The Black Duke of Lancaster - DuDug Project - Click here for details
On August 10th, 1979, a former Sealink passenger ferry called “The Duke of Lancaster"
was beached at Llanerch-y-Mor in North Wales with the intention of turning it into
a floating leisure and retail complex called The Fun Ship but the project never achieved
it’s full potential due to many long running legal disputes with the local council.
Make no bones about it, until it was converted into a car ferry she was one of the
finest vessels afloat at the time. The first class quarters in the late fifties and
early sixties were the best around, silver service restaurants, state rooms and luxurious
cabins. In fact, the facilities and the accommodation on board Lancaster were so
good she was frequently taken out of her usual ferry service and used as a cruise
liner with frequent annual cruises around Scotland, Scandinavia and the Mediterranean.
If you are interested in providing information for this site then please contact
us.
Paul Williams and John Veal would like to point out this website would never of been
possible without the support and full cooperation of John Rowley and Pat Scott.
Regular visitors to this page will know this is the fourth iteration of the website
and it is the culmination of 4 years work gathering information, facts and figures,
county records, court papers, photographs, archived documents and council records.
There is nothing printed on this site which cannot be corroborated from easily obtainable
sources. The site is here only to remind people of the history of a wonderful old
lady, The Duke of Lancaster.
We would also like to thank Alan and Fred for their assistance and for providing
many of the anecdotes that has further supported the story.
