3-052-791 - The Print Collector/Heritage Images

The Holyhead and Kingstown steam-boat Violet, constructed of steel, 1880. 'The London and North-Western Railway Company, with the object of extending their express passenger-service between Holyhead and Dublin...commissioned Messrs. Laird Brothers, of Birkenhead...to build two magnificent paddle-steamers, which, in their size, appointments, and speed, are unsurpassed by any in the Channel passenger services. These vessels, named the Lily and the Violet, are somewhat larger and more powerful than the Rose and Shamrock, built by that firm for the same service in 1876; but, as they are constructed entirely of steel (manufactured at the Crewe works of the London and North-Western Railway Company), it has been possible, owing to the saving in weight thus effected, to give them considerably finer lines, and so to ensure greater speed...They are fitted with oscillating jet-condensing engines, supplied with steam from eight boilers, calculated to exert an actual power of over 3000 horses, and thereby drive the vessel seventeen knots, or nearly twenty statute miles, an hour'. From "Illustrated London News", 1880.