TSS Manxman ( 1904 ) TSS " Manxman " was a packet steamer which was owned and operated by the Midland Railway before the outbreak of the First World War . In 1916 , she was commissioned by the Royal Navy as HMS " Manxman " and saw action as a seaplane carrier during the First World War , after which she was acquired by the Isle of Man Steam Packet Company . On the outbreak of World War II she was again requisitioned as a troop ship , until she was commissioned and her name changed to HMS " Caduceus " . Construction and Dimensions . " Manxman " was built at the yards of Vickers Sons and Maxim at Barrow - in - Furness and her keel was laid in 1903 . She was a steel ; triple - screw turbine vessel , which had an original tonnage of 2030 GRT ; length 330 feet ; beam 43 feet ; depth 18 feet . Her engines produced a boiler pressure of 200 psi and generated 10 , 000 indicated horsepower . This gave " Manxman " a service speed of 22 knots . " Manxman " was certificated to carry 2 , 020 passengers and had a crew complement of 80 . Service . Midland Railway . Upon her completion in 1904 , " Manxman " entered service with the Midland Railway on the Heysham to Douglas run . She gave reliable service until she was purchased from the Midland Railway by the Admiralty in January 1915 . First World War : HMS " Manxman " . " Manxman " was converted for her wartime role at Chatham Dockyard . The conversion included two aircraft hangars and a flying - off deck . She was commissioned as HMS " Manxman " on 17 April 1916 . Her operating aircraft included Sopwith Baby , Sopwith Pup , Sopwith Camel and Short Type 184 . She served with the Grand Fleet until October 1917 , and was then transferred to the Eastern Mediterranean . " Manxman " lacked the speed of her fellow seaplane carriers ( III ) and " Viking " , and she had lost her place in the entourage of the Grand Fleet because her conversion had made her just too slow . The C - in - C of the Fleet , Admiral Sir David Beatty , wrote a letter from on 11 January 1917 , in which he said that the " Manxman " was unfit for service with the Battle Cruiser Fleet " owing to her lack of speed " . - these last six words were added in his own handwriting . However , " Manxman " made one contribution to aviation history . She had introduced the Sopwith Pup single - seat fighter , and this aircraft could take off from her launching platform in only 20 feet in a 20 - knot wind . The mathematics were in the fighter ' s favour ; its wing loading was only five pounds per square foot and its power loading 16 . 4 pounds per horsepower ; thus producing a significant power - to - weight ratio . This small machine had a Le Rhone engine of 80 hp , giving it a speed of 112 mph at sea level and 103 mph at 9 , 000 feet . Floatation bags were used to enable it to land alongside the " Manxman " , and it was then hoisted aboard . At the war ' s end she arrived at Plymouth on the same day as the " Viking " . HMS " Manxman " was paid off in May 1919 , and released from requisition on Christmas Eve of that year . Isle of Man Steam Packet Company . Of eleven Steam Packet ships either purchased or chartered by the Admiralty during the Great War , only four returned to service with the company after the cessation of hostilities , and consequently , new ships were going to be needed to handle the resumption of peacetime traffic . However , industry as a whole was in a disorganised and seriously run - down state after the challenges of the war years , and new vessels could not possibly be built in time for the tourist influx of 1919 . The company compromised , and starting with the purchase of the ( II ) , they set about redressing their wartime losses . " Manxman " was purchased by the Isle of Man Steam Packet Company from the Admiralty in March 1920 , and she was the first vessel in the line ' s history to be so named . She was no stranger to the Isle of Man and it was unnecessary to change her name . She was converted to an oil burner in 1921 , and was the first company ship to use oil fuel . " Manxman " operated to every one of the numerous ports then served by the Steam Packet . Known as a reliable ship , she enjoyed a trouble free life until she once again found herself at war . Second World War : HMS " Caduceus " . The " Manxman " had started the Great War in the colours of the Midland Railway Company , and had been converted to a seaplane carrier . During the Second World War , however , she was requisitioned by the Ministry of War Transport as a personnel ship . " Manxman " served alongside