Category Archives: Megoran’s Musings

Brian Waters has built a new model of the Consul a paddle steamer I remember very well as an ever present part of my childhood. There she was laid up

Saturday 9th September 1950 was scheduled to be the penultimate day in service of the 1950 season for Royal Eagle with a roster to leave Tower Pier (8.30am) for Greenwich

Sunday 8th September 1963 was Medway Queen’s last day in service. She left Strood Pier at 9.15am, sailed down the Medway and across the Thames Estuary to Southend for 11am

Wednesday 7th September 1960 was Monarch’s penultimate day in service. She was due away from Poole (9.15am) for Bournemouth (10.15am – 10.45am), Swanage (11.30am), Bournemouth (12.15pm – 2.30pm), Swanage (3.15pm),

On Monday 6th September 1937 Essex Queen (ex Walton Belle) was scheduled to leave Great Yarmouth at 9.40am for Gorleston (9.55am) and Lowestoft (10.45am) bound for Clacton where she was

On Saturday 5th September 1914 Monarch was advertised for a trip leaving Bournemouth at 10.25am, Boscombe 10.40am and Swanage 11.25am for Weymouth where three hours ashore were offered with a

Could it be that Waverley’s trip on Wednesday 4th September is the first excursion sailing from Portland around the Isle of Wight by paddle steamer ever. In the heyday of

On Friday 4th September 1953 both Consul and Empress were rostered to visit Lulworth Cove with the one bringing passengers from Bournemouth and Swanage and the other from Weymouth.. Both

On Saturday 3rd September 1949 Ravenswood returned to service after her day off on the Friday with a largely new deck crew, two new fireman and a new deck chair

On the first Sunday in September 2023 PS Waverley called at Swanage Pier at 12.30pm for a trip to view the Bournemouth Air Show and the steamship Shieldhall. Fifty seven

With war about to be declared P & A Campbell cancelled all further Sussex Coast sailings and ordered Brighton Queen, Glen Gower and Waverley to return to the Bristol Channel

On Wednesday 1st September 1937 Cosens’s Victoria (pictured with her bow on the beach at West Bay) was scheduled to run a day trip from Weymouth at 9am around Portland

After spending the afternoon of Sunday 31st August 1958 running on the Bournemouth/Swanage service with departures from Bournemouth at 2.30pm and 4pm and returns from Swanage at 3.15pm and 5pm

P & A Campbell got into bed with other organisations to sell tickets for them to help fill up spare capacity on their steamers. As in other years, in 1950

Thursday 29th August 1957 was the last day in service of Red Funnel’s paddle steamer Bournemouth Queen. Built in 1908 as a slightly smaller and not quite as fast, version

On Monday 28th August 1967 Kingswear Castle arrived under tow at Binfield on the Isle of Wight on charter to the Ridett brothers who then owned Medway Queen. She was

On Tuesday 28th August 1956 Monarch rescued two men from a small dinghy, called Dumbo, off the Old Harry Rocks in Poole Bay whilst on passage on her regular route

During the period from their development in the 1880s up to their almost complete demise by the late 1960s excursion and ferry paddle steamers in the UK enjoyed an enviable

On Thursday 26th August 1937 Duke of Devonshire was scheduled to leave Torquay (10.45am) for the 17 nautical mile run along the beautiful Devon Coast passing the Ore Stone, Babbacombe,

On Saturday 25th August 1928 the paddle steamer Royal Sovereign was scheduled to sail from Old Swan Pier at London Bridge to Ramsgate with London Belle shadowing her from Greenwich