Peninsular & Oriental (P&O) Steam Navigation Company’s paddle steamer Ripon sailed in to Southampton Docks on the 3rd April, 1864.

She was conveying General Giuseppe Garibaldi, noted soldier, republican politician and one of the founding fathers of the modern state of Italy on a visit to London to meet Prime Minister Henry Palmerston.

PS Ripon was built in 1846 by Monay, Wigram & Co at their Blackwall shipyard on the River Thames.

On the 12th October 1847 gale force winds forced her to abandon her maiden voyage to Malta and Alexandria, diverting to Torbay for repairs.

In 1870 Ripon was transferred into the ownership of shipbuilders Caird & Co. at Greenock on the Clyde, (P&O’s shipbuilder of preference at that time) in part payment for the new SS Australia.

Caird sold her engines and converted Ripon into a sailing brig. She saw further service in the Caribbean trades until scuttled off Port of Spain in 1880.

Stuart Cameron