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The MV ''Royal Iris of the Mersey'' is a Mersey Ferry in operation on the River Mersey, England. From her launch in Devon in 1959 until a major refurbishment in 2001, she was named MV ''Mountwood''. ==MV ''Mountwood''== The ''Mountwood'' was the slightly older sister ship of the MV ''Woodchurch''. Both of the ferries were built for the Corporation of Birkenhead to replace the existing fleet of 1930s steamers. The designs of the two new vessels were loosely based on the ferries ''Leasowe'' and ''Egremont'' of the Wallasey Corporation, they were designed by the same company, Graham and Woolnough and were built at the same shipyard, Messrs. Philip and Sons Ltd. of Dartmouth. ''Mountwood'' was launched by Mrs Hugh Platt on the 6 July 1959 into the River Dart, and after being fitted out was delivered to the Mersey in 1960. She was named after an overspill post-war housing development of Birkenhead. The ''Mountwood'' and her identical sister ''Woodchurch'' originally had bright orange funnels with a black base and black soot buffer. On the main deck, there was a forward, heated shelter and also a main saloon, aft of this was the toilets and machine space. Below was a saloon bar. On the top deck was a large open promenade and a forward shelter beneath the bridge, although this shelter was open beneath the bridge so it was often breezy and cold. They had a main central wheelhouse and two side cabs, and power came from two medium speed Crossley 8-cylinder diesel engines. Upon the bridge deck, in the wheelhouse, one would find the large brass helm, the hydraulic steering telemotor. a binnacle, and two conjoined Chadburn Synchrostep engine order telegraphs. These were linked to the other two identical telegraphs in the docking cabs so they moved in tandem. There was also whistle controls and lighting controls. In the docking cabs or navigation boxes was another binnacle, a whistle control, telegraphs and also various indicators for engine/speed etc. Originally all ferries had a simple ship to shore communicating radio, but did not have radar or sonar. The wheelhouses of the two ferries differed slightly due to different positioning of rudder angle indicators and engine RPM gauges in the bridge wings. The telegraphs were designed to give the captain direct control of the engines (although they could still be used in the traditional signal / response manner) and as such were marked with commands such as 'brake'and 'start'. They also had more speed settings ahead and astern. The original engines could reach full speed within 3 seconds once 'run' had been passed. In her early years ''Mountwood'' was an unreliable ship, breaking down several times whilst crossing the river and having to anchor. In May 1961, she suffered a main engine failure, with her passengers having to be rescued by ''Woodchurch''. She also collided with ''Bidston'' whilst berthing, due to a communications error. The new ''Mountwood'' had two options of engine control. The first was direct control, where the bridge telegraphs controlled the engines directly, without the assistance of an engineer at the control board. The second option was the traditional system of telegraph orders between the engineers and the engines. On this day, the ''Mountwood'' was operating in the traditional way. The captain gave an order for full astern on the starboard engine to pull the vessel's bow away from the landing stage in preparation for her departure for Liverpool. He then stopped the starboard engine, switching the telegraph to the " run " position (a position where the propeller turns at a very slow rate and most often used to keep the vessel against a landing stage during a strong swell). He then placed the port telegraph to half ahead to push the stern of the vessel clear from the landing stage. What actually happened is unclear, but it seems that the engineer carried out the reverse of the telegraph orders which sent the ''Mountwoods bow into the stern of the nearby steamer ''Bidston''. There should have been a ‘wrong way’ alarm which sounded however either the engineer failed to hear it or, for some reason, it was not working. The ''Mountwood'' remained in operation up until she was withdrawn for refurbishment in 1989. She was rewired, internally refurbished and her bridge wheelhouse and cabs were plated over to form one large navigation bridge, although she retained all the original equipment. The original Crossley engines were retained but heavily overhauled and the central saloon saw modifications in the form of a cafe. The most noticeable change was the colour of the funnel, flame red and black, harking back to the 1920s Birkenhead steamships. The new 'Mersey Ferries' logo was painted on each side of the funnel. The ''Mountwood'' returned to service in July 1990 and remained in operation up until 2001 when she was withdrawn from service for a major refit. Her only major work during the period 1990–2001 was the addition of a shelter abaft the bridge, which also had a small bridge deck area. The black band on the funnel was reduced and the logo resized giving the ferry an oddly small looking funnel. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「MV Royal Iris of the Mersey」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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