seven of her Steam Packet sisters during Operation Dynamo . On 29 May , she was one of ten personnel ships which together took off 14 , 760 troops from the East Pier . She returned to Dunkirk on the morning of 2 June , when the operation was getting near its close , and embarked 177 troops . In all , " Manxman " evacuated 2 , 394 men . No sooner had she returned from her final journey to Dunkirk , she was ordered west to Dartmouth , where she had the ironical experience of being fired on by a small guard boat that had obviously not been alerted to her arrival . Within a few hours she was redirected to Southampton , and this was to be the start of the most active phase of " Manxman " s war . The evacuation of the ports of north - west France was beginning , and " Manxman " s crew knew the coast well , having spent some months before Dunkirk carrying troops to Le Harve and Cherbourg . Within what seemed a few days she made a succession of trips to the French ports under the command of Captain P . B . Cowley . At Cherbourg she embarked retreating Allied troops as the enemy approached the port , and returned to Southampton , often under air attack . Once back on the South Coast of England she disembarked the men she had brought back , refuelled , and was off again almost at once . It was dangerous and sleepless work well remembered by veteran s from the " Manxman " ' s officers and crew , among whom were Chief Officer Lyndhurst Callow , and Second Officer A . W . G . Kissack , who later became the company ' s Marine Superintendent . As the days advanced the shell ing came nearer , the raids more frequent , and the Cherbourg harbour area necessarily more congested with survival boats , wrecks and the debris of battle . It was " " Dunkirk " " again , but on a smaller scale . Meanwhile the " Manxman " , with no protective armament of her own , continued to venture in and out of the firing . As conditions became desperate and further Allied evacuation became impossible , the destroyer L . 11 . was specifically sent at full speed of 36 knots from Portsmouth to help cover the " Manxman " s escape . Chief Officer Callow , who survived to become Commodore of the Steam Packet Company fleet , vividly recalled how the ship eventually pulled out from Cherbourg : Despite the odds , " Manxman " escaped , with her crew having been forced to cut her mooring ropes with axes . The " Manxman " then pulled out , thanks to fire cover from a Royal Navy destroyer , which had turned her forward guns on to the German tank column as it advanced down the quayside . Rommel is even said to of referred to her in his papers , describing her as a " cheeky two - funnel steamer " . When " Manxman " pulled out for the last time , Rommel ' s main army was only a few miles away . The " Manxman " s main duties were at Cherbourg , but she was also deeply involved at the small port of St Malo , to the east , where she was the last ship to leave the shattered harbour . In October 1941 , she was fitted out as an RDF – Radio Direction Finding Vessel – and having been taken over for the second time by the Admiralty , she was commissioned as HMS " Caduceus " . She was then ordered to her former home port of Douglas , where on Douglas Head there was situated one of the early radar training stations - . From Douglas she spent some time on patrol in the Irish Sea , while naval personnel were initiated into the workings of radio direction finding . Her work was not without its mishaps , and " Caduceus " was twice damaged when colliding with the Victoria Pier , Douglas , and was sent to Belfast for repairs . Following her repairs , she made passage to the River Clyde and continued her radar training duties , only to be driven ashore near Greenock in a fierce gale in February 1943 . She was reconditioned and returned to personnel vessel duties . She acted as a troop carrier and eventually moved to the traffic between Harwich and Tilbury and the Belgian and Dutch ports , bringing over service personnel , civilians and displaced persons . Disposal . Transferred to Ministry of War Transport in 1945 , she worked as a troop carrier in the English Channel . Transferred to British Army of the Rhine ( B . A . O . R . ) military service as " " Manxman " " , troop carrying on the Harwich - Hook of Holland service . She was never to return home to Manx waters , and after a somewhat punishing but nonetheless adventurous life , she was withdrawn in February 1949 , no longer fit for use . " Manxman " was scrapped in August 1949 at Preston , Lancashire .