Date: 1855
Technique: Oil on canvas, 59 x 80 cm
The Cygnus, an iron paddler, was built in 1854 by Henderson and Sons of Renfrew for the North of Europe Steam Navigation Company's between Harwich and Antwerp, a service which lasted for only a few months. After a charter on the same route the following year to the Eastern Counties Railway this vessel was then laid up until taken over in 1857, first on charter and subsequently bought, by a new organisation, the Weymouth and Channel Islands Steam Packet Company, which planned to take advantage of the railway's recent arrival in Weymouth and provide an onward connection to Guernsey and Jersey.
Company from Weymouth sold the ship in 1889. New owner was Alfred Tolhurst. The same year the Cygnus passed to Thomas Holden who planned to run her between Preston and Douglas on the Isle of Man and then on to David Macbrayne in 1891. After a thorough rebuild, with new paddle boxes and only one funnel, she emerged as the 'Brigadier' and sailed on various routes in the Western Isles before hitting a rock off the Isle of Harris on 7th December 1896 where she sank and where she still remains in deep water today. Fortunately all the passengers and crew were saved.
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