Category Archives: Pictures of the Month

August 1960 would have provided quite a feast for anyone wishing to take a paddle steamer trip from Bournemouth, Swanage or Weymouth. Cosens and Company was still very much in

It is with great sadness that I report the death of Tony McGinnity, pictured above on the bridge of the Consul in February 1965 with Capt Harry Defrates. Tony went

The Lake Zurich paddle steamer Stadt Zurich arriving at Insel Ufenau. “Full astern!” Who says paddle steamers need big piers to call at? The lovely Escher Wyss engine dating from

Capt R “Bob” Hayman My father was given an introduction to Bob Hayman (as he was known to nearly everyone) and in the early 1930s took me to meet him

The paddle tug John H Amos sitting on the number 7 slip at Chatham on the morning of Thursday 27th March 2008 awaiting her big lift onto a barge. Paddle

A question: What have Herne Bay, Sheerness, Dunkirk, Glyndebourne Festival Opera and the paddle steamers Golden Eagle and Freshwater, all got in common? The answer: Moran Caplat, pictured above pointing

Shipyards have been in great decline in the UK in the last twenty or so years with cheaper labour rates in places like Poland and elsewhere in the world taking

The beautiful paddle steamers (left to right) Schiller, Stadt Luzern, Unterwalden and Gallia slumber in their winter lay up in the shipyard at Lucerne on Sunday 30th December 2007. Their

Tucked away in Kingswear Castle’s old home port of Dartmouth in Devon a paddler is still in service flapping her way backwards and forwards across the river from early morning

Pictured left to right are: Mr C Shears (chief steward), Mr W Palmer (mate), Mr S Goss (chief engineer), Mr R C Bowering (first mate, Capt Read, Mr J Halford

The beautiful Lake Geneva paddle steamer La Suisse is scheduled to be withdrawn at the end of this season for a major rebuild. Built by Sulzer Brothers of Winterthur almost

Sixty years ago, 1947 was quite a buoyant year for UK paddle steamers. Although a number had returned from the war in such poor condition that they ended up being

Bournemouth Queen sailing down Southampton Water sometime after the Second World War and before 1954 when she acquired a main mast. There is a nice puff of health giving smoke

Sixty summers ago, in 1947, paddle steamer services were beginning to re-establish themselves after the war. The following account, by the journalist Harry Hamilton, gives a fascinating insight into the

Compared with ships today there is not a lot of kit on the bridge of P & A Campbell’s Glen Usk (pictured above): an engine room and docking telegraph on

The Bournemouth Evening Echo for Thursday September 10th 1959 records a sorry tale of a mixed up school girl who had run away from her home in Manchester and sought

The Paddle Steamer Rigi, pictured above at Lucerne in her early days on the lake, was built by Ditchburn and Mare of Greenwich with engines by John Penn and Son,

Where there is much optimism on Loch Lomond about a future return to service of the Maid of the Loch there is little but gloom about the paddle steamer Ryde

Built in 1953 by A & J Inglis for service on Loch Lomond, the beautiful paddle steamer Maid of the Loch (pictured top at Inversnaid) is fortunately still with us

The picture above gives a good impression of the disorienting effect of looking out into fog and not seeing what you expect to see! Just before Christmas a certain level