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RMS ''Atrato'' was a UK iron-hulled steamship. She was built in 1853 for the Royal Mail Steam Packet Company as a side-wheel paddle steamer, and when completed was the World's largest passenger ship. She was a Royal Mail Ship until 1870. In 1870 RMSP traded her in and in 1872 she was converted to a single screw ship with a compound steam engine. From 1872 Aberdeen Line chartered her to run to Victoria and New Zealand. In 1880 she was renamed ''Rochester''. She sank in 1884. ==''Demerara'' and ''Amazon''== Until 1850 RMSP secured its first contract to carry mail between the UK, Brazil and the River Plate. It ordered five large new wooden-hulled sister ships to take over scheduled services on its premier route between Southampton and the Caribbean, thus releasing older RMSP ships to start its new service to Rio de Janeiro, Montevideo and Buenos Aires. One of the new ships, the ''Demerara'', was built in Bristol by William Patterson Shipbuilders, but her engined were built by Caird & Company of Greenock. After her launch in November 1851 a steam tug started to tow from Bristol to Greenock for her engines to be installed. But the tug master lacked experience of the winding Avon and lost control of ''Demerara'', which became wedged against both banks. When the tide went out the ship was left bridging the river, and suffered structural distortion from the 1,200 tons of ballast in her engine room. RMSP rejected the damaged ship, which was effectively a "constructive total loss" – a concept then unknown in marine insurance. RMSP was then left with one ship missing from the quintet it needed for its new service, and an engine in Greenock with no ship into which to put it. Until 1851 the Admiralty had insisted that ships for mail contracts had to have a wooden hull. However, two months after ''Demerara''s accident , another member of the new quintet, caught fire and sank in the Bay of Biscay on her maiden voyage. More than 100 passengers and crew were killed and the Admiralty agreed to allow iron-hulled ships to be used for mail services. 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「RMS Atrato (1853)」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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