Megoran’s Musings

On 27th April 1964 Consul left Weymouth under the command of Capt Cyril “Chum” Holleyoak, formerly of Consul (1961), Embassy (1962) and Princess Elizabeth (1963), for slipping at Poole but

On Tuesday 26th April 1927 P & A Campbell’s paddle steamer Waverley was scheduled to start the day at Newhaven before picking up at Brighton at 9.20am, Eastbourne at 10.50am

Having finally completed her overhaul by Cosens, Bristol Queen was moved out from the Weymouth Backwater and through the Town Bridge on Thursday 25th April 1963 with Capt John Iliffe

On Sunday 24th April 1960 Princess Elizabeth was raising steam alongside at the John I Thornycroft shipyard in Northam, Southampton in preparation for running trials in Southampton Water and the Solent

On Saturday 23rd April 1977 Waverley ran her first trip of the season leaving Glasgow at 10am for a day trip to Greenock, Kilcreggan, Dunoon, Largs, Rothesay and Tighnabruaich where she

On Thursday 22nd April 1920 Cosens’s paddle steamer Queen was sold to the Ardrossan Harbour Board. She had been built new for Cosens in 1883 with the hull constructed in Rotterdam

On Easter Saturday 21st April 1962 P & A Campbell’s Cardiff Queen, under the command of Captain Leo Virgo, was rostered to pack in a variety of trip options to

On Thursday 20th April 1961 Princess Elizabeth spent the morning raising steam and generally getting ready to leave her winter lay up berth at Dartmouth for her annual refit at

On Tuesday 19th April 1966 Embassy was out of the water on the Admiralty slipway at Portland for survey and underwater painting where she had arrived under tow from Weymouth on

On Easter Monday 18th April 1949 Bournemouth Queen was offering trips from Bournemouth Pier in balmy weather conditions with little wind and temperatures well up into the 80 degrees Fahrenheit. It

On the morning of Thursday 17th April 1947 Cunard’s trans-Atlantic liner Queen Elizabeth ran aground inward bound on the Brambles Bank in the approaches to Southampton Water in thick fog.

On Easter Sunday 16th April 2006 Kingswear Castle was running half hour trips from the Historic Dockyard Chatham on the hour every hour from 11am to 4pm in connection with

On Tuesday 15th April 1952 Princess Elizabeth was in the middle of offering five days of Easter sailings from Bournemouth. After the mixed financial fortunes of putting on steamer trips at

On Thursday 14th April 1966 all of Westward Ho’s sailings on the Cardiff/Penarth/Barry and Weston ferry service were cancelled due to the weather which was pretty grim and included unseasonal snow

On Saturday 13th April 1946 Ravenswood made the first P & A Campbell passenger sailing after the Second World War, under the command of Captain Findlay Brander, from Bristol setting off

On Tuesday 12th April 1960 P & A Campbell’s Glen Gower arrived in the scrapyard at Boom near Antwerp on the River Scheldt in Belgium. She left Penarth Dock on

On Saturday 11th April 2015 the Loire Princesse was on the second day of her maiden voyage along the River Loire. And before we go any further let’s get one

On Monday 10th April 1961 the Dorset Evening Echo printed a photograph of progress on the scrapping of Cosens’s Monarch in the Haulbowline Industries scrapyard in Cork. She had left

On Thursday 9th April 1964 British Railway’s paddle steamer Ryde was on the grid in Newhaven Harbour for survey and underwater work. On into the 1960s one or other of

On Wednesday 8th April 1936 Gracie Fields was launched from the Southampton yard of John I Thornycroft & Co by the great lady, popular singer and artiste herself. Afterwards there was

On Good Friday 7th April 1950 Consul opened the Bournemouth season. Starting at Easter at Bournemouth and Swanage was ever tricky financially. The weather might be good. The weather might not

On 6th April 1961 Jupiter was towed away from her berth in the Albert Harbour at Greenock, where she had lain since the end of the 1957 season, bound for

On Wednesday 5th April 1950 Glen Usk opened the Bristol Channel season spending the day running backwards and forwards on the 9 nautical mile crossing between Cardiff in Wales and Weston

At 2.30pm on Thursday 4th April 1946 Bristol Queen was launched from the shipyard of Charles Hill & Sons by the Lady Mayoress of Bristol, Mrs James Owen, for P & A

On Thursday 3rd April 1945 the Admiralty announced that “spirited and successful action” was fought between HMS Paddle Minesweeper Lorna Doone, formerly part of Red Funnel’s fleet of excursion steamers, and three

For Easter 1958 P & A Campbell rostered three paddle steamers for their Bristol Channel sailings: Glen Usk for the Cardiff Weston ferry, Bristol Queen for the down Channel trips

During the First World War the coal mines were taken over and run by the Government as part of the war effort. After the war they were returned to their

The boiler and engine of Princess Elizabeth have been found in a lockup just outside Basingstoke where they have lain undisturbed for fifty years amongst a treasure trove of other

Following the departure of Captain Baker at the end of the 1956 season, Cosens appointed Cdr T Johnston to become their Bournemouth manager in March 1957 to take his place.

The operational career of Red Funnel’s Duchess of Cornwall finished at the end of March 1949. She had been built in 1896 by Barclay Curle on the Clyde as Duchess of

Cosens & Co Limited held their Annual General Meeting at 12.15pm on Tuesday 29th March 1955 in the company’s board room in their office in Weymouth at which they presented

28th March 1948 was Easter Sunday and Cosens’s Embassy was ready to start her season. However it was not a nice day with wind and general murk so she stayed

Easter was early in 1967 and the weather terrible with wind, rain and heavy seas. Although both Waverley and Caledonia were rostered to be out from 24th to the 27th March, passenger