On Thursday 26th January 1961 the Bournemouth Echo ran a piece announcing that Monarch had been sold for scrap in Cork, Southern Ireland and that the PSPS was to hold a meeting at the Cathedral Hotel in Salisbury the following Sunday at which the main topic of debate was expected to be the Monarch.

Bournemouth Echo cutting, 26th January 1961

The cutting says that the Monarch was to make “her last voyage today”. It was not in fact until the following Tuesday that she was towed away from her layup berth in the Weymouth Backwater through the Town Bridge and up to the Pleasure Pier where she was moored to await the weather for the sea-going tug for the tow to Ireland.

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