Unlike her two quasi-sisters Tattershall Castle and Wingfield Castle, which were built fairly locally to Hull at Hartlepool by William Gray & Co, the London and North Eastern Railway ordered Lincoln Castle from A & J Inglis of Glasgow who quoted a better price and who were much experienced in the building of paddle steamers. Five years later they would build our own Waverley.
Launched on 29th April 1940, Lincoln Castle’s first attempt to sail around the north of Scotland to reach Hull was aborted because of the weather and issues with her compass. Eventually she reached Grimsby on 4th July 1941 and started on the Hull to New Holland ferry service for which she was built on Monday 4th August 1941.
She was the last of the three to be withdrawn, work being halted aboard her when she was in dry-dock in March 1978 after an issue was discovered with her coal-fired boiler. After a lengthy career as a restaurant and bar first in the shadow of the Humber Bridge and then at Grimsby she was scrapped in 2010.
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 4th August 2019.
