Megoran’s Musings

John Megoran recalls the heyday and decline paddle steamers, particularly the Weymouth based paddle steamers that he grew up with. He did not know then that he would go on to help restore, manage and be principal captain of Kingswear Castle for nearly 30 years.
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On this day 68 years ago

8th June 1954:
Marchioness of Lorne

Tuesday 8th June 1954 was the last day in service of the paddle steamer Marchioness of Lorne. She had already been displaced the previous summer from her old run between

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7th June 1911:
Princess Mary

On Tuesday 7th June 1911 work was continuing on putting the finishing touches to the Southampton, Isle of Wight and South of England Royal Mail Steam Packet Company’s (later rebranded

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62 years ago

6th June 1960:
Sussex Queen

Whit Monday June 6th 1960 was scheduled to be the Sussex Queen’s second operating day of her first season sailing on the Sussex Coast. Steamer notices had been produced and

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49 years ago

3rd June 1973:
Waverley

On Sunday 3rd June 1973 Waverley was taken out of service in order to undertake a repair to her boiler. She made her first trip of the 1973 season, her

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82 years ago

2nd June 1940:
Freshwater

On Sunday 2nd June 1940 Freshwater left Sheerness at 12 noon for Dunkirk under the command of Lt Church RN (Retired). The previous Sunday 26th May 1940 marked the start

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62 years ago

31st May 1960:
Monarch

Tuesday 31st May was the first scheduled day of the season for Cosens’s Monarch in 1960 on which she was timetabled to run the Swanage service leaving Bournemouth Pier at

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59 years ago

30th May 1963:
Medway Queen

On Thursday 30th May 1963 Medway Queen was on charter at Herne Bay Pier to take part in filming a sequence for the movie “French Dressing” starring James Booth, Roy

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55 years ago

29th May 1967:
Embassy

On Monday 29th May 1967 Embassy was tied up at the shipyard of the Van Heyghen Brothers’s scrapyard in Ghent. 1966 had not been a good season for Embassy running

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56 years ago

28th May 1966:
Queen of the South

On Saturday 28th May 1966 Queen of the South ex-Jeanie Deans made her first public sailing from Tower Pier to Greenwich, Gravesend, Southend and Herne Bay. Her master was Captain

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59 years ago

25th May 1963:
Waverley

On Saturday 25th May 1963 Waverley, under the command of Capt Hector Connell, took a group of protesters from the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament (CND) from Glasgow to Hunters Quay at

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53 years ago

24th May 1969:
Caledonia

On Saturday 24th May 1969 Caledonia ran a “Kirk Cruise” from Gourock to Tarbet on charter to Rutherglen West Parish Church. She had been slipped at Lamonts at Port Glasgow

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87 years ago

23rd May 1935:
Royal Eagle

Thursday 23rd May was the second day of the 1935 season for he General Steam Navigation Company’s paddle steamer Royal Eagle for which she was scheduled for a departure from

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69 years ago

22nd May 1953:
Maid of the Loch

On Friday 22nd May 1953 Maid of the Loch was named alongside at Balloch Pier by Lady Watson, wife of one of the senior members of the Railway Executive, before the

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61 years ago

21st May 1961:
Consul

Whit Sunday 21st May 1961 was Consul’s second day in service of the 1961 season and the second day running a shuttle between the Pleasure Pier at Weymouth and the

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61 years ago

19th May 1961:
Princess Elizabeth

Having arrived in Torquay from Plymouth the previous day, Princess Elizabeth backed out of Torquay Harbour at 10am on Friday 19th May 1961 for swinging the compass in Torbay and obtaining

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61 years ago

18th May 1961:
Princess Elizabeth

Princess Elizabeth left Plymouth, where she had arrived for dry-docking from Dartmouth on Thursday 20th April, at 8.50am on Thursday 18th May 1961 bound for Torquay where she arrived at

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99 years ago

17th May 1923:
Devonia

On Thursday 17th 1923 P & A Campbell’s Devonia arrived at Brighton having left Bristol at 8am and Cardiff at 9.45am the previous day for the positioning run round Lands

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73 years ago

16th May 1949:
Lorna Doone

Red Funnel’s second Lorna Doone made her inaugural trip from Bournemouth on Monday 16th May 1949 with a party of distinguished guests entertained to lunch aboard including senior representatives from

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67 years ago

13th May 1955:
Lord Elgin

Lord Elgin made her last crossing on the cargo service between Southampton and Cowes on Wednesday 11th May 1955 and moved under her own steam to the scapyard of Pollock,

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73 years ago

12th May 1949:
Consul

Consul was the last of Cosens’s paddle steamers to be returned to service after the Second World War. Indeed given the state of her structure there was some doubt as

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106 years ago

11th May 1916:
Captain Rawle

On Saturday 11th May 1916 at Holy Trinity Church Weymouth the funeral took pace of Cosens’s master Captain Philip St Barbe Rawle who had lost his life at Newhaven Harbour

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58 years ago

9th May 1964:
Jeanie Deans

After her refit at Lamont’s Shipyard at Port Glasgow in March and through to mid April 1964, Jeanie Deans returned to service on Saturday 9th May with a charter to

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11 years ago

7th May 2011:
Kingswear Castle

On Saturday 11th May 2011 Kingswear Castle ran a Thames Estuary cruise from her base at the Historic Dockyard Chatham. We were away at 11.05 with bacon rolls for sale on

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62 years ago

6th May 1960:
Princess Elizabeth

With the arrival of the new purpose built car ferry Carisbrooke Castle for the Southampton to Cowes ferry service in May 1959, Red Funnel withdrew Princess Elizabeth and put her up for

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