The Fun Ship
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- čas přidán 4. 01. 2023
- The Duke of Lancaster is a Turbine Steam Ship which was built by Harland and Wolf of Belfast.
It was powered by 2 steam engines, manufactured by Pametrada who also made steam engines for ship such as Aquitania, Queen Mary, Titanic and QE2.
First owned by British Railways, she operated as a passenger ferry and was later converted to also carry motor cars.
She also served as a very highly thought of cruise ferry complete with silver service, visiting destinations such as Norway and Spain.
Since 1979, the Duke of Lancaster has been beached beside the A548 at Llanerch y Mor. She has become a local landmark.
At first she was known as "The Fun Ship" but has spent many years in a state of partial abandonment.
During the last couple of years, she has slowly been starting to breath again.
During autumn 2022, The Duke of Lancaster has been used as a filming location for a documentary called Three Little Birds. It is written by and stars Sir Lenny Henry.
The Duke of Lancaster was used to film interior scenes and she portrays the period steamship, HMT Empire Windrush.
Despite research, I've been unable to pinpoint why this ship was named Duke of Lancaster, but if you watch to the end of the video, I will tell you who exactly was the Duke of Lancaster when she was launched!
Yes, of course, this is a teaser to encourage you to watch the entire video, but part way through you also get a chance to laugh at my attempt to pronounce the Welsh placename, "Llanerch y Mor" with my strong Yorkshire accent.
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If you'd like to follow in our footsteps by visiting The Duke of Lancaster, some useful information is on our website at www.haveagrandtour.co.uk/the-...
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There’s been a petition to save the ship for a while. I do hope it happens as ships built by Harland & Wolff are my favourite.
There are many reasons why this ship is both abandoned but at the same time, not abandoned.
The ship is used on a day to day basis by her owners.
She has also been used as a filming location for a TV series.
The ship is a complete conundrum. And that is what I like about her!
Great video. If I may say the ship has never been encased in concrete. She sits on a big cushion of sand that was piped in from the estuary during the Towyn floods because it was feared she would break her moorings and sail off! She did used to float at high tide. The same people own her today that brought her to Mostyn back in 1979. She has never been abandoned. The 'Funship' was open until 1984, then the owners closed the business because they were sick of the repeated attacks from the then, Delyn County Council. They vowed they would one day return in the hope that the animosity from the Council would one day subside? They did, but it hadn't. The planning was refused back in 1979 because of the access to the rear of the ship was by crossing the Glan Y Don bridge. The Council claimed it was too weak to carry fire engines having a weight restriction of 10 tonne. They found alternative access a little further down the Coast Road, so the Funship could open. That access has now gone leaving the 10 ton bridge the only way. For 30+ years the owners couldn't do anything with her because of this. After mush research and discussions with various bodies we discovered the bridge isn't and has never been a weak bridge. It can, in fact, carry weights up to 40 ton. That is why we can finally move forward and last year we held a food festival on the dock and a Xmas market and in May this year there is an open day scheduled. It's not great that she has sat closed for 40 + years on the basis of a lie but we' re now at least, able to finally plan a future? Any revenue gained from events will go back in to hopefully, restoring the ship :) x
When they brought her from Barrow they had to change the name from The Duke Of Lancaster because it belonged to the Queen. They re-named her The Duke Of Llanerch Y Mor for the voyage when she was towed by tug.
Thankyou very much for your comments. I am broadly familiar with the "politics" but I didn't want my video to get bogged down in those historical politics and "rumours", given that the future of the ship is looking much brighter now.
I remember the ship arriving and riding past whilst on the way to regular family weekends & holidays in North Wales. I do think the concept was brilliant. I'll watch out for the open day.
John
Is there a Duke of Llanerch Y Mor?
If not, maybe the title should be given to the owner?
😁
@@GTexplores Back in the day the owner used to travel all around the Country as a market trader. One evening he was stopped by the police. His address on his drivers license stated 'The Duke Of Llanerch Y Mor'. They called him Sir after reading that, apologised and sent him on his way! :)
Here's to a brighter future for her.
I stopped for a drink in a bar across the road from it about 27 or so years ago. Wipe your feet on the way out it was that dirty but the view of the ship was something to behold
At the moment the bar is closed. Like many pubs, it has struggled for a long time. The building itself is historic and I'll be covering it in a future video which I'm currently working on. The oldest section of the pub has a thatched roof, which has been re-thatched within the last 12 months!
Thank you for this informative video, John. As luck would have it I will be visiting Aberkan this morning. The Duke of Lancaster is moored/beached right next door, so to speak.
Have fun!
I was there this morning too!
Testing a video camera and microphone which will hopefully improve the quality of my footage.
Nice to see another video about her.
Glad you liked it!
Her
She and Duke of Argyll were built by H & W, Duke of Rothesay was built by Denny of Dumbarton.. I was a steward on Argyll & Rothesay back in late 50s. Lovely ferries!
Sadly, I never sailed on any of them. I have memories of this one arriving in North Wales. As a child, my parents often drove me past this on our way to Llanrwst - in the days before the A55 expressway!
Bloody hell.. Its Paul Daniels :O
I like this..... Not a lot......... But I like it!
I would convert it into flats.
The project of turning her into a horror attraction seems to have been abandoned sadly.
There is little information available online about this. I do remember it being reported locally that the project would not go ahead quite some time ago. Sadly, this does appear to be the case.
I’ve finally found out the name of the piece of floating? Scrap in wales
When built, the Duke of Lancaster had 2 sister ships, the Duke of Argyll and Duke of Rothesay.
the Duke of Rothesay was sold directly for scrapping in 1975 at Faslane. The Duke of Argyll survived and spent time sailing in Southern Europe, as the Corinthia & Neptunia, before she went to the far east and suffered a dreadful fate at Hong Kong.
By the way queen mary and qe2 were not build at Harland and Wolff it was the vickers Armstrong ship builders that build them
Thankyou for the reply!
Apologies if I wasn't clear, The link between the Duke of Lancaster, Aquitania, Titanic, Queen Mary and QE2 was that they all had turbine steam engines by Pametrada (The Parsons and Marine Engineering Turbine Research and Development Association) which was formed from some 19 or so different companies.
Hope that clarifies!
Queen Mary was actually build at the John Brown yard at Clydebank along as as the QE2 and the original QE
@@GTexploresTitanic had Steam Turbine Engines and Triple Expansion Reciprocating Steam Engines.
I lived in Prestatyn for a number of years and that fun ship hasn’t been fun for years,it’s been an eyesore for a long time,I took my children on it once and it was a disgrace then so God knows what it’s like now,should have been scrapped years ago.
Apparently, the interior of the ship is in superb condition.
A few months ago, it was used as a filming location for an up-coming ITV series starring and written by Lenny Henry.