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 the day looking around the Dockyard
On the face of it, a half hour cruise doesn’t seem very much but putting KC on specially for these short trips for pre-booked groups could be very profitable with income sometimes exceeding the modest operating costs by a factor of four.
On this day there were 100 passengers aboard, 45 from one probus club and 55 from another. Each paid £5 a head so that was an income of £500. The expenditure on coal and wages for a thirty minute trip was less than £100. So by a simple arithmetical process that put £400 in the hat towards the standing costs. Kerching!
Kingswear Castle returned to service in 2023 after the first part of a major rebuild which is designed to set her up for the next 25 years running on the River Dart. The Paddle Steamer Kingswear Castle Trust is now fund raising for the second phase of the rebuild. You can read more about the rebuilds and how you can help if you can here.
John Megoran
This article was first published on 20th October 2020.
