HMS Iris II

Iris II returns to Liverpool after the Zeebrugge Raid
History
Name:	SS Iris (1906-1918) HMS Iris II (1918) SS Royal Iris (1918-1947) SS Blarney (1947-)[1]
Builder:	Robert Stephenson and Company, Newcastle upon Tyne
Launched:	1906
Acquired:	1918
Fate:	Returned to owners
General characteristics [1]
Tonnage:	491 gross register tons (GRT)
Length:	159 ft (48 m)
Draught:	8 ft 6 in (2.59 m)
Propulsion:	Steam engine, 2 shafts
Capacity:	1,735 passengers

HMS Iris II was a River Mersey ferry which was commandeered by the Royal Navy to take part in the Zeebrugge Raid of St George's Day 23rd April 1918. Iris II along with another Mersey ferry, Daffodil, was towed across the English Channel to Zeebrugge by Vindictive.

When the ship neared the Zeebrugge Mole she cast the two ferries aside. Iris II endeavoured to pull up to the mole under heavy fire in order to off-load the Royal Marines which were on board. the first attempt failed as the grapple-hooks were not large enough. Two naval officers, George Nicholson Bradford and Lieutenant Hawkins bravely climbed ashore and under heavy fire attempted to secure the ship. Both were killed and Bradford received a posthumous Victoria Cross. A Marine officer, Lieutenant William Edward Sillitoe^[2][3] was killed in the same action, and is buried with another casualty, Private John Bostock,^[4] in the Hamilton Road Cemetery, Deal.

Iris II continued to sustain heavy fire and at one point a shell burst through the deck into an area where 56 marines were preparing to land. 49 were killed and the rest seriously injured.

References

1. Smith, Noël E. (2005). "The Royal Iris and Daffodil Mersey Ferries". merseyside.net. Retrieved 21 February 2012.
2. "Casualty details for Lieutenant Sillitoe". Commonwealth War Graves Commission. Retrieved February 2010.
3. "File:The Gravestone of Lieutenant Sillitoe.jpg". Wikimedia Commons. 2011. Retrieved 21 February 2012.
4. "Casualty details for Private Bostock". Commonwealth War Graves Commission. Retrieved February 2010.