Official Number: 104240
Pennant No: M 14
Laid down:
Builder: Naval Constructions & Armaments Co, Barrow
Launched: 5 May 1895
Into Service: 28 October 1914
Out of service: 8 August 1915
Fate: Torpedoed and sunk 8 August 1915
Items of historic interest involving this ship: –
Background Data: One of an additional group of ships requisitioned by the Admiralty during WW1 to augment the ships of the RFA
Career Data:
9 May 1895 launched by Naval Constructions & Armaments Co Barrow as Yard Nr: 243 named Duke of Lancaster for Lancashire & Yorkshire Railway Co. Fleetwood
10 May 1895 the Lancashire Daily Post reported –
27 July 1895 The Star, a Guernsey newspaper, reported …
August 1895 completed. Carried 234 1st Class passengers 12 x 3rd class passengers
28 June 1897 passed Prawle Point sailing west bound
15 September 1900 when on passage from Fleetwood to Belfast, at Belfast Lough in thick fog was in collision with the schooner Phoebe. The schooner sank drowning a member of the crew
March 1911 purchased along with her sister (Duke of York) by Turkish Patriotic Committee and both ships were filled by Cammell Laird & Co Ltd., Birkenhead but the war between Italy and Turkey prevent their delivery.
1912 purchased by Isle of Man Steam Packet Co Ltd., and renamed The Ramsey. The “The” in her name was a clerical error
28 October 1914 requisitioned for Admiralty service as an Armed Boarding Steamer and commissioned as HMS Ramsey
8 August 1915 while on patrol in the North Sea she stopped a supposed Russian tramp steamer but as she closed it to send a Boarding Party across to the rogue ship it raised the German Ensign and revealed herself as the raider Meteor which opened fire and then sank the ABS with a G.7 torpedo with the loss of 51 of her 98 crew
14 August 1915 the Reading Mercury reported the loss ….
