The third ship in the Mersey Ferry fleet, and the flagship of the fleet, is the Royal Iris of the Mersey, seen here approaching the landing stage at the Pier Head in Liverpool.

The Royal Iris name has been in constant use since the First World War, but when the current vessel was renamed from the Mountwood in 1999 it had to be slightly different as the previous Royal Iris was still registered with Lloyds Register of Shipping and there cannot be two vesseles of the same name, hence the "of the Mersey" postfix.