Harland and Wolff - Shipbuilding and Engineering Works

Graphic and her sister Heroic, were built in 1906 by Harland & Wolff for the Belfast Steamship Company. They both had careers of over 40 years with various Coast Lines companies. They were the first Belfast SS ships with quadruple expansion engines, and were followed by the slightly larger Patriotic in 1912, although she reverted to triple-expansion engines. Graphic was 1800 gross tons and 325 feet long (Patriotic was only 5 feet longer, but 2300 gross tons). Graphic continued on the Liverpool-Belfast route throughout the First World War, and had an encounter with a surfaced U-Boat, which she managed to escape. In the summer of 1920, according to D.B.McNeil, Graphic operated on the Ardrossan-Belfast daylight route. However, Duckworth and Langmuir, writing in 1939, refer to her operating this service in the summers of 1921 and 1922. In 1923 she was involved in a collision with with a freighter off Holywood, and sank in the Victoria Channel. She was refloated and repaired at her builders.

Graphic was withdrawn from Belfast SS service in 1929 on the delivery of the three new Belfast SS Motorships, Ulster Monarch, Ulster Queen and Ulster Prince . She was given an extensive overhaul, which included a rearward extension of the boat deck, and the provision of two shorter and more modern funnels (one of which was a dummy) to match those of the new motorships. She was renamed Lady Munster and joined the British & Irish SP Co fleet between Liverpool and Dublin. The Lady Munster then became the Louth.

Only one of the 1938 British & Irish SP Co motorships, and only Ulster Monarch from the 1929 trio returned to Belfast SS service, and so Louth initially reverted to the Liverpool-Dublin route. On delivery of the 1948 British & Irish SP Co replacements Leinster and Munster, she became the Ulster Duke and again ran between Liverpool and Belfast until 1951. Ulster Duke was immediately sold for scrapping in La Spezia. Despite Coast Lines recommendations that she should sail to Italy under her own steam, her buyers decided to tow her, and she sank in the Bay of Biscay whilst en route.