Transport historian Brian Searle looks back at the life and times of the St Patrick, one of Weymouth's most popular passenger ferries. The 'Paddy', as she was affectionately known, made her maiden voyage 60 years ago this month . . .

THE St Patrick was launched at Cammell Laird's yard at Birkenheaon May 20, 1947. Generally regarded as the last vessel to be built for the great, Great Western Railway Company before nationalisation on January 1, 1948, she was the third GWR ferry to bear the name, although she was actually registered in the name of the Fishguard & Rosslare Railways and Harbour Company.

The St Patrick was launched at Cammell Laird's yard at Birkenhead on May 20, 1947.

Generally regarded as the last vessel to be built for the Great Western Railway Company before nationalisation on January 1, 1948, she was the third GWR ferry to bear the name.

Although she was actually registered in the name of the Fishguard & Rosslare Railways and Harbour Company, her early day-to-day running was managed by the Western Region of British Railways until the transfer of managerial power to the London Midland Region in 1950, but the St Patrick remained virtually unaffected by the railway nationalisation programme, retaining her GWR livery of red funnel with black topping and coat of arms on her bow while flying the Fishguard & Rosslare Company's house flag, right up to December 1959 when she was permanently transferred to Southern Region control.

Following successful trials in January 1948, the St Patrick arrived in Weymouth on February 1, and, dressed overall, she sailed on her maiden voyage from the Dorset port to the Channel Islands on February 4. After a successful summer in action in the English Channel, she was despatched to Fishguard in October 1948 for the winter period on the Irish Sea, and this became her pattern of work for the next 15 years.

In December 1959, ownership of the St Patrick passed to the Southern Region and she was re-painted in the appropriate colours in the spring of 1960, her distinctive funnel being finished in yellow with a black top.

During her initial period of duty for the Southern Region, she assisted the Southampton passenger steamer Normannia in covering the Weymouth-Channel Islands service for the winter of 1959/60 after that most reliable, but ageing pair of Saints, the St Julien and St Helier, had both been laid up prior to their final summer on the Weymouth-Channel Islands route.

The St Patrick was given an extensive refit during the following winter period (1960/61), when she was modernised in dry dock in Cardiff, emerging as a one class ferry in the spring of 1961 to take her place as third ship on the Weymouth-Channel Islands route alongside the brand-new Isle of Wight 'twins', the fabulous Caesarea and Sarnia. The British Transport Commission closed its passenger route from Southampton to the Channel Islands in May 1961 to concentrate all its passenger services to the islands from Weymouth, and the Paddy became fully integrated into the busy weekend schedules, while relieving either the Caesarea or the Sarnia as required, and operating midweek excursions from Weymouth and Torquay.

Her regular employment on the Channel Islands route from Weymouth came to an end on October 10, 1963, and she was despatched to Southampton to cover the Le Havre working from December until closure of the service on May 10, 1964. She then took over the St Malo timetable, which included a trip between the French port and Weymouth, but operations ceased on that route in September 1964.

The St Patrick then went for an extensive refit in October 1964, and left the shipyard in the new British Railways livery for service initially on the Dover to Calais route, moving on to Folkestone in May 1965 to operate on the Boulogne service, where she remained until September 1971. During that time, however, she spent short periods of detached duty on the Western Channel, which included her last ever appearance in Weymouth on August 24, 1968 when she replaced the disabled Caesarea, withdrawn from service following damage sustained while entering harbour.

Further charter work between St Malo and the Channel Islands followed, with the St Patrick finally departing from St Helier on May 8, 1971, returning to Folkestone and completing her B R service from Boulogne on September 25, 1971 before being laid up in Newhaven and put up for disposal.

Purchased by Greek ship owners Gerasimos S Fetouris, she was re-named Thermopylae and sailed from Newhaven for service in the Greek Islands on March 9, 1972. The venture failed, and she was sold on to the Agapitos Brothers, who re-named her Agapitos I and ran her between Piraeus and the Cyclades Islands. In 1976, she was replaced on that service by the Apollon, the former French cross-Channel passenger ferry Lisieux, and laid up in Perama. Sadly, after rusting away for four years the former St Patrick was finally broken up in 1980, bringing to an end the last tenuous link between the Great Western Railway and the English Channel.