Category Archives: Pictures of the Month

Tucked away on the south coast between Portland and Exmouth is the delightful little seaside town of Lyme Regis made famous worldwide as the setting for the film “The French

This entertaining article from the early 1950s gives something of the flavour of paddle steamers in their winter rest. The paddler with much fevered activity on deck is Red Funnel’s

After the Second World War around sixty ferry and excursion paddle steamers were operational on the rivers, estuaries and coast of the UK. Although five were built for service after

The paddle steamer Embassy, pictured alongside Bournemouth Pier in the early 1960s, made her last public sailings forty years ago in September 1966. Although Embassy had been used on Cosens’

This summer the Lake Geneva paddle steamer Savoie, built in 1914 by Sulzer, has returned to service after a major rebuild including the installation of a new boiler. Here she

I mentioned in my last selection (Part 1 here) that we very seldom went on a GSN ship but my favourite was the magnificent Crested Eagle. Compared with the Queen

Knowing my interest in paddle steamers and, as a friend of the family, Captain Stanley Woods (pictured on the bridge of the Princess Elizabeth in 1965) kept my fifteen year

The beautiful Lake Lucerne paddle steamer Schiller celebrates her one hundredth birthday this summer. Ordered from Sulzer in 1904 Schiller made her first official sailing on the lake on 17th

Many excursion paddle steamers ran evening cruises, sometimes with music and many were hired out for private functions. But of all the paddlers still operational in the 1950s, perhaps one

Long standing PSPS member John S Richardson (pictured above with Capt Leonard Horsham aboard the Medway Queen) has sailed aboard paddle steamers for most of his life. This month he

One of Kingswear Castle’s two sister ships is the Compton Castle pictured recently by Ian Liston at her berth in Truro in Cornwall. Although much altered from her heyday on

Clarence Pier (pictured above) in the approaches to Portsmouth Harbour was much used by both the railway and excursion paddle steamers. In this picture Red Funnel’s Lorna Doone has backed

Capt Shippick became master of Cosens’ Brodick Castle (pictured above) in 1908 and stayed with the ship until her withdrawal with boiler trouble in 1910. In the odd way that

As part of Dr Beeching’s Draconian pruning of the British railway system, the Clyde lost two of its veteran steamships after the 1964 season, the turbine steamer Duchess of Montrose

Seventy years ago, in the summer of 1935, Londoners had the opportunity to sail down the Thames from Tower Pier every day, excepting Fridays, to Southend, Margate, Ramsgate or Clacton

Forty years ago in September 1965 three more UK paddle steamers were withdrawn from service, the Sandown (pictured above in 1965 at Portsmouth), the Princess Elizabeth and our own Kingswear

Eighty years ago, in the same summer that British troops were sent overseas on yet another military adventure, in this case to Cyprus, the antique paddle steamer Empress was withdrawn

Founded in 1959, the Paddle Steamer Preservation Society was very active in promoting paddle steamers and paddle steamer excursions in the 1960s, from the outset organising various charters and tirelessly

In the summer of 1895, a large, new paddle steamer appeared on the South Coast of England. With a flush deck extending almost the whole length of the ship, she

The start of the season on the Sussex Coast eighty years ago in April 1925 with the paddle steamer Brighton Belle taking advantage of Wednesday early closing day in Hastings