the quayside and other historic vessels.
Capt Dan Cross, DAPS chairman, said: “For any shipyard, a vessel such as Daniel Adamson, with its heritage and complicated issues would have been a major challenge, but Cammell Laird has risen to that challenge.
“However, it’s been a steep learning curve at time for all parties and we’re indebted to Cammell Laird managing director Linton Roberts and his team, and our marine surveyor John Pope, of Braemar Technical Services.
“I’m very impressed with the excellent progress that Cammell Laird’s highly skilled shipyard staff have made in bringing this priceless ship back to life. Cammell Laird still has staff with amazing shipwright skills, even though it doesn’t crow about it.
“For example, we bought a 45ft long square section of spruce tree trunk and within a week this had been turned into a perfectly formed, tapered pole mast, which is a testament to the skills based at the yard.”
Without doubt this exemplary representative of the British shipbuilders’ art and craft is destined to become one of the nation’s premier maritime attractions, both for sailings and as a static museum ship on the River Mersey, River Weaver and Manchester Ship Canal. Anyone interested in volunteering to help run SS Daniel Adamson, in jobs ranging from shoveling coal in the engine room to stewarding on deck, will be warmly welcomed. Professional skippers and officers are also required. Please contact: [email protected]
A Folk & Shanty Concert starring Hughie Jones, ex-The Spinners, to raise funds for "SS Daniel Adamson" will be held on Saturday, 5 March, at 7.45pm; at the Florence Institute, Liverpool, L8 4RF; tickets £8, or £7.52 at www.eventbrite.co.uk
