Parsons Marine Steam Turbine Company Parsons Marine Steam Turbine Company Parsons Marine Steam Turbine Company was a British engineering company based in Wallsend, North East England, on the River Tyne. The company was founded by Charles Algernon Parsons in 1897 with £500,000 of capital, and specialised in building the steam turbine engines that he had invented for naval use. The first ship to use a Parsons propulsion system was "Turbinia", launched in 1894; the successful demonstration of this vessel led to the creation of the company and the subsequent construction of the engines for the first two turbine-powered destroyers for the Navy, and , launched
SS Avila Star Ellis and Third Engineer Raymond Girdler. Ferguson's WRNS uniform jacket, bearing her medal ribbons, is now an exhibit in the Imperial War Museum. SS Avila Star SS "Avila Star, originally SS "Avila, was a British turbine steamship of the Blue Star Line. She was both an ocean liner and a refrigerated cargo ship, providing a passenger service between London and South America and carrying refrigerated beef from South America to London. She was built in 1927, renamed "Avila Star" in 1929 and lengthened in 1935. She was sunk by a German submarine in 1942 with the loss of 84 lives.