Category Archives: Pictures of the Month

After the First World War several major infrastructure projects were completed around Weymouth Harbour including damming the River Wey with Westham Bridge, much infilling of, and new harbour walls for,

The steamer notice from July 5th to September 27th 1936 for Red Funnel’s “Daily Steam Packet Service from Southampton to Cowes, Ryde and Southsea” lists the paddle steamers taking sailings

Before Yarmouth Pier was opened in 1876 paddle steamers called inside Yarmouth Harbour on various Solent connections from Lymington, Southampton, Cowes and Portsmouth with the Solent Steamship Company becoming the

Capt Shippick’s Audrey has a significant place in Medway and Thames excursion steamer history in providing one of the earliest links in the chain of expansion which culminated in the

P & A Campbell did not resume sailings on the Sussex Coast until 1923 so, seeing a gap in the market, two other organisations fielded one steamer each in 1922

Capt John Davey was born in Shaldon just down the road from Exmouth in 1844. He went to sea when he was eleven serving on various ships including Lord Raglan

In February 1963 P & A Campbell bought the St Trillo and the goodwill of the business which went with her in North Wales where primarily she had run short

If you had wanted to travel between Southampton and West Cowes in 1956 you could have done it by paddle steamer aboard Princess Elizabeth but you would have had to

The paddle steamer Kingswear Castle celebrated her Centenary with a combined steam railway and river trip on Thursday 26th September. After a welcoming cup of coffee at Paignton guests boarded

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