PS Empress Queen

P.S. Empress Queen launched 4-3-1897 Gross Tonnage 1,240. 23 Length (OA) 372ft.  Pass Acc 1st Class 1509. 3rd Class 485 Trial speed 21:75 knots. Named in honour of Queen Victoria’s jubilee.

P.S. Empress Queen  was the largest and fastest paddle steamer built for cross-Channel service. She was the first Isle of Man Steam Packet Company ship to be fitted with wireless and her speed was such that she recorded a voyage from the Rock Light, New Brighton to Douglas Head in 2 hours and 57 minutes. However she was to be the last paddle steamer ordered from a shipyard by the Steam Packet Co She set a trend in design for all. Subsequent Steam Packet Company ships by being fitted with a bow rudder to increase manoeuvrability.

In World War 1 being requisitioned by the Admiralty she served as a troop ship ferrying soldiers between Southampton and Le Havre This beautiful ship met her end on 12-1-1916 when she ran aground in thick fog on the Bembridge Ledge, Isle of Wight, whilst carrying 1300 troops returning to England on leave, attendant destroyers took off the troops safely but an ensuing gale smashed the ship beyond salvage.

In a letter dated 27th July 1912 to Lowry, Florence Bell mentions seeing the PS Empress Queen in the River Mersey from the deck of the RMS Teutonic.

SS Tynwald (III)

SS Tynwald (III) No. 95755, was an iron packet steamer which served with the Isle of Man Steam Packet Company, and was the third vessel in the Company to bear the name.

Built by Fairfield at Govan in 1891, Tynwald is of interest as she represented another move forward by the Isle of Man Steam Packet Company as she was the first vessel fitted with a triple-expansion engine. Also for the first time in the Company's history, the builders specification included a full installation of electric lighting. She had a certificate for 679 first class passengers and 225 third, a total of 904 in all, and a crew of 50. Read more on Wikipedia

Florence Bell refers to this ship in a letter to Lowry dated 27th July 1912 - "This is something like "Tynwalditis"" - a reference to being sea sick on the boat possibly when she went on holiday with the Lowry family to the Isle of Man in 1910.

RMS Teutonic

In the later part of the 1880’s, White Star Line struck a deal with the British Government to help fund the construction of two new ships. The deal was that the Government would help to fund them in return for in time of war the ships being available to be and designed to be easily converted into armed merchant cruisers. The first of these ships completed was RMS Teutonic, followed by a sister ship RMS Majestic.

Teutonic, shipbuilder’s yard number 208, was launched on 19th January 1889 at Harland and Wolff, Belfast. As well as being the first passenger ship designed to be easily converted in to an armed merchant cruiser, she was also White Star’s first twin screw (two propellers) ship and the first to completely abandon sails. Teutonic departed Liverpool for her maiden voyage to New York on Wednesday 7th August 1889. In May 1911, Teutonic was transferred from the Britain to America, Southampton-New York Service to the Britain to Canada, Liverpool- Montréal service. She made her first voyage on this service on 13th May. Teutonic was laid up at Cowes Roads, Isle of White, UK, and was then broken up for scrap at Emden, Germany in 1921.

Florence Melita Bell - Lowry's nanny - sailed out of Liverpool in April 1912 as a steward aboard the RMS Teutonic en route to Montreal. She appears to have only made one return voyage on the ship as she wrote to Lowry and his brother Russell that the she didn't like the sea. Perhaps the Titanic disaster in April 1912 disturbed her. (Gordon Bowker Pursued By Furies Pg. 10)

Florence Melita Bell

Miss Bell with Lowry family in the summer of 1910 on holiday in the Isle of Man.

Born in Oxton, Wirral in 1875. The Lowry's nanny affectionately called "Bey" by the family. She was nanny to Lowry after he was born until 1912 when she left for a short period to be a steward on the R.M.S. Teutonic.

She sent a letter to Lowry on 27th July 1912 from 28 Magazine Lane, New Brighton where she may have been lodging or living with a relative. The letter was sent wishing Lowry "many happy returns of your birthday." The letter told how she didn't like the sea and that she missed the Lowry boys; "dear little baby with the brown face and blue eyes" who sang "Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star" to her.

There are many references to the sea; "I wonder if you have started to be Admiral of the British Fleet yet.."; "the captain of my ship says you look like a sailor bold especially as you have blues eyes.". She tells of liking big boats, "Tynwalditis" - she had been sea sick on the ferry SS Tynwald, passing the PS Empress Queen - an Isle of Man ferry in the River Mersey, seeing a lot of "flying fish", looking a the stars on board ship - they look just as if they had been hung up like lamps.."; plus she makes references to nature - flowers, her rose bush in the garden and swallows.

The letter is published in full in Gordon Bowker Malcolm Lowry Remembered Pgs. 15-16.

She was re-employed by the Lowry family after her replacement Miss Long was dismissed. We can presume Miss Bell moved on after Lowry began school at Braeside in 1914. Bowker states that she ran a village shop and post office in North Wales, after which all trace of her disappears. ( Malcolm Lowry Remembered Pg 15).