SS Traffic (1872)

She was launched on 22 September 1872, completed by January 1873 and registered on 21 May that year.^[1] She was outfitted with machinery at the Old Quay Dock by Mr. W. P. Gaulton, an engineer from Manchester. Due to being a single person rather than her company, the fitting out took several months to construct her machinery, and she only entered service four months after launch.^[2] She was based at the Port of Liverpool, and maintained a 25-year career with White Star. Traffic sometimes served as a cargo vessel, carrying goods from dock to dock, though mainly she was used to tender to the larger liners.

Traffic was replaced by SS Pontic, which entered service in 1894,^[3] and was laid up in Hornby Dock by March 1898, and put up for sale.^[4] She was bought by James Callendar later that year^[5] where she was briefly used, before being sold to the Liverpool Lighterage Company in 1900,^[6] and served for nineteen years as an active barge. During 1919, Traffic was repurposed a sullage barge, and her machinery was removed. On the night of 3 May 1941, she was sunk in the May Blitz at the Canada Dock in Liverpool, and was raised later that October. Due to not appearing on registrations after, it is likely the old and rotten ship was hulked. She was reported to have been broken up at Tranmere by 1955, at an age of eighty-two years.^[3]