The abandoned ship of the Duke of Lancaster in Wales

The abandoned ship of the Duke of Lancaster in Wales

TSS Duke of Lancaster was one of the last passenger ships built for British Railways when the company was also a ferry operator. Built in Harland & Wolff, Belfast and completed in 1956, it replaced another ship of the same name, the RMS Duke of Lancaster.

She mainly operated as a passenger ferry on the Heysham - Belfast route, but as she was also designed to be a cruise ship, she traveled to the Scottish Islands and to Belgium, Denmark, the Netherlands, Norway and Spain.

From the mid-1960s, passenger ships only began to be replaced by ferries and British Railways decided to gradually convert their ships. In 1970, the Duke of Lancaster returned to service after his main deck was rebuilt to accommodate vehicles via a rear door. Now, the ship had room for 1,200 single-class passengers and 105 cars, with total cabin accommodations for 400 passengers.

For the next nine years, the Duke of Lancaster served the Heysham-Belfast line, the Fishguard-Rosslare crossing, and the Holyhead-Dun Laoghaire service. In 1979 he was put out of service and put on hold in Holywell, Wales.

It was then that Duke of Lancaster began his second life as "Fun Ship", a floating leisure complex. Although the local government was initially supportive of the project, it later became reluctant, refusing to provide many licenses for security reasons. During the 1980s, a series of legal battles took place and The Fun Ship was served by 13 separate enforcement notices. In 1990, the local government lost its shares to the Secretary of State of Wales and was ordered to pay unprecedented fees.

It was not the end though. In 1994, the local government again claimed monopoly

rights and bring the case to the High Court. This forced The Fun Ship to close while procedures were in progress. Finally, in 2004, after decades of attacks, the owners decided to definitively close the ship.

Since then there has been a lot of discussion about what to do with the abandoned ship. Although its interior is said to be in good condition, the exterior is rusty because it has been left exposed to the elements. In 2012, a graffiti artist decided to create the largest outdoor graffiti gallery by painting on the sides of the ship. Today, most of the works are gone or have been repainted.