History
Red Ensign (UK)United Kingdom
NamePS Ripon
NamesakeRipon, a city in Yorkshire, England
Owner
  • 1846-1870: P&O[1][2]
  • 1870: Caird & Co[2]
  • 1870-1871: Matthew Wilson and Joseph McLay
  • 1871-1880: George Turnbull and J. R. Greig[2]
  • 1880: Gregory Turnbull[2]
RouteMediterranean Sea to the UK
BuilderMoney Wigram and Sons, Blackwall[1]
Cost£66,000[2]
Launched27 June 1846[1][2]
HomeportLondon[2]
FateScuttled at sea off Port of Spain in 1880.[2]
General characteristics
TypePaddlesteamer
Tonnage1,508 GRT[1][2]
Length
  • 1846-1861: 217.3 ft (66.2 m)[2]
  • 1861-1870: 276.75 ft (84.35 m)[2]
Beam33.9 ft (10.3 m)[2]
Depth28.4 ft (8.7 m)[2]
Decks4[2]
Installed power
  • 1846-1861: 900 horsepower (670 kW)[2]
  • 1861-1870: 2,000 horsepower (1,500 kW)[2]
  • 1870-1880: engines removed[2]
Complement
  • 1st class passengers: 22[2]
  • 2nd class passengers: 109[2]
  • Troops: 1,000 on deck[2]
Crew60[2]

The PS Ripon was a paddlesteamer built at Money Wigram's Blackwall Yard[1] in 1846 for P&O.

Operational history

On 12 October 1847, the maiden voyage of the Ripon to Malta and Alexandria was abandoned due to gale-force winds. The ship put into Torbay in order to repair damage it had sustained.[2]

In 1850, Ripon brought Prime Minister Jung Bahadur Rana of Nepal and his entourage to the UK, docking at the port of Southampton on 25 May 1850.[3] A large collection of wild animals was also carried aboard the Ripon including the first hippopotamus[2] seen in England since Roman times, which became known as the Regent's Park Hippo.[4]

The Ripon was requisitioned in 1854 for use in the Crimean War[5] along with 11 other Peninsular and Oriental ships. In 1857, it was reported in Scientific American that the Ripon was to be fitted with a propeller.[6] In 1864 the PS Ripon brought Italian General Giuseppe Garibaldi to the United Kingdom for a meeting with Prime Minister Henry Palmerston.[2] Three years later in 1870 the engines of the Ripon were sold and the vessel was converted into a brig for Caird & Co in Greenock.[7][2]

In 1880, after serving as a hulk in Trinidad and Tobago, the Ripon was scuttled at sea near Port of Spain.[2]

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 5 "The Peninsular and Oriental Steam Navigation Company's ships, Indus and Ripon". Retrieved 17 August 2017.
  2. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 "Ripon - Money & H. L. Wigram". Retrieved 17 August 2017.
  3. ↑ Rana, Subodh. "A tale of two cities in Jung Bahadur's life and times". Retrieved 17 August 2017.
  4. ↑ "Regent's Park hippo". Retrieved 17 August 2017.
  5. ↑ "The Old Peninsular & Oriental Steam Navigation Company: On Their Majesty's Service". Retrieved 17 August 2017.
  6. ↑ Lunn, O. D. J; Wales, S. H.; Beach, A. E. (9 May 1857). "Screw versus Paddle" (PDF). Scientific American. 12 (35): 278. doi:10.1038/scientificamerican05091857-278k. Retrieved 17 August 2017.
  7. ↑ Robins, Nick (2012). The Coming of the Comet: The Rise and Fall of the Paddle Steamer. p. 27. ISBN 978 1-84832-134-2.
Includes an excerpt from a medic, Dr. W. Home, Staff Surgeon, 2nd Class, from 1848-1849 on the PS Ripon.
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