Leith Built Ferry leaves the U.K.

ST HELEN Ship No 535 now named as ANNA MUR

The ex ST HELEN now named as ANNA MUR owned by Delcomar has now left the waters of the U.K. heading for her new home port in the Island of Sardinia.

The last ship built at Leith as Ship No 535 has finally left the British Shores for warmer climes. She will soon join her sister ship the ex ST CATHERINE (GB CONTE) working in the warmer waters of the Mediterranean. ST HELEN sailed for Italy as Delcomar's Anna Mur on Thursday 17th September, leaving Southampton at just gone 13:00.

She left via the Western Solent via the needles and gave several blasts to those of us who came to see her off near Hurst point. The following video is shown here and produced by Anni at (Wightlink) who was there to see her off, Anni spent many years working on both the Saint Class ferries built at the Leith Shipyards of Henry Robb Ltd.

Here's some video of her blasting farewell...

https://youtu.be/CLI4gTwuG1o


You will be able to see much more about the last two ships built at Leith on the website Many more stories and photographs to go in so keep checking back with www.leithshipyards.com

ST HELEN Retired

The final ship launched from the Leith Shipyards ST HELEN Ship No 535 has now been retired from British waters by her owners WightLink.

Retirement cake for the passenger ferry ST HELEN

St Helen retired after the 11:30 sailing from Fishbourne on Thursday March 26th after performing a final unscheduled round trip for invited guests, ex-staff and enthusiasts.

Amongst our guests were children from St Helen's primary school who were invited because her first passengers in 1983 were children of that very same school.

 

Her final traffic was led onboard by a 1983 Rover SD1 police car with it's blue lights flashing.

 

A buffet and cake was enjoyed onboard and she was given a salute of numerous blasts by St Clare as she left Fishbourne.

For more on the story visit ST HELEN

 

ST HELEN Ship No 535-Builders Plate

We feature the builders plate from the ST HELEN seen in this photograph sent in by senior steward Anni on the ST HELEN just a couple of weeks ago in the Solent.
She was of course built when the shipyard had reverted back to its original name of Henry Robb Ltd although still a part of the "Quango" that was "British Shipbuilders" at the time.

Quango is an acronym used especially in the United Kingdom and the Republic of Ireland. Quangos are arms-length bodies funded by government departments but not run by them. They are given power and paid for by government departments

Sign of the times that the builders plate was made from stainless steel gone was the traditional "Brass builders plate"

Henry Robb Ltd Shipbuilders, Leith

More on ST HELEN

The WightLink Ferry ST HELEN seen here about a week ago in Portsmouth
photograph is copyright by Anni Ruecroft and shown here by permission



We now have a whole lot more information on the two St Class ships built at the Leith Shipyards of Henry Robb Ltd and these two fine ships where the last of a very long line of ships built at Leith in Scotland.
Thanks to Anni Ruecroft (Senior Steward) who began her working life with WightLink and started out working on the  ST HELEN is a mind full of information on the two ships and we will be featuring her story of working on the ships along with many great never see before photographs so please keep checking back on the website for further information and videos of the last ships built at Leith.

ST HELEN

ST HELEN (Ship No 535)

Ship No 535

It is perhaps fitting that on this the last day of 2010 that the last ship built and launched in the Leith Shipyards of Henry Robb (Robb Caledon) should be featured.


ST HELEN was the second of a two ship order that the yard had won, and for a short time things were beginning to look a little bit brighter. Little did we realise that this was to be the last launch!

She was a passenger/vehicle ferry from use on the south coast of England between the mainland and the Isle of Wight, the ships where for Sealink and she is still in service today under the banner of Wrightlink ferries.

She was a twin screw vessel of 2893 grt,(A bit more room than her sister ship ST CATHERINE) with a length between perpendiculars of 77.6 metres, and a beam of 16.8 metres, with design draught at 4.5 metres.

ST HELEN was launched from the Leith Shipyards of Robb Caledon on 15th of September 1983.

She still had to be outfitted of course and there was still the small experimental submarine being worked on, more of which will be on the new website.

ST HELEN (Ship No 535)