Built as a passenger ship under yard no 251 by J&G Thomson, Clydebank for the London & South Western Railway Co, Southampton.
16 July 1890 launched as the LYDIA.
Tonnage 1,059 gross, 193 net, dim. 253.0 x 35.1 x 14.8ft.
Powered by two triple 3-cyl. steam engines, 360 nhp, twin shafts, speed 19.5 knots.
September 1890 completed, homeport Southampton.
Following FREDERICA into service for the London and South Western Railway was her sister ship LYDIA. Her maiden voyage to the Channel Islands was on 7 October 1890, and at the time she was the fastest vessel in existence, achieving 19.55 knots in trials on 29 September 1890. Her record was beaten when the Great Western Railway Company's IBEX came on service.
On 6 May 1891 LYDIA hit La Rond Rock off Guernsey. She managed to refloat and just made St Peter Port Harbour before running aground with her foredeck underwater.
Another incident involved a furnace blow-back in St Helier Harbour in 1901. The furnace casing caught fire and it took an hour to put out.
A refit in 1904 saw an enlarged dining room moved up a deck making way for a new ladies' first-class suite and extra cabins. New boilers were installed soon after giving LYDIA a new lease of life, which saw her operating between Southampton and Le Havre and the islands and St Malo.
She sailed from Jersey as a mailboat for the last time in 1915 and was pressed into war service, returning to Jersey within a month with prisoners of war headed for the camp at Blanches Banques. In 1919 she visited Guernsey with the survivors of the island Contingent, but she was then returned to her owners, and promptly sold to Coast Lines Ltd., Liverpool and later resold to a Greek Company Nav. A Vapor Ionienne G. Yannoulato Freres at Argostoli and renamed IERAX, 1929 sold to Hellenic Coast Line Co. Ltd, Piraeus, is eventually broken up in 3 quarter of 1933 in Savona.
https://www.theislandwiki.org/index.php ... and_Stella https://www.miramarshipindex.nz
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