Megoran’s Musings

On Sunday 17th June 1956 Red Funnel’s paddle steamer Bournemouth Queen ran down and sliced in half a sailing dinghy off Fawley in Southampton Water on her scheduled run on

Bristol Queen arrived back in Southampton at 1.10am on Tuesday 16th June 1953 after spending the previous day on charter for the Spithead Naval Review to Thomas Cook which included

Duke of Devonshire was scheduled to make her first trip of the 1937 season on Tuesday 15th June with a departure from Torquay at 10.30am for the three and a

On Sunday 14th June 1959 one of the three Humber paddle steamers Lincoln Castle, Tattershall Castle or Wingfield Castle was scheduled to extend the 2.30pm ferry departure from New Holland

On Wednesday 13th June 1951 the finishing touches were being applied to P & A Campbell’s Empress Queen in readiness for her departure from the Bristol Channel to try her

Saturday 12th June was the first day of the 1948 season for Cardiff Queen, her second year in service. She set off from Bristol at 9.30am under the command of

Empress Queen was the first twin screw turbine steamer built for the otherwise paddle steamer loving P & A Campbell. And I think that it is fair to say that

On Wednesday 10th June 1936 Gracie Fields offered her first public excursion taking passengers on a trip from Southampton to view the liners Normandie and Queen Mary. Ordered in 1935

The first trips of the 1953 season for Cosens’s largest paddle steamer and flagship of the fleet Emperor of India were scheduled for Tuesday 9th June, under the command of

In 1960 there were still eleven paddle steamers operating on the South Coast; Compton Castle, Consul, Embassy, Kingswear Castle, Monarch, Princess Elizabeth, Ryde, Sandown, Totnes Castle, Sussex Queen and Whippingham.

Tuesday 8th June 1954 was the last day in service of the paddle steamer Marchioness of Lorne. She had already been displaced the previous summer from her old run between

On Tuesday 7th June 1911 work was continuing on putting the finishing touches to the Southampton, Isle of Wight and South of England Royal Mail Steam Packet Company’s (later rebranded

Whit Monday June 6th 1960 was scheduled to be the Sussex Queen’s second operating day of her first season sailing on the Sussex Coast. Steamer notices had been produced and

Duchess of Devonshire made her first trips of the 1919 season on P & A Campbells’s Cardiff to Weston ferry service on Wednesday 4th June under the command of Capt

On Sunday 3rd June 1973 Waverley was taken out of service in order to undertake a repair to her boiler. She made her first trip of the 1973 season, her

On Sunday 2nd June 1940 Freshwater left Sheerness at 12 noon for Dunkirk under the command of Lt Church RN (Retired). The previous Sunday 26th May 1940 marked the start

On Sunday 1st June 1940 the mass evacuation of troops from the beaches of Dunkirk was well under way. Consideration had been given to using the Humber paddle steamers Tattershall

Tuesday 31st May was the first scheduled day of the season for Cosens’s Monarch in 1960 on which she was timetabled to run the Swanage service leaving Bournemouth Pier at

On Thursday 30th May 1963 Medway Queen was on charter at Herne Bay Pier to take part in filming a sequence for the movie “French Dressing” starring James Booth, Roy

On Monday 29th May 1967 Embassy was tied up at the shipyard of the Van Heyghen Brothers’s scrapyard in Ghent. 1966 had not been a good season for Embassy running

On Saturday 28th May 1966 Queen of the South ex-Jeanie Deans made her first public sailing from Tower Pier to Greenwich, Gravesend, Southend and Herne Bay. Her master was Captain

Monday 27th May was the first day in service of the 1963 season for Maid of the Loch. She made her usual two round trips of the loch from her

Tuesday 26th May 1953 was the second day of her first season for the newly built Maid of the Loch. The previous day she had made her first public passenger

On Saturday 25th May 1963 Waverley, under the command of Capt Hector Connell, took a group of protesters from the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament (CND) from Glasgow to Hunters Quay at

On Saturday 24th May 1969 Caledonia ran a “Kirk Cruise” from Gourock to Tarbet on charter to Rutherglen West Parish Church. She had been slipped at Lamonts at Port Glasgow

Thursday 23rd May was the second day of the 1935 season for he General Steam Navigation Company’s paddle steamer Royal Eagle for which she was scheduled for a departure from

On Friday 22nd May 1953 Maid of the Loch was named alongside at Balloch Pier by Lady Watson, wife of one of the senior members of the Railway Executive, before the

Whit Sunday 21st May 1961 was Consul’s second day in service of the 1961 season and the second day running a shuttle between the Pleasure Pier at Weymouth and the

On Monday 20th May 1901 there was a little bit of a kerfuffle in the offing in Weymouth with the focus falling on Cosens’s Albert Victor. Some money was stolen

Having arrived in Torquay from Plymouth the previous day, Princess Elizabeth backed out of Torquay Harbour at 10am on Friday 19th May 1961 for swinging the compass in Torbay and obtaining

Princess Elizabeth left Plymouth, where she had arrived for dry-docking from Dartmouth on Thursday 20th April, at 8.50am on Thursday 18th May 1961 bound for Torquay where she arrived at

On Thursday 17th May 1923 P & A Campbell’s Devonia arrived at Brighton having left Bristol at 8am and Cardiff at 9.45am the previous day for the positioning run round

Red Funnel’s second Lorna Doone made her inaugural trip from Bournemouth on Monday 16th May 1949 with a party of distinguished guests entertained to lunch aboard including senior representatives from