SS British Queen

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The steamship SS British Queen was a side-paddle steamship owned by the British and American Steam Navigation Company, and purposely built for the Atlantic crossing. The ship was built as a competitor to Isambard Kingdom Brunel's Great Western, which was owned by the rival Great Western Steamship Company.

British Queen was built in the yard of Curling & Young, London and was supplied with engines by Robert Napier of Glasgow. She was built in 1838 and made her maiden voyage on July 12, 1839. She became the largest ship of the time, replacing the Great Western. British Queen was 1,863 GRT, 275 feet long and 64 feet across the paddle boxes. She had a wooden hull and two 30 feet diameter paddle-wheels which gave her a maximum speed of 10 knots. She was designed to carry 207 passengers.

Her maiden voyage from Portsmouth to New York took fifteen days. On board was Samuel Cunard. 1841 she was sold to the Belgian Government and in 1844 she was broken up. British Queen had a sister ship, the 2,350 ton SS President, which completed only four transatlantic crossings before being lost at sea on March 11, 1841, traveling from New York to Liverpool. All 136 passengers and crew were lost.^[1]

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