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 (1854) the "Manx Fairy" on the route. This was seen as a sensible course of action as opposed to sustaining a weekly loss of £12 over the winter months. It can be assumed that the offer of the winter charter was accepted as there is no published schedule in the Manx Press for the "Ellan Vannin" from 10 December 1856 until mid-May 1857. The question was also raised at the meeting as to whether the Board had received an offer for the sale of the "Ellan Vannin". One shareholder understood that the company had been offered £14,000 (equivalent to £ in