Northern Ireland Screen's Digital Film Archive is a free public access resource for teachers, students, historians and anyone who has an interest in moving images. Spanning from 1897 to the present day, the films in the Digital Film Archive cover all aspects of life in Northern Ireland and includes everything from dramas to documentaries, newsreels and features, animation to amateur footage.
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SS Mona's Isle V
Amateur film maker A.H. Martin captures the SS Mona’s Isle V at work two years before the ship stars for Hugh Hudson in ‘Chariots of Fire’.
From the collection of:
Overview
Watch from the shore as this magnificent vessel cruises through Northern Irish waters, jostling smaller boats scattered in her wake. In this film by A.H. Martin, the SS Mona’s Isle V is a working passenger ship, she would be scrapped two years later. But before joining the Dutch scrapheap she makes a glorious screen debut in ‘Chariots of Fire’. There is still time left to race inland to Portadown and scribble down the carriage numbers as mustard passenger trains snake past.
The SS Mona’s Isle V operated from 1951 until the 2495 gross register ton vessel was towed to the Netherlands for scrap in 1980. The ship formed part of the Isle of Man Steam Packet Company fleet and therefore worked for the world’s oldest continuously operating Passenger Shipping Company. SS Mona’s Isle built like her sister ships had the capacity to carry 2268 passengers with a working crew of 67.
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