Megoran’s Musings

1962 was not a good summer for weather. Mr Lloyd-Worth, who had the contract for providing the catering aboard Consul alongside his other role as a publican in Easton on

On Friday 10th September 1937 there were nine trip options offered from Eastbourne Pier by two paddle steamers. In 1936 P & A Campbell had based four paddle steamers on

Only a year or so after being formed the PSPS chartered Cosens’s Consul for a 2 hour “Special Steamboat Shuffle” departing Weymouth at 7.30pm on Saturday 10th September 1960 to

Brian Waters has built a new model of the Consul a paddle steamer I remember very well as an ever present part of my childhood. There she was laid up

Saturday 9th September 1950 was scheduled to be the penultimate day in service of the 1950 season for Royal Eagle with a roster to leave Tower Pier (8.30am) for Greenwich

Sunday 8th September 1963 was Medway Queen’s last day in service. She left Strood Pier at 9.15am, sailed down the Medway and across the Thames Estuary to Southend for 11am

Wednesday 7th September 1960 was Monarch’s penultimate day in service. She was due away from Poole (9.15am) for Bournemouth (10.15am – 10.45am), Swanage (11.30am), Bournemouth (12.15pm – 2.30pm), Swanage (3.15pm),

On Monday 6th September 1937 Essex Queen (ex Walton Belle) was scheduled to leave Great Yarmouth at 9.40am for Gorleston (9.55am) and Lowestoft (10.45am) bound for Clacton where she was

On Saturday 5th September 1914 Monarch was advertised for a trip leaving Bournemouth at 10.25am, Boscombe 10.40am and Swanage 11.25am for Weymouth where three hours ashore were offered with a

On Friday 4th September 1953 both Consul and Empress were rostered to visit Lulworth Cove with the one bringing passengers from Bournemouth and Swanage and the other from Weymouth.. Both

Could it be that Waverley’s trip on Wednesday 4th September is the first excursion sailing from Portland around the Isle of Wight by paddle steamer ever. In the heyday of

On Saturday 3rd September 1949 Ravenswood returned to service after her day off on the Friday with a largely new deck crew, two new fireman and a new deck chair

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

With war about to be declared P & A Campbell cancelled all further Sussex Coast sailings and ordered Brighton Queen, Glen Gower and Waverley to return to the Bristol Channel

On Wednesday 1st September 1937 Cosens’s Victoria (pictured with her bow on the beach at West Bay) was scheduled to run a day trip from Weymouth at 9am around Portland

After spending the afternoon of Sunday 31st August 1958 running on the Bournemouth/Swanage service with departures from Bournemouth at 2.30pm and 4pm and returns from Swanage at 3.15pm and 5pm

P & A Campbell got into bed with other organisations to sell tickets for them to help fill up spare capacity on their steamers. As in other years, in 1950

Thursday 29th August 1957 was the last day in service of Red Funnel’s paddle steamer Bournemouth Queen. Built in 1908 as a slightly smaller and not quite as fast, version

On Monday 28th August 1967 Kingswear Castle arrived under tow at Binfield on the Isle of Wight on charter to the Ridett brothers who then owned Medway Queen. She was

On Tuesday 28th August 1956 Monarch rescued two men from a small dinghy, called Dumbo, off the Old Harry Rocks in Poole Bay whilst on passage on her regular route

During the period from their development in the 1880s up to their almost complete demise by the late 1960s excursion and ferry paddle steamers in the UK enjoyed an enviable

On Thursday 26th August 1937 Duke of Devonshire was scheduled to leave Torquay (10.45am) for the 17 nautical mile run along the beautiful Devon Coast passing the Ore Stone, Babbacombe,

On Saturday 25th August 1928 the paddle steamer Royal Sovereign was scheduled to sail from Old Swan Pier at London Bridge to Ramsgate with London Belle shadowing her from Greenwich

On Wednesday 24th August 1960 Princess Elizabeth was scheduled to run from Haldon Pier Torquay on the following timetable: 11am MORNING CRUISE viewing Thatcher Rock, Babbacombe, Oddicombe, Teignmouth, Dawlish, Berry

Prior to the Second World War it was the usual practice of Red Funnel to schedule two sailings a week, usually on Mondays, Wednesdays or sometimes Fridays, in the summer

In issue number 14 of Paddle Wheels ex army officer Captain L G A Thomas, then a stalwart of the Wessex Branch, recounted a day out he had almost forty

On Monday 22nd August 1955 Britannia ran the long day trip from Bristol and Cardiff to Ilfracombe in place of Bristol Queen. Bristol Queen had been re-rostered to take over

On Saturday 21st August 1965 Princess Elizabeth was chartered at Weymouth on her usual day off service to play the role of a Dover Cross Channel packet for filming for

On Friday 20th August 1965 Princess Elizabeth left Weymouth at 9.30am for a day trip to Yarmouth, Isle of Wight with return at 7.30pm. It was a lovely day. The

After service in the Second World War as an anti-aircraft vessel and latterly as an accommodation ship Red Funnel’s cross Channel flyer Balmoral was returned to Southampton in 1947 in

On Thursday 19th August 1926 Columba was scheduled to leave Glasgow (7.11am) on the “Royal Route” for Rothesay (10.15am), Colintraive (10.40am), Tighnabruaich (10.55am), Tarbet (11.55am) and Ardrishaig (12.40pm) setting off

On Tuesday 18th August 1953 you could have taken any of 15 departures from Bournemouth Pier on one of four different paddle steamers between 10am in the morning and 9.30pm

Lulworth Cove was ever a beauty spot at which paddle steamers delivered far more passengers than they ever picked up but there were some staying in the vicinity who did