Laxey of the Isle of Man, was built in 1854 to pump water from the Laxey mine shafts. Now a tourist attraction, it remains the largest working waterwheel in the world. Designed by Robert Casement, it is in diameter and wide. It revolves at about 3 rpm. The mines employed over 600 miners at their peak, producing lead, copper, silver and zinc, until they closed in 1929. The Wheel was owned by Edwin Kneale from 1939 to 1965; he saved it from being dismantled and ran it as a tourist attraction, before passing it on to the Manx nation, with the
SS Ellan Vannin (1883) Bay, "Ellan Vannin" steamed through them as she made passage to Whitehaven and returned in the evening, the completion of her voyage being heralded by the ships sheltering in the bay sounding their whistles. "Ellan Vannin" became looked upon as a "mascot" of the Steam Packet fleet, and known by Manx sailors as the "Li'l Daisy." On 3 December 1909, "Ellan Vannin" left her home port of Ramsey at 01:13hrs, under the command of her Master, 37 year old Captain James Teare, who had some 18 years of experience working his way through the company to the position of Master.