The Guinness tankers

I took a trip to Ireland recently and learned a surprising bit of history concerning one of my favorite brews, Guinness.  Did you know that Guinness shipped a good amount of the “black stuff” over to England with their very own beer tankers?  Talk about a great gig!  If you go way back, you find that Guinness shipped a lot of beer on barges through parts of Ireland via a network of canals, and as the popularity of Guinness spread, an efficient way to ship to stuff to England was needed.

The first purpose built beer ship - The S/S Guinness

The tankers are  no longer used by Guinness, likely replaced by container ships. The most recent ships, The Lady Patricia and the Miranda Guinness were withdrawn from service in July, 1993.  The Miranda Guinness went on to serve as a wine tanker in the Mediterranean and the Lady Patricia was scrapped.  Its too bad the history of these fine ships were not preserved for generations to see.  Does anybody know the whereabouts of the Miranda Guinness?  I would assume she sails under a different name if still sailing.

A model of the Miranda Guinness inside the brewery in Dublin

The Lady Patricia

The Miranda Guinness