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PS Sirius ship model

Details of model

• Exhibition model, rigged, wood
• Scale 1:96 (1/8 inch to 1 foot)
• Made by TG Balfour and SH Phillips in 1937
• Based on contemporary oil painting in the Merseyside Maritime Museum
• Model size (overall): 76.3 cm (l) x 23 x 48.3 (h)
• Commissioned 1937

The first ship to cross the Atlantic wholly under steam power

The wooden paddle steamer 'Sirius' was built in 1837 by Robert Menzies & Son, Leith for the coasting trade of the St George Steam Packet Company of Hull. In 1838 she was chartered by the British and American Steam Packet Company of London to attempt the first wholly steam-powered Atlantic crossing.

She made the voyage from Passage West, Cork Harbour, Ireland, to New York in eighteen and a half days. She travelled at an average speed of nearly 7 knots. She carried 40 passengers, 38 crew and no cargo. 'Sirius' completed this historic voyage just sixteen hours before her much larger rival, the 'Great Western', whose departure had been much delayed by a fire on board.

'Sirius' returned to the coasting trade of her owners after only one more return passage across the Atlantic. In 1847 she ran aground in dense fog near Ballycotton Head in County Cork and was wrecked. Nineteen lives were lost.

View the painting of 'Sirius' on which this model was based