Megoran’s Musings

Tuesday 26th May 1953 was the second day of her first season for the newly built Maid of the Loch. The previous day she had made her first public passenger

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

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

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

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

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

On Monday 20th May 1901 there was a little bit of a kerfuffle in the offing in Weymouth with the focus falling on Cosens’s Albert Victor. Some money was stolen

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

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

On Thursday 17th May 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

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

On Friday 15th May 1964 both Consul and Princess Elizabeth were undergoing the final preparations for starting their seasons running in competition with each from the Weymouth Pleasure Pier the following day.

At 2pm on the afternoon of Tuesday 14th May 1985 surveyor Mr Ahmed arrived to conduct the final running trials for KC which if they went well would lead to

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,

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

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

On Monday 10th May 1937 P & A Campbell’s Waverley left Cardiff at 8am bound for Newhaven. She was followed at 10.15am by Glen Gower for Brighton. This long positioning run

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

On Tuesday 8th May 1934 a press cruise was organised to show off the brand new paddle steamers Mercury and Caledonia which had been built for the London, Midland and

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

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

Ever wondered how the Dresden paddle steamers are slipped? Then take a look at this video filmed last week as PS Krippen was put back in the water ready for

VE Day on 8th May 1945 started to unlock the doors and focus minds on a return to peace time excursions. With their Gracie Fields sunk in the war and

On Tuesday 5th May 1953 Cosens’s paddle steamers Monarch and Embassy left Weymouth at the crack of dawn for Southampton where they entered the same drydock shortly after mid-day. This

On Saturday 5th May 1962 Cardiff Queen, under the command of Captain Leo Virgo, was rostered to run on the Cardiff/Weston ferry. Having started the day before Good Friday on

On Monday 4th May 1953 Maid of the Loch ran trials on Loch Lomond under the command of Captain Donald MacDonald. Ordered from the Clyde shipyard of A & J Inglis

On Friday 3rd May 1918 Duchess of Devonshire was at her home port of Exmouth being prepared for her second season running a makeshift Cardiff/Weston ferry service for P & A

On Wednesday 2nd May 1934 Sandown was in the fitting out basin at Denny’s yard at Dumbarton having been launched the day before. She had been ordered on 30th November

On 1st May 2019 there was a paddle steamer parade on the River Elbe setting off from Dresden and sailing up river in consort. There was much blowing of whistles,

At her annual dry-docking in the run up to the 1936 season the Board of Trade started to make noises about the amount of work which would be needed to

On Saturday 29th April 1961 members of the London and Home Counties Branch of the PSPS visited Medway Queen on the grid at the Acorn Shipyard at Strood. They were greeted

On Sunday 28th April 1901 the freshly built Majestic was lying alongside at the shipyard of A & J Inglis (which 46 years later would build our own Waverley) with

On 27th April 1964 Consul left Weymouth under the command of Capt Cyril “Chum” Holleyoak, formerly of Consul (1961), Embassy (1962) and Princess Elizabeth (1963), for slipping at Poole but