Britain’s railway companies owned and operated a wide range of ships from 1846 to 1984. During that time, a total of about 60 operating companies owned some 1,250 ships of different types, including tugs, dredgers, estuary and cross-channel ferries, and pleasure steamers, according to their needs. This was investment on a massive scale, and at least as far as many of the larger companies were concerned, emphasized on the utmost importance they placed on extending their services across the water by providing ships capable of making comfortable and reliable short sea crossings.

To provide for this business, it was sometimes necessary to construct special harbours with connecting railways. They often gave rise to the need to own tugs, dredgers and other harbour craft. Pleasure steamers assumed a position of strategic importance only in a few railway owned fleets, especially on the Clyde. There was also some railway ownership of canals.

A significant feature of most railway owned cross-channel services, was that they tended to take the shortest practicable sea route. Short sea services offered by other shipowners, whose origins often predated competing railway services, tended to serve existing city centres in tidal waters, requiring longer passage times. E.g. Swedish-Lloyd (London to Gothenburg), W. Muller’s Batavier Line (London to Rotterdam), and the Coast Lines Group which operated many routes including those between Glasgow and Dublin, and Liverpool to Cork. While very few of the latter have survived, the railway companies’ main routes remain largely intact, although the emphasis has switched from rail-borne cargo and foot passengers to road haulage vehicles and passengers with cars.

The inauguration of cross-channel services led to the introduction of special boat trains connecting with steamers. By the late 1950s vehicular traffic had become of increasing importance, although the first drive-on car ferry, Princess Victoria, had appeared on the Stranraer to Larne route as early as 1939. The first English Channel drive-on ferry, the Lord Warden, appeared on the Dover to Boulogne service in 1952, although cranes had to be used at Dover until a linkspan was opened in 1953, from which date the railways first true drive on-drive off cross-channel ferry service began. As similar services developed from other ports, so the importance of boat trains diminished and most were withdrawn, although there are still some connecting trains today.

In the early days of railway operation, the companies were not authorised to own or operate steamers because the government did not want existing enterprises to be placed at a disadvantage. So the railways sought devious ways of outflanking the legislation by setting up associated or suitably disguised subsidiary companies. Thus the London & South Western Railway had interests in the South Western Steam Navigation Co. founded in 1842, and the London Brighton & South Coast Railway in the Brighton & Continental Steam Packet Co (1847). In fact the LBSCR was found out and the company was forced to stop.

From the mid-1840s, railway companies could seek parliamentary powers to run steamers, but had to stipulate specific routes. The LSWR gained powers for services to the  Channel Islands and Le Havre in 1848. From 1863 the power to run passenger steamers was freely granted to railway companies collectively, but individual routes still had to be specified. Pure cargo operations were subject to separate arrangements. These provisions were not altered until the British Railways Act 1967, which at one stroke swept away the conditions imposed by all previous Acts by enabling the Railways Board to operate services on any routes it wished. A new route was opened from Harwich to Dunkirk soon afterwards, followed by the Holyhead to Belfast route, although both were mainly for freight and did not last long.

The first railway shipping service was authorised in 1846 when the Great Grimsby & Sheffield Junction Railway obtained powers to operate a ferry service across the Humber from New Holland to Hull, although in fact there was no railway link to New Holland until the following year. This service was operated by successive railway companies until the opening of the Humber road bridge in 1981. In 1848 the Chester & Holyhead Railway obtained powers to run Irish packet services from Holyhead to Kingstown (now Dun Laoghaire) or Howth. The former route still operates today.

The first railway owned English Channel packets were operated by the South Eastern Railway which obtained powers in 1853 for a Folkestone to Boulogne service. This route survived until privatisation in 1984. From the 1850s enabling powers were obtained for an increasing number of shipping services to Ireland and the Continent from many ports, although some railways continued to rely on contract services until much later.

As railway amalgamations took effect, ships and routes passed from owner to owner without the need for further applications for shipowning powers. There were changes in funnel colours and liveries. After the Grouping of 1923 the Big Four companies began to effect a high degree of ship standardisation, which was continued after nationalisation in 1948.

Prior to 1923 competition between railway companies was great. E.g. for the Irish services between the MR from Heysham, and the L&YR and LNWR joint operations from Fleetwood. The English Channel companies also competed. After 1923 there was little competition except the Channel Islands route fought between the GWR from Weymouth and the SR from Southampton.

Joint operations with overseas railway companies was not uncommon. E.g. the LBSCR and the then Chemin de Fer de L’Ouest of France on the Newhaven to Dieppe route in 1863. This coordination continued until privatisation. Also the service from Fishguard to Rosslare from 1906 by the Fishguard & Rosslare Railways & Harbours Co which was jointly owned by the GWR and the GS&WR railway of Ireland. This operation has continued till 1984 as BR and CIE.

