Megoran’s Musings

On Monday 19th July 1971 Maid of the Loch was scheduled to leave Balloch (10.30am) for Tarbet (11.55am) and Inversnaid (12.10 – 12.20pm) before returning to Tarbet (12.35pm) and Balloch

On Saturday 18th July 1914 Cosens’s Majestic, described as “Second to None on the South Coast”, was rostered to run a day trip from Bournemouth to witness a “Grand Naval

On Wednesday 18th July 1962 Medway Queen left Strood as scheduled at 9.15am and Southend at 10.55am for Clacton where she was due to arrive at 1.25pm to take up

On Tuesday 17th July 1900 Balmoral ran her inaugural cruise for directors, shareholders and other invited guests from Southampton having arrived from her Clyde builders fresh and sparkling three days

On Wednesday 16th July 1947 three paddle steamers, Embassy, Monarch, and Princess Elizabeth offered no less than eight departures from Bournemouth Pier during the day not counting the evening single

Friday 15th July was Consul’s first scheduled trip of the season from Weymouth to Totland Bay, Isle of Wight in 1960. She was due away from Weymouth at 10am for

On Wednesday 14th July 1954 Glen Gower cancelled her day trip from Newhaven to Boulogne due to the weather. Before the Second World War day trips from the Sussex Coast

On Sunday 13th July 1958 Bristol Queen, Cardiff Queen and Glen Usk offered multiple trip options on the Bristol Channel from Swansea, Mumbles, Ilfracombe, Porthcawl, Barry, Cardiff, Penarth, Weston, Clevedon

If you had wanted an afternoon cruise from Bournemouth Pier on Sunday 12th July 1953 you would have had to choose between three different paddle steamers and three different trip

With all the South Coast piers breached during the Second World War to prevent enemy ships from landing alongside and disgorging troops, agents or whatever from their decks, it was

On Wednesday 11th July 1962 Whippingham returned to Portsmouth after her annual dry-docking at Southampton during which she had had a couple of hull plates renewed and her previously varnished

Following her post war rebuild, on Sunday 11th July 1948 Emperor of India was open to the public at Weymouth to inspect all the work which Cosens’ craftsmen had carried

At 8.43am on Wednesday 10th July 1936 Brighton Belle was struck by lightning off Eastbourne. She had spent the previous night at anchor off Hastings and, according to a local

On Friday 9th July 1948 Embassy ran aground in Poole Harbour on a falling tide whilst turning on a morning cruise from Bournemouth. The paddle steamers ran up and down

On Wednesday 8th July 1964 Jeanie Deans was rostered for the trip “Round the Lochs and Firth of Clyde” from Craigendoran (8.40am), to Gourock (9.25am), Dunoon (9.45am), Rothesay (10.25am), Largs

On Tuesday 7th July 1964 Caledonia’s trips from Ayr were cancelled due to the weather. The following day, Wednesday 8th July she set off from Ayr at 2pm for an

Ryde made her first appearance of the 1963 season on the Portsmouth/Ryde ferry service on Saturday 6th July having had a protracted and unexpectedly expensive refit which included replacing several

1951 was a poor year for the Sussex Coast with P & A Campbell positioning none of their steamers in the area for that summer. They returned in 1952 with

Wednesday 5th July 1961 was the first day of the season for Swanage Queen, ex Sussex Queen, ex Freshwater based at Poole and running a service between Bournemouth and Swanage

On Tuesday 5th July 1927 P & A Campbell’s paddle steamer Waverley was scheduled to run from Eastbourne at 9.40am and Brighton at 11am for a day trip giving about

Consul’s first trip of the 1961 season from Weymouth to Swanage and Bournemouth was rostered for Tuesday 4th July. She was set to leave at 10am for a cruise along

On Thursday 3rd July 1952 Talisman ran aground at Arrochar. In those days Waverley’s Class IV Passenger Certificate on “Partially Smooth Waters”, as then defined by the Board of Trade,

Embassy made her first trips of the 1960 season on Saturday 2nd July running the Swanage service with departures from Bournemouth at 10.45am, 2.30pm, 4.15pm and 6pm and from Swanage

On Monday 1st July 1935 Crested Eagle (“The Greyhound of the River”) was rostered to run from Tower Pier to Clacton and return later the same day. Departure from Tower

Bought from Red Funnel into private ownership Princess Elizabeth (pictured here alongside at Weymouth June 1963) tried her hand at Torquay in 1960 and 1961, was then engaged on the

Although primarily engaged on the Hull/New Holland ferry service the three Humber paddle steamers Lincoln Caste, Tattershall Castle and Wingfield Castle also undertook some excursions. For example, on Sundays from

On Tuesday 28th June 1927 Brighton Belle was rostered for local trips along the Sussex Coast from the piers at Hastings, Eastbourne and Brighton. Her first passenger pick that day

On Sunday 27th June 1965 Princess Elizabeth ran a cruise from Weymouth to Torquay on charter to the PSPS reviving a sailing which had not be undertaken since 1949. It

On Monday 26th June 1961 Medway Queen was scheduled to leave Strood Pier (9.15am) for Southend (10.55am) and Herne Bay (12.30pm). She then ran a round trip from Herne Bay

The Bournemouth Echo for Friday 27th June 1958 records that on the previous Wednesday 25th June Embassy was unable to bring her passengers back from their day trip on the

On Friday 24th June 1966 Cardiff Queen was in drydock at Cardiff after a leak had been found in one of her bottom plates the previous morning. This is something

On Sunday 24th June 1962 Bristol Queen was scheduled to leave Barry at 9.20am (with rail connection from Cardiff) for Ilfracombe where she was due at 11.50am before sailing on

On Saturday 23rd June 1984 Kingswear Castle ran a single trip from Strood to Gravesend via Southend and Tilbury carrying 11 passengers. This was a sort of shake down season