PS Ripon
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The PS Ripon was a paddlesteamer built at Money Wigram's Blackwall Yard[1] in 1846 for P&O.
![](#/media/File:Paddle_Steamer_"Ripon"_1864.jpg) | |
| History | |
|---|---|
 United Kingdom | |
| Name | PS Ripon |
| Namesake | Ripon, a city in Yorkshire, England |
| Owner | |
| Route | Mediterranean Sea to the UK |
| Builder | Money Wigram, Blackwall[1] |
| Cost | £66,000[2] |
| Launched | 27 June 1846[1][2] |
| Home port | London[2] |
| Fate | Scuttled at sea off Port of Spain in 1880.[2] |
| General characteristics | |
| Type | Paddlesteamer |
| Tonnage | 1,508 GRT[1][2] |
| Length | |
| Beam | 33.9 ft (10.3 m)[2] |
| Depth | 28.4 ft (8.7 m)[2] |
| Decks | 4[2] |
| Installed power | |
| Complement | |
| Crew | 60[2] |
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 & Company 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]