This was another blow to the Mersey Ferries and the ferry service had to be re-focussed away from commuter traffic which had declined to tourist needs.

The current Mersey Ferries fleet comprises three vessels, all based on a similar design by naval architects Graham and Woolnough of Liverpool.

Other equipment, such as the telegraphs, were put in storage in the Mersey Ferries ' archives.

The Mersey Ferries used to operate in fog, however in recent years even slight fog has resulted in the suspension of the service.

In August 2012 it was announced that Merseytravel were initiating a review into cost saving on Mersey Ferries operations after the service is running at a £ 1 million annual loss.

At least TWO replacement vessels may be needed around 2020 and there is currently speculation that the Royal Daffodil may be sold off in 2013, a sad loss for the Mersey Ferries.

* Official Mersey Ferries website

* Photographs of Mersey Ferries

* Film of the Mersey Ferries

The Mersey Ferries operate from George's Landing Stage, owned by the Mersey Docks and Harbour Company.

A temporary landing stage was installed until early 2010, when work began on a new Mersey Ferries landing stage.

Mersey Ferries services switched to the Cruise Terminal.

The Isle of Man Steam Packet ferry service also operates from Princes Landing Stage, at a berth adjacent to those used by the Mersey Ferries.

In addition to the Mersey Ferries, the Pier Head previously served as a major tram and later bus interchange.

Over the past couple of years the Beatles Story has expanded considerably and extended into a second site, based at the Mersey Ferries Terminal in the Pier Head.

Ferries across the Mersey to New Brighton ceased in 1971, after which the ferry pier and landing stage were dismantled.

The plan of a canal connection from the Mersey to the Trent (" The Grand Trunk ") came from canal engineer James Brindley.

The initial proposal probably came from a group in Bolton, with the support of the Mersey and Irwell Navigation Company.

Within just a few years of the Bridgewater's opening, an embryonic national canal network came into being, with the construction of canals such as the Oxford Canal and the Trent & Mersey Canal.

The narrow locks on the Trent and Mersey limited the size of the boats ( which came to be called narrowboats ), and thus limited the quantity of the cargo they could carry to around thirty tonnes.

Their 72 foot length came from the boats used on the Mersey estuary, with their width of 7 feet chosen as half that of existing boats, and adopted to make canals cheaper to build.

William Jessop proposed a canal and tramway between Breedon and the Trent, with a connecting link to the Trent and Mersey Canal in 1787, which also came to nothing.

Apart from the early extension to Fiddlers Ferry, which provided better access to the River Mersey, and the 1775 extension to St Helens, the only major change came with the extension to Widnes in the 1830s.

This commission eventually came to be headed by Lord Mersey.

A local public house, the Black Boy, suffered extensive damage as the water caused the rear wall to collapse, a local brewery was flooded with the loss of all its stock, and a Mersey Flat came free of its moorings, hitting Regent Bridge.

Further blows to trade came with the commencement of a horse-drawn tramway in 1877 between New Ferry and Woodside Ferry and the opening of the Mersey Railway between Liverpool and nearby Green Lane railway station in 1886.

An English cleric came across a prayer meeting of some Germans in a disused ship on the River Mersey, a man was ordained and ministered to this congregation.

Although plans were made to overcome its gradual silting up, including one in 1857 to cut a ship canal from a point between Thurstaston and Heswall to run along the length of Wirral to Chester, this and other schemes came to nothing, and the focus of general trade moved irrevocably to the much deeper Mersey.

James Brindley was employed as engineer and work got under way .” ( A quote from Canals, Routes and Roots, The Trent and Mersey Canal, by Peter Hardcastle )

The Queensway Tunnel is a road tunnel under the River Mersey, in the north west of England, between Liverpool and Birkenhead.

The first tunnel under the River Mersey was for the Mersey Railway in 1886.

The Kingsway Tunnel is a road tunnel under the River Mersey in Merseyside, northwest England, and runs between Liverpool and Wallasey.

The A41 provides the southern approach to the Queensway Tunnel, which passes under the River Mersey and enters Liverpool to meet the start of the A59.

Before work on the Mersey commenced, Victoria Park was under the River Mersey, in an area that was considered dangerous by even the most experienced seamen.

The earliest records state that the Mersey ferry began operating from Birkenhead in 1150 when Benedictine monks under the leadership of Hamon de Mascy built a priory there.

Several new underwater tunnels were built in the UK in the following decades: the Tower Subway in London ; the Severn Tunnel under the River Severn ; and the Mersey Railway Tunnel under the River Mersey.

The Wirral Line, extending under the River Mersey, links Liverpool with New Brighton, West Kirby, Chester and Ellesmere Port.

It passes under the railway near the junction of the River Mersey and Manchester Ship Canal, and there is a left turn for the B5311.

In 1930, the Ashton upon Mersey UD was merged into Sale UD under a county review order.

At Middlewich the Trent and Mersey Canal was under construction.

The Everton chairman Sir John Moores who presided over the club between 1960 and 1973 provided finances for the club in the form of loans to become involved in large-scale redevelopment projects and compete with other clubs for the best players, for a period of time under his stewardship Everton were known as ' The Mersey Millionaires '.

To help maintenance work on the diameter cast-iron tunnel which took the aqueduct under the Mersey, riveted steel piping was also used.

It runs just to the east of Chester and passes through a syphon under the Manchester Ship Canal to meet the Mersey near Stanlow.

fans ultimately died as a result of their injuries, he joined forces with Paul McCartney, The Christians, Holly Johnson, and his production trio Stock, Aitken & Waterman on a new version of " Ferry Cross the Mersey "-recorded under the name Ferry Aid.

Using the first tunnel under the Mersey the line is oldest underground railway outside of London.

It is recorded that Marc Isambard Brunel suggested a road tunnel when designing the Birkenhead docks and from the 1850s a railway tunnel under the Mersey was proposed several times.

In 1871 the Mersey Railway was given the necessary permissions for an orthodox two track railway connecting the Birkenhead Railway near their station through a tunnel under the Mersey to an underground station serving Liverpool.