Duke Lancaster - Land Locked for over 40 Years

ahoy shipmates now we're off to the liverpool area again actually more reportedly the river d that separates whales from england and if you fly along the river d we'll find a very unusual sight of a land locked ship and it's not in dry dock this is the tss duke of lancaster at clanny moore in wales north wales that's a interesting story to the duke of lancaster started off originally as a runway steamer and operated in europe from 1956 to 1979. along with her sister ship the tss duke rossi and the tss duke of argyll she was amongst the last passenger only steamers built for the british railways at the time also a ferry operator built to the harlem wolf shipyard in belfast and launched on the first december 1955 completed in 1956 she was designed to operate as both passenger ferry primarily on the haitian to belfast route and also at a cruise ship in this capacity the duke of lancaster traveled from the scottish islands and further field to belgium denmark the netherlands and norway from the 1960s passenger ships such as the duke of lancaster were gradually being superseded by car ferries the duke of lancaster ended up here at a final resting place in north wales in august 1979 to start her new life as a fun ship as you can see from these pictures much of the interior of the ship is to this day is still unchanged however there were frequent legal battles with the local councils and the owners closed the business in 2004 despite having large amounts of exterior paintwork covered in rust the interior the ship is in good order you can even see the original bridge and here are some of the amusement machines when it was part of the fun house in early 2012 a several local arcade game collectors made a deal with the company and purchased most of the coin opera machines left behind on the ship at the time removing the games required the use of a crane and other heavy lifting equipment in more recent times in august 2012 a latvian artist known as kiwi was commissioned to spade printer design on the ship the ship was covered with graffiti described as bright and surreal as you can see now this graffiti has been painted over and the ship returns to almost her original colours of dark and white rather than undertake the expensive option of reviewing their entirely british railways began a part program of conversion in order to maintain ferry services whilst these multiplications took place the duke of lancaster's duties as a cruise ship ceased april 1970 the ship returned to service leaving a main deck rebuilt to accommodate vehicles fire a stern door which you can just about make out here the ship now provided space for 1200 single class passengers and 105 cars with a total of cabin accommodation for 400 passengers in more recent times the son of the original owner has decided to bring the ship back to life i've been a number of events taking place they've had street performers various stalls selling wares and even a beach bar the plan is to have a christmas market this year and then to further renovate the ship and open up the upper decks by turning them into various bars and open areas for seating i think it's very unusual to see a ship in such location being used for a very different purpose rather than just being scrapped most of the time i'm struggling to avoid the birds i hope you enjoyed that one shipmates something a little unusual until next time foreign