Ferry crosses the Mersey on final voyage after 66 years in service

Chris from Nailsea

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Ferry crosses the Mersey on final voyage after 66 years in service

« on: March 29, 2026, 21:48:18 »

From the BBC^» British Broadcasting Corporation - home page):

Quote

Ferry crosses the Mersey on final voyage after 66 years

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Launched in 1959, the Royal Iris will be replaced by a new vessel

An "iconic" ferry that crossed on the River Mersey for 66 years has set sail on its final voyage.

The Royal Iris of the Mersey featured in the 1965 film Ferry Cross the Mersey, starring the band Gerry and the Pacemakers, who also sang the legendary title song.

It is set to be replaced by the new £26m vessel Royal Daffodil later this year, with an interim service to be run on the Snowdrop, a vessel nicknamed the Dazzle Ferry because of its design by Sir Peter Blake, who created the Beatles' Sgt Pepper album cover.

Liam Phelan of the Liverpool City Region Combined Authority, said the Royal Iris is estimated to have carried more than 17 million people since 1960 between Liverpool and Wirral. "Locally, she's as iconic probably as the Graces and the Mersey Tunnels," he added. "She's part of the history of the Mersey and obviously today's a bit of a sad day for us."

(BBC article continues)

Rather poignant for me: I, too, was 'launched' in 1959, in the Devonport Hospital maternity ward overlooking the ferry there. Roll Eyes


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bobm

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Re: Ferry crosses the Mersey on final voyage after 66 years in service

« Reply #1 on: March 30, 2026, 02:45:56 »

Ferry cross the Tamar doesn’t have quite the same ring to it. Cheesy

However there is a link. The Royal Iris was launched in Devon in 1959.


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TaplowGreen

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Re: Ferry crosses the Mersey on final voyage after 66 years in service

« Reply #2 on: March 30, 2026, 04:40:35 »

Quote from: bobm on March 30, 2026, 02:45:56

Ferry cross the Tamar doesn’t have quite the same ring to it. Cheesy

However there is a link. The Royal Iris was launched in Devon in 1959.

I'd take the Torpoint Ferry over that rusty old tub full of Scousers any day of the week! Cheesy


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eightonedee

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Re: Ferry crosses the Mersey on final voyage after 66 years in service

« Reply #3 on: March 30, 2026, 07:44:34 »

Wow! Who would have thought that the ferry I last used on my first visit to Liverpool back in 1980, which hardly seemed a paragon of modernity back then, would still be in use today.

Two other abiding memories of that trip ,- how cheap the beer was in New Brighton, and how desperately run down and dilapidated much of Liverpool was back then. All those politicians and journalists who twitter on today about "Broken Britain " should have seen Liverpool 8 back then.


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Oxonhutch

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Re: Ferry crosses the Mersey on final voyage after 66 years in service

« Reply #4 on: March 30, 2026, 08:33:28 »

Quote from: TaplowGreen on March 30, 2026, 04:40:35

I'd take the Torpoint Ferry over that rusty old tub full of Scousers any day of the week! Cheesy

Graham might have used it to get to school !


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Mark A

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Re: Ferry crosses the Mersey on final voyage after 66 years in service

« Reply #5 on: March 30, 2026, 09:58:14 »

Drat: I'd like to be aboard for a Manchester Ship Canal cruise but for good measure, all the way to Manchester and I don't think those happen. Having, in an oil tanker of all things, been across the Barton swing aqueduct, at what must have been 8.30 in the morning, and in the process been what I was informed is called 'Tanked' it would be good to travel beneath it too and be the cause of some other boat being tanked. This year, though, they don't know quite how their ferry fleet will be.

Mark

https://www.merseyferries.co.uk/our-cruises/manchester-ship-canal-cruise/


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johnneyw

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From station to station, back to Bristol city....

Re: Ferry crosses the Mersey on final voyage after 66 years in service

« Reply #6 on: March 30, 2026, 10:50:16 »

I wonder what will happen to it? There was a old Mersey Ferry "Egremont" that spent many years after it's ferry service days as the floating base for the Salcombe based Island Cruising Club in the Kingsbridge Estuary. Sadly, the periodic maintenance costs inevitably began to mount over the decades so she had to be given up and I last saw her a few years back languishing in Sharpness docks looking in quite a sorry state.
As an aside, in my student days, I spent a very chilly night stuck on her after being persuaded (post pub) to join the people from the sailing course who were residing on her for an on board party.


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Mark A

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Re: Ferry crosses the Mersey on final voyage after 66 years in service

« Reply #7 on: March 30, 2026, 12:07:42 »

The replacement ferry... its looks will fit right in, it's very much a mersey ferry.

Mark

https://www.merseyferries.co.uk/about-us/new-ferry/


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Clan Line

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Re: Ferry crosses the Mersey on final voyage after 66 years in service

« Reply #8 on: March 30, 2026, 12:22:01 »

Quote from: eightonedee on March 30, 2026, 07:44:34

.............. and how desperately run down and dilapidated much of Liverpool was back then. All those politicians and journalists who twitter on today about "Broken Britain " should have seen Liverpool 8 back then.

I was visiting Liverpool at about that time, the frigate I was serving on was taking part in the Battle of The Atlantic commemorations and was in Bootle docks. I went into Liverpool with my run ashore "oppo", we walked out of Lime St station, took one look, went back into the station and bought tickets to Manchester !!

Having said that - I have been there a lot more recently and was really impressed with how much it had improved...............


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Mark A

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Re: Ferry crosses the Mersey on final voyage after 66 years in service

« Reply #9 on: March 30, 2026, 12:50:13 »

Reflecting that the 'Royal Iris' will have been on Mersea ferry duties at the time of a long ago family visit with a vehicle to Belfast c. 1965 - at a time when the ferry to Belfast ran from I think it was Princes Dock, so, the ferry needed to access the dock via a sea lock from the river.

I've a single memory of... was it arriving back in Liverpool after the overnight crossing - the ferry locking through and the general impression, to a youngie, of arriving in a great city teeming with unfamiliar activities. (This was the same city that my father-in-law, during WW2, had become completly lost as overnight bombing had utterly changed the streets through which he travelled to work to the extent that they were unrecognisable).

Mark


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