On the first Sunday in September 2023 PS Waverley called at Swanage Pier at 12.30pm for a trip to view the Bournemouth Air Show and the steamship Shieldhall.
Fifty seven years ago on the first Sunday in September 1966 PS Embassy made some of her last calls at Swanage Pier with departures at 11.30am, 3.30pm and 5.15pm running the ferry service backwards and forwards to Bournemouth from where she had sailed at 10.45am, 2.30pm and 4.30pm having started her day at Poole at 9.15am.
After the three round trips on the Bournemouth/Swanage service Embassy was then rostered for an Evening Cruise from Bournemouth Pier at 7.45pm “Towards the Needles Lighthouse” with “Music in the Bar provided by Chris and his Accordians” due back 9.30pm after which Embassy returned to her overnight berth at Poole Town Quay where she was scheduled to arrive around 10.30pm.
Embassy’s last master Captain John Caris William Iliffe was born in April 1912 and died in September 2002 so lived on for thirty six years after his last command, Embassy, was withdrawn and scrapped. We got to know each other a little bit in later life and came to exchange Christmas cards. I recall him saying that he found these Sunday round trips on Embassy between Bournemouth and Swanage a little bit boring.
Captain Iliffe started out in the Merchant Navy to which he later returned and had a Foreign Going Master’s Ticket but he spent a large chunk of the interim in the Royal Navy in which he became a Lieutenant Commander. That gave him a little bit of a military presence I always felt, albeit a quiet one. I recall when he was mate of the Consul in 1959 Captain Defrates telling my Dad that he always insisted on calling him “Sir” which Captain Defrates said was entirely unnecessary. And he was a stickler for punctuality. I remember one occasion at Bournemouth Pier when Embassy was on the Swanage service when precisely on the sailing time Capt Iliffe asked for the gangway to come in. Mate Eric Plater, who was standing by the gangway, pointed out an old couple struggling their way with great difficulty and at dead slow speed down the steps onto the landing stage. Capt Iliffe said from the bridge that there was another trip later and that they could catch that. So the gangway came in and off we went.
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 3rd September 2023.
