On Wednesday 31st July 1963 Embassy left her overnight berth at Poole at 8.40am for Bournemouth Pier where she arrived at 9.40am in good time to load for her 10.30am departure for Yarmouth, Isle of Wight.
It was a lovely and sunny day with only a light SW breeze which drew a near capacity crowd for Embassy for this trip. Leaving on time she arrived at Yarmouth at 12 noon where all but a handful of passengers disembarked. She was scheduled to return to Bournemouth to pick up more at 2.30pm for an afternoon cruise to Yarmouth but the decision was taken to cancel the 12 noon return to Bournemouth as she could not in any case have accommodated more than a handful more at Bournemouth in order to leave space for the passengers she had brought across in the morning. So those of us who had planned on having just a morning run to the Isle of Wight had it turned into a full day trip.
Actually the day trip from Bournemouth to the Isle of Wight was a good business model for Cosens as the steaming time each way was just an hour and a half making a round trip total of just three hours for which day trip fares of 18/- could be charged.
Embassy left Yarmouth at 5.15pm for Bournemouth where she arrived at 6.45pm. She then lay alongside the pier until 7.45pm when she set of for an “Evening Coastal Cruise towards the Needles lighthouse, Isle of Wight” with “Music by Chris and his Accordions – Old Fashioned Sing-Song in the Saloon”. Due back at 9.30pm. Embassy then steamed back to her overnight berth at Poole ending her day around 10.30pm.
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 31st July 2019.
