In 1946 a brand new concept of transport was developed in the UK. The idea was like many others born during W/W2. It was during W/W2 that a few experienced men who were taking part in seaborne operations against hostile forces in North Africa, Italy and culminating in the Normandy Landings recognised the great potential of landing craft. The idea was simple; if you could drive tanks, guns and lorries directly onto a ship and then drive them off at the other end directly onto a beach, then theoretically you could use the same landing craft to carry out the same operation in the civilian commercial market, providing there were reasonable port facilities. From this one idea grew the world wide Roll on/Roll off ferry industry that we know to-day.

The first man to exploit this idea was Lt. Col. Frank Bustard, who founded the Atlantic Steam Navigation Co. Ltd. (ASN). He successfully negotiated with the Ministry of War Transport, the Admiralty and the War Office the charter for a period of three years the British Landing Ship Tanks (LST’s) 3519, 3534 and 3512. These vessels where named; Empire Baltic, Empire Cedric and Empire Celtic respectfully.

It was at 11am, on Wednesday 11th September 1946 when Empire Baltic sailed fully loaded from 26 berth at Tilbury Docks, under command of Captain J.W. Rennie that the first voyage of the Atlantic Steam Navigation Co. Ltd. took place. The voyage from Tilbury to Rotterdam took a good 24 hours.
After the maiden voyage the ASN then used their new vessels to carry
Backwards and forwards thousands  of vehicles for the Army between Tilbury and Hamburg. This service being eventually moved to Antwerp in 1955.

The original three LST’s were joined in 1948 by another British LST 3041, named Empire Doric after the ASN were able to convince commercial operators to support the new route between Preston and the Antrim port of Larne. However, special port facilities where constructed at both Preston and Larne before the new route could be open. The first sailing of  this new route between Preston and Larne was on the 21st May 1948 by Empire Cedric. After the inaugural sailing Empire Cedric continued on the Northern Ireland service, offering initially a twice weekly service, and was the first vessel of the ASN fleet to hold a Passenger Certificate, and was allowed to carry 50 passengers. Thus Empire Cedric became the first vessel in the world to operate as a commercial/ passenger Roll on/ Roll off ferry, and the ASN became the first commercial company to offer this type of ferry service. The Preston to Larne service continued to expand so much so that in 1950 the service was expanded from Preston to include a service to Belfast. The service to Belfast opened in 1950 and sailings out of Preston where soon increased to 6 or 7 a week to either Belfast or Larne.

In 1954, the ASN was taken over under the Labour Governments nationalisation policy by the British Transport Commission (BTC). In 1955 another two LST’s where chartered into the existing fleet these being Empire Cymric and Empire Nordic bringing the fleet strength to seven. The Hamburg service was also terminated in this year (1955), and a new service was opened between Antwerp and Tilbury. The fleet of seven ships was to be split up with the usual three ships based at Tilbury and the others maintaining the Preston services to Northern Ireland.

In late 1956, the Government took over the ASN fleet for use in the Suez Crisis. The ASN where made responsible for the management of the Admiralties LST’s that where brought out of reserve during the crisis and where given the names of birds these being; 3042 Empire Curlew, 3524 Empire Fulmer, 3006 Empire Gannet, 3038 Empire Grebe, 3525 Empire Guillemot, 3523 Empire Gull, 3510 Empire Kittiwake, 3520 Empire Petrel, 3015 Empire Puffin, 3517 Empire Skua, 3504 Empire Tern, and 3033 Empire Shearwater. Also at this time the ASN was already responsible for the management of the War Departments LST’s which where; Charles MacLeod, Evan Gibb, Frederick Clover, Humphrey Gale, Maxwell Brander, Reginald Kerr and Snowdon Smith, and was later to hand over the management of these vessel to the British India Steam Navigation Co. Ltd.

In 1957 the first of two new vessels was acquired by the ASN using the financial backing of the British Transport Commission. These two new vessels and their future sister ships were developed from the 11 years of operational experience gained by the ASN using LST’s, and also took into account MOD specifications in case any of these vessels were called for military service. This new ‘purpose’ built ferry named Bardic Ferry made her maiden voyage on the 2nd September, 1957 on the Preston to Larne route. Her sister ship the Ionic Ferry entered service on the same route on the 10th October 1958. However, once she had entered service on this route the Bardic Ferry was transferred to the companies Antwerp route from Tilbury. The Belfast route continued to operate still using one of the LST’s with the occasional stand in by the Ionic Ferry.

In 1959 the first LST Empire Cedric withdrawn from service. In the same year the ASN announced that it was to build a further two vessels based on the Bardic Ferry design thus started the end for the LST’s and they were slowly withdrawn from service.

However, whilst commercial haulage companies had established themselves at Preston and were quite content to stay put, the ASN was still grappling with the river Ribble’s nautical difficulties, drought restrictions and the ship length restrictions of the entrance locks were limiting the desired size of new vessels to replace the hard worked LST’s and to improve the crossing times. Whilst the months and years passed by at Preston, an opportunity arose, it is said through good luck in South West Scotland, it was the old No.2 Military Port. This secret port was used for the loading of ammunition ships for the overseas forces and was known as Cairnryan, and is still in use to-day. This secret port was sold after the war to Mr. Pound the Portsmouth shipbreaker, who then sold it to Queenborough Shipbreakers. It was in the early sixties that the ASN entered secret talks with Mr Pound to purchase some of his Loch Ryan empire, these talks concluded with the purchase from Mr Pound a 10 acre site known as Lighterage Wharf for the sum of £25,000. It took ten years before the new ASN Cairnyan-Larne route was opened. On the 10th July 1973, Ionic Ferry became the first vessel to operate on this new ‘short’ sea crossing. The effect on the ASN’s economics was explosive, at a stroke the ASN had not only created the shortest sea crossing between the UK and Ireland, they were the only operators and this advantage gave them the shortest round trip voyage that was available at the time on any Irish Sea crossing. However, there is a frail link even today between the Atlantic Steam Navigation Co. Ltd. who operated some 26 LST Mk3’s and Mr. Pound. Lying in Portsmouth Harbour in an area on the way into Portsmouth, known as Tipner, where ironically Mr. Pound used to break-up ships (and indeed this facility is still owned today by Mr Pound’s sons John and Harry) is the last LST Mk3 left in the world to-day 3515 HMS Stalker.

She is the sole example of the British designed LST that helped the Atlantic Steam Navigation Co. Ltd. become the pioneers of the Roll on/ Roll off ferry routes many of which still survive to-day. Stalker is currently up for sale for either restoration or scrap.

However, hope is at hand for this last LST, we at the Maritime Steam Restoration Trust are hoping to acquire her for preservation back to ‘Full Operational Condition’ and take her back to sea. This is not going to be an easy task but with help this can be achieved and the MSRT will themselves become pioneers in the preservation and use of such a Historic Maritime artefact.
Further details regarding this project to restore this last LST (3) can be accessed from the MSRT Web-site at; www.maritimesteamrestorationtrust.co.uk or alternatively by contacting myself.

Mr Malcolm Tattersall (Chairman)
Maritime Steam Restoration Trust
39 Fairfield
HEBDEN BRIDGE
West Yorkshire
HX7 6J