TSS St Julien was a passenger vessel built for the Great Western Railway in 1925.[1]
TSS St Julien was built by John Brown and Company as one of a pair of vessels, with TSS St Helier for the Weymouth to the Channel Islands service. She arrived in Weymouth from the Clyde on 4 May 1925.[2]
The captain, Charles Hamon Langdon, was found dead in his cabin during a voyage from the Channel Islands to Weymouth in September 1927.[3]
She had two funnels but one was a dummy and this was removed in 1928.
On 1 October 1937 she went to the assistance of the French steamer Briseis which had struck the rocks near Grand Roccque, Guernsey.[4]
When war broke out in 1939 she was put to use ferrying troops but very quickly converted into a hospital ship. She took part in the evacuation of British troops from Dunkirk and Cherbourg in 1940. She spent the remainder of the war as a hospital ship, including a period operating in the Mediterranean and supporting the D Day landings. She was damaged by a mine on 7 June 1944 but repaired and resumed service on 24 June 1944.
Afterwards she returned to Weymouth for further railway service which lasted until 27 September 1960.[5] She was sent to Van Heyghen Freres, Ghent in March 1961 for scrapping.