Category Archives: Pictures of the Month

How are the Swiss paddle steamers manned and what is the route to becoming a captain? Each lake operates its own training scheme and structure but all require basically the

A lovely shot of Monarch alongside Bournemouth Pier. We know that Cosens bought her in time for the 1951 season and by 1954 she had acquired a crane on the

In 1964 just as overseas travel became a viable option for many, and widespread car ownership opened up opportunities previously only within the province of the better off, Weymouth suddenly

Why did some paddle steamer boilers last longer than others? How come some elderly paddle steamers with careers way beyond their design lives took the same boiler with which they

Here is a lovely picture of Cosens’s Embassy coming into Totland Bay Pier on the Isle of Wight taken about 11.30am on Thursday 21st August 1958. Captain Rawle is on

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.