Category Archives: Pictures of the Month

For this month here is a short reminder of KC’s happy days on the Medway. It is difficult to believe now just how much the world has changed since those

The paddle steamer Sirius is credited as being the first ship to cross the Atlantic under continuous steam power in 1838 the voyage taking fifteen days and ten hours. The

Between 1954 and 1966 Talisman spent her summers primarily running the ferry connections between Millport, Largs, Wemyss Bay and Rothesay. Yes she occasionally filled in for other steamers elsewhere sometimes

Capt H F “Harry” Defrates was a keen exponent of paddle steamer preservation in the 1960s and was in the forefront of trying to find new lives for both Princess

By 1964 British Railways still needed two paddle steamers Sandown and Ryde to provide extra capacity on busy summer Saturdays for their Portsmouth/Ryde route augmenting the capacity of their three

Balmoral’s last season with Red Funnel was 1968 during which she operated the company’s excursion programme from June to September Sundays to Thursdays and provided additional sailings on the Southampton/West

I have here with me a very large box stuffed full of hundreds of photographs of Chinese, Burmese and other Junks plus other disparate Far Eastern Craft including the ship

From the mid eighteenth century Weymouth became the favoured holiday destination for the moneyed and aristocratic elites buoyed up by King George III’s decision to spend much of sixteen summers

Although paddle steamer operator Cosens & Co of Weymouth had a pretty near monopoly on excursions to sea from Weymouth, if you exclude the motor boat trips from the beach

There were six paddle steamers in service on Lake Geneva this June all quietly going about their business, carrying good loads and offering trips either connecting individual honeypot tourist locations

By the middle of May 1953 Embassy was back in service running predominantly from Bournemouth to Totland Bay and Yarmouth Isle of Wight. Monarch was on the Bournemouth/Swanage service. They

On Saturday 15th April 2023 two tours of the Laubergast Shipyard near Dresden were offered with the first setting off from Dresden aboard the PS Pillnitz shortly before 10am. A

The late Stafford Ellerman’s Uncle Lewis Wood drew a number of pictures of ships of all sizes including a handful of the paddle steamers he had sailed on in his

The late Stafford Ellerman’s Uncle Lewis and Auntie Celia were inveterate travellers on liners and coastal excursion steamers. Lewis kept meticulous diaries of their voyages complete with pictures he took

Not all paddle steamers were built with cooking facilities for crew or passengers. Those running short trips starting and finishing their days at the same place didn’t really need them.

Lewis and Celia Wood were inveterate travellers on ocean liners and coastal passenger vessels. In 1949 they made two trips down the Thames, the first being aboard Royal Daffodil on

As we saw last month the late Stafford Ellerman’s Uncle Lewis and Auntie Celia Wood were inveterate travellers on ships of all sizes including P & O liners, cross Channel

The late Stafford Ellerman left meticulous records of his extensive travels both in this country and abroad. In this he followed the example his Uncle Lewis Wood. He was a

In 1960 there were still some paddle steamers running ferry services in the UK throughout the year including those on the Tay, Firth of Forth, Humber, Woolwich and between Lymington

A paddle steamer manager will have a multiplicity of things on their mind to keep the show on the road and deliver an enjoyable and reliable product for their passengers.