Volume One - Into the Victorian Age - The Penarth Shipbuilding & Ship Repairing Company Limited . . .

1898 - s.s. 'Eirene' - Missions to Seamen

	1898 - The launch of the 'Eirene' from the yard of the Penarth Ship Building & Ship Repairing Company, Limited into the River Ely.

On the 7th May 1898 “amid the acclamation of more than a thousand spectators” the “Eirene” was launched for the Missions to Seamen. She was a small single screw steamer 75’ - 6” (23m) long x 15’ - 3” beam (4.6m) beam, with holds 8’ - 6” (2.6m) deep and was built by the Penarth Ship Building & Ship Repairing Co. Limited at their shipyard and slipway on the banks of the River Ely.

The 1898 report of the Seaman's Mission [038] described the first months of service of ‘S.S. Eirene’:

“Services have been held in lighthouses, on the decks of light-vessels, and on the decks of fishing smacks, coasting vessels, steamers, and sailing vessels in Carmarthen Bay, Swansea Bay, and in all the roadsteads between Newport Roads and Lundy Island; scores of letters have been brought ashore and posted . . . already the ‘Eirene’ has had a sharp taste of heavy gales and dense fogs, and her skipper and his crew, five all told, an experience of anxious hours and weary long night watches . . .

Since the ‘Eirene’ commenced her work, and in the waters over which she travels, six pilots, one apprentice and six boatmen have been drowned; three pilot boats lost, five vessels wrecked, and one abandoned.”

The money for building ‘Eirene’ had been raised by public subscription efforts which commenced in 1898 according to the Mission’s magazine ‘Word on the Waters’. [038] Two sisters, whom it seems were “interested in sailors . . . especially lightship crews” donated £1,000!