On the Clyde three companies became responsible for most services to the islands and further reaches of the mainland, and for building up the excursion trade. These were the NBR (North British Railway), CR (Caledonian Railway) and GSWR (Glasgow & South Western Railway). But for a number of years these railways were unable to obtain powers to operate their own ships, so until nearly the end of the 19th century, Clyde sailings were undertaken by nominees or contract operators. The CR applied for powers in 1889 but was refused so immediately it set up the Caledonian Steam Packet Co, to own and operate steamers for the CR, with ship departures being tied to the arrival and departure of trains. The GSWR obtained powers in 1891, and the NBR in 1902. These years were characterised by intense competition. From 1893 various working agreements were entered into by the CSP and GSWR followed by a pooling agreement in 1910. After the Grouping and then nationalisation, only the CSP survived alone, with a very reduced network. It finally passed out of railway control under the Transport Act of 1968 when it was transferred to the Scottish Transport Group on 1st Jan 1969. Railways also had interests in running steamers on several Scottish Lochs including Loch Lomond and Loch Awe.

Over the years railway companies have also taken interests in other shipping companies. E.g. Soc. Anon. Angleterre-Lorraine-Alsace (Dover-Dunkirk train ferry), Associated Humber Lines (services from Humber ports), British Rail Hovercraft (Seaspeed 1966 later sold off in 1984) and David MacBrayne Ltd (Western Isles services).

From early days, railway companies were associated with the operation of steamers from the Humber ports of Goole, Grimsby and Hull. The emphasis was on cargo rather than passengers, so that there was rarely accommodation for more than 12 passengers on routes to e.g. Amsterdam, Antwerp, Bremen, and Ghent. The exceptions were those linking Grimsby with Hamburg and Rotterdam, and Hull with Rotterdam, on which up to 450 passengers could be accommodated. From 1935 all Humber services were operated under the management of Associated Humber Lines. The longest route regularly operated by any railway associated service anywhere was that between Goole and Copenhagen (12 passengers only) lasting 2 ½ days each way. AHL operations finally came to an end in 1971 when the remaining service Hull to Rotterdam was closed down. By now too much business had been lost to North Sea Ferries which had been offering roll-on roll-off and improved passenger facilities on the same route since 1965.

The design of cross-channel ships became very specialised according to requirements. On short routes such as Dover to Calais, Portsmouth to Isle of Wight, and on the Clyde, sleeping accommodation was not required and so a “day boat” design emerged with deck space, lounges and eating facilities but few or no cabins. Longer journeys usually undertaken overnight, like Grimsby to Hamburg and Heysham to Belfast, required considerable sleeping accommodation, at the expense of other public rooms. In profile a day boat looked similar to a night boat, and a “typical packet” emerged like the SR’s Invicta  entering service in 1946 on the Dover to Calais route she was the largest ferry on the Channel with a gross tonnage of 4,191. The largest ferry today on the Channel is over 33,300.

The first train ferry was operated across the Firth of Forth in 1850 followed by the Firth of Tay in 1851. After these stopped on the opening of the Forth and Tay Bridges, train ferries were not used again until the First World War when they were required for transporting railway rolling stock to France. The first public continental train ferry began operations in 1924 between Harwich and Zeebrugge, for freight only, followed by a Dover to Dunkirk service in 1936 which also carried the through sleeping cars of the famous Night Ferry train from London Victoria to Paris and Brussels.

During both world wars, railway steamers were in great demand by government for use as hospital or troop ships, for which work their speed, relatively shallow draught, and berth accommodation made them very suitable. Other ships found work as convoy rescue and in coastal cargo convoys, and went as far afield as the mid-Atlantic and the Mediterranean. During the First World War most routes remained in operation, with some changes, where ships were available. During the Second World War, only the routes from Holyhead, Heysham and Stranraer were kept open, but were often interrupted.

Railway owned shipping services contributed a great deal to the maritime industry as a whole, in terms of technical innovation, design, speed, and reliability. Railway management was often in the forefront in testing new ideas. It was to a railway ship the SR’s Isle of Sark  that the prototype of what became famous as the Denny-Brown stabilizer was fitted (then known as a gyro-stabilizer) in 1936. Speeds of 18 to 21 knots were usual, although on certain routes e.g. Newhaven to Dieppe, and Holyhead to Dun Laoghaire. 25 knots was not uncommon.

In 1970 BR’s shipping services were renamed Sealink for marketing purposes - including the Windermere lake services acquired by the Furness Railway back in 1875 and passed on to the LMS and then BR. Sealink was sold off in 1984.

Website Links:

PS Waverley
www.waverleyexcursions.co.uk

SS Tern, MV Teal, MV Swan (Windermere Lake Cruises)
www.windermere-lakecruises.co.uk

SS Raven (Windermere Steamboat Museum)
www.steamboat.co.uk

Steam Yacht Gondola
http://www.nationaltrust.org.uk/main/w-vh/w-visits/w-findaplace/w-gondola.htm

MS Brightlingsea
www.msbrightlingsea.com

PS Ryde
www.psryde.co.uk

PS Wingfield Castle (Hartlepool Maritime Experience)
www.hartlepoolsmaritimeexperience.com

PS Lincoln Castle
http://embark.to/pslincolncastle

PS Tattershall Castle (Tattershall Castle Group - TCG Acquisitions Ltd)
www.tattershallcastlegroup.com

PS Maid of the Loch
www.maidloch.cadol.com

MV Maid of Ashton (Restaurant Ship Hispaniola)
www.hispaniola.co.uk

MV Leven (MV Bristol Queen)
www.bristolqueen.com

TS Queen Mary
www.queenmary.co.uk

SS Great Britain
www.ssgreatbritain.org