Balmoral is the last of her kind - lucky to have survived, she is now in preservation so that everyone can benefit from the educational experience of living history and coastal cruising around the UK.




Electrical systems



The Bridge  

Officers Accommodation


Upper Deck 

Hull construction

Machinery & Engines

Steering gear

Electrical systems  



Balmoral has an electrical system that was installed in 1949 and although perfectly suitable for her day, it now needs help from a modern generator that is currently installed at the rear of the top deck.

Her original system was supplied by a pair of 6 cylinder diesel Lister generating sets.  Balmoral is an all electric ship and apart from the actual propulsion, everything else depends on electricity, so the generators are equally as important as her main engines.  As built she had two main generators and a small emergency and standby unit in the steering flat at the stern.  All the ancillary equipment such as winches, capstans, ventilators and even the water pumps and sewage system is driven by electricity.

As originally supplied the ship had two 35kw units  - that's enough to boil about  20 kettles or run 20  13 amp fan heaters.  In 1949 that was well sufficient, but today we take electricity for granted and over the years a much greater load was installed in the ship and while the generators can handle this, there isn't much spare capacity.  For this reason a third independent unit was installed on the after deck.  This is a large generator and is capable of supplying the ship on its own, and in this way Balmoral can be sure the lights won't go out.

In addition, the ship has the facility to connect to the shore supply in the same way as a caravan can hook up to the mains, so when alongside it is environmentally better to rely on the domestic electricity supply than generate her own power.
















All this power is connected to a switchboard which is completely original and fully functional.  It is still used to operate the ship's main systems and is a classic piece of marine engineering. 

 The main switchboard - it all works and is the main distribution centre for the ships power.





.... this is the modern generator on the rear of the main deck that can supplement the ships original generators ....




                                                                                                         ..... and we have a standby and emergency generator right at the stern of the ship that would power the emergency and navigation lights and basic services when the ship was in port and off service with no shore supply.



   The Bridge   Officers Accommodation  Upper Deck  Hull construction  Machinery & Engines  Steering gear Electrical systems