Megoran’s Musings

Having arrived aboard the previous night we were all up at the crack of dawn to shift ship from the outside berth on the pier by the side of the

Don Rose had bought the Jeanie Deans. He had persuaded Captain Stanley Woods, master of Princess Elizabeth in the 1965 season, to take command. He had asked two of the Lizzie’s seamen Ken Moore and

On Sunday 31st October 1948 Red Funnel’s Solent Queen arrived under tow in the scrapyard of T W Ward on the Thames at Grays in Essex. She was a ship

On Wednesday 30th October 1957 the Bournemouth Echo ran an article expanding on its announcement the previous day that Red Funnel’s Bournemouth Queen was to be withdrawn. The article makes

On Monday 29th October 2018 Stadt Luzern’s outgoing Captain Kuno Stein and her new master Roger Maurer, who will take command on completion of her rebuild, spent the day clearing

On 28th October 1897 whilst collecting the mail at the Jersey Dock in Southampton to take out to the North German Lloyd ship Trave, Princess Beatrice was rammed by the

Bournemouth manager Captain Baker left Cosens’s employment at the end of the 1955 season. It had been an odd sort of summer not only in the way that the paddle

On Tuesday 26th October 1965 Jeanie Deans was up on the slipway at Lamont’s Shipyard at Port Glasgow with work continuing to prepare her for the voyage south to the Medway for her

On 25th October 1895 Belle Steamers Ltd placed an order with Denny of Dumbarton to build a new paddle steamer to be called Southend Belle to be ready for the

On Tuesday 24th October 1967 Princess Elizabeth arrived at the scrapyard in Southampton. She was towed from her layup berth in the Backwater, through the Town Bridge and on down

Thursday 23rd October was the last day of the season at Bournemouth in 1947 and was operated by Red Funnel’s Bournemouth Queen which had run the services for this last

On Sunday 22nd October 1922 there were five round trips offered between Portsmouth and Ryde with each of the sailings inward and outward bound also calling at Southsea’s Clarence Pier..

On 21st October 1969 Eppleton Hall was at sea and making her approach to put into Madeira the following day on her voyage from the UK to San Francisco. The

On Thursday 20th October 2011 Kingswear Castle ran a thirty minute trip from the Historic Dockyard Chatham at 12 noon for two coach parties who were spending the rest of

On 19th October 1961 P & A Campbell’s coal-fired paddle steamer Glen Usk was towed out from Penarth Dock to Cardiff by the tugs Loyal Celt and Carolyn Davies, where

On Monday 18th October 1920 P & A Campbell’s Britannia shifted ship from Bridge Wharf Glasgow, where she had arrived from Bristol on the previous Friday, to the yard of

Monday 17th October was the last day of the 1949 season for Glen Usk which she spent making three round trips on the Cardiff/Penarth/Barry ferry to Weston-super-Mare. At this stage

A memorial service was held for Tony McGinnity, doyen of paddle steamer preservation in the 1960s, at St Olave’s Church in the City of London on Thursday 16th October 2008.

On the morning of Monday 15th October 1962 British Railways’s coal-fired paddle steamer Sandown left Portsmouth for Weymouth for refit work by Cosens & Co on her engine and boiler.

Chris Collard records in his excellent book “White Funnels Volume 2” that on Thursday 14th October 1920 Lady Evelyn sailed light ship from Cardiff to lay up for the winter

On Sunday 13th October 1963 Caledonia was rostered to be out and about on the Clyde ferry service starting and finishing her day at Gourock and taking in Millport. For

After her short trial running on the Bristol Channel for P & A Campbell, the former Red Funnel Vecta set off from Cardiff on Tuesday 12th October 1965 for the

On 11th October 1961 Lyme Regis Council met to discuss what to do about three ladders and six stone steps which allegedly had been damaged by the Princess Elizabeth on

On Tuesday 10th October 1922 there were 13 round trips by paddle steamer scheduled to run between Portsmouth and Ryde. First away from Portsmouth with the run put on specially

Monday 9th October 1961 unexpectedly turned out to be the last day of the season for Bristol Queen. This was not originally planned as she had already competed her scheduled

On Wednesday 8th October 1967 the former Tyne paddle tug Eppleton Hall was off the coast of Portugal making her way southward for Lisbon. She had been saved from the

Glen Gower was about five nautical miles seaward of Ilfracombe at 5am on the morning of Friday 7th October 1938 on her way back to Bristol from Brighton. It had

Monday 6th October 1958 was the last day of the season for Cardiff Queen with four round trips on the Cardiff/Weston ferry. She was due away from Cardiff (9.30am) for

We saw in an earlier post how the Southern Railway offered trips taking advantage of timings for “Early Closing Day” when shops generally closed for business on Wednesday afternoons. P

At 10am on Saturday 4th October 1919 Duchess of Devonshire returned to her winter lay-up berth at Exmouth from Bristol. She left Bristol on Thursday 2nd October and spent the

On Friday 3rd October 1997 Waverley left Tilbury (9.40am) for Southend (11am) and Chatham (12.30pm) where I berthed her alongside the quay wall just to the north of Thunderbolt Pier.

The ever indefatigable Mrs Eileen Pritchard (PSPS Member number 1) organised a visit to the Royal Maritime Auxiliary Service Paddle Tug Grinder at Portsmouth for 11am on Saturday 2nd October

Embassy was rostered to make her last trips of the 1953 season from Bournemouth on Thursday 1st October. She was due away from her overnight berth alongside Poole Quay at