Let’s take a snapshot of a week in the life of Cosens’s Monarch running from Bournemouth in August 1960 and see what she was rostered to be up to:
Friday 5th August 1960: Leave Poole (9.15am) for Bournemouth (10.15am – 10.45am) for Swanage (11.30am) for Bournemouth (12.15pm). She then lay alongside Bournemouth Pier until (2.30pm) for Swanage (3.15pm) for Bournemouth (4.15pm) for Swanage (5pm) for Bournemouth (5.45pm). She then lay alongside Bournemouth Pier until (8pm) when she set off for a “Late Night New Orleans Jazz Cruise – the River Boat Shuffle – with Gerry Brown’s Jazzmen” due alongside Poole Quay (11.30pm).
Saturday 6th August: Day off, with Embassy running the Swanage service instead. This caught Dad and me out one Saturday: we went expecting a trip on Monarch but found Embassy coming into Bourneouth Pier instead.
In 1960 Monarch took on coal delivered by lorry to Poole Quay. The coal-men unloaded it in sacks and carried them aboard on their backs, tipping the contents into the bunker hatches either side of the boiler casing on the main deck. She had canvas sheets rigged either side of the engine room, dropped down when bunkering to keep coal dust off her sparkling machinery.
Her chief engineer that season was Alf Pover. Because Monarch often operated twelve hours or more a day, she also carried an apprentice from Cosens’ works in Weymouth to act as uncertificated Second Engineer. In 1960 this was Brian Jackson. As Brian was a bit of a paddle steamer enthusiast himself, I remember Capt Defrates introducing Dad and my nine‑year‑old self to him. Brian wore a white boiler suit — the badge of an officer — and a peaked cap with a navy top. During the operating day Alf wore full Merchant Navy Chief’s uniform, with four gold bars, with the MN diamond, on a purple background on the sleeves of his jacket. I remember seeing him sitting on a box on the manoeuvring platform watching Brian handling the engine coming into Swanage Pier.
Sunday 7th August: Leave Poole (1pm) for Bournemouth (2pm – 2.30pm) for Swanage (3.15pm) for Bournemouth (4.15pm) for Swanage (5pm) for Bournemouth (5.45pm – 6pm) for Swanage (6.45pm) and Poole Quay (7.45pm).
Monday 8th, Friday 12th & Saturday 13th : Leave Poole (9.15am) for Bournemouth (10.15am – 10.45am) for Swanage (11.30am) for Bournemouth (12.15pm). She then lay alongside Bournemouth Pier until (2.30pm) for Swanage (3.15pm) for Bournemouth (4.15pm) for Swanage (5pm) for Bournemouth (5.45pm – 6pm) for Swanage (6.45pm) and Poole Quay (7.45pm).
Tuesday 9th: Leave Poole (8am) for Swanage (9am) for Bournemouth (10am – 10.45am) for Swanage (11.30am) for Bournemouth (12.15pm) for Swanage (1.15pm) for Bournemouth (2pm – 2.30pm) for Swanage (3.15pm) for Bournemouth (4.15pm) for Swanage (5pm) for Bournemouth (5.45pm – 6.30pm) for Swanage (7.15pm) and Poole Quay (8.15pm).
Wednesday 10th: Leave Poole (9.15am) for Bournemouth (10.15am – 10.45am) for Swanage for Bournemouth (12.15pm) for Swanage (1.15pm) for Bournemouth (2pm – 2.30pm) for Swanage (3.15pm) for Bournemouth (4.15pm) for Swanage (5pm) for Bournemouth (5.45pm – 6pm) for Totland Bay (7.30pm) for Bournemouth (9pm) and Poole (10pm).
Thursday 11th: Leave Poole (9.15am Bournemouth (10.15am – 10.45am) for Swanage (11.30am) for Bournemouth (12.15pm) for Swanage (1.15pm) for Bournemouth (2pm – 2.30pm) for Swanage (3.15pm) for Bournemouth (4.15pm) for Swanage (5pm) for Bournemouth (5.45pm – 6.30pm) for Swanage (7.15pm) and Poole (8.15pm).
So that was a schedule made up predominantly of running backwards and forwards between Bournemouth Swanage with one day off a fortnight. She started most days running directly from Poole to Bournemouth but to balance up the operating hours with Embassy ran via Swanage on at least one day and sometimes two days a week.
The 10.45am departure from Bournemouth connected at Swanage at 11.30am Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Thursdays with a coach tour of the “Beauty Spots of Dorset” with stops of an hour and a half or so in Weymouth and Lulworth Cove.
And on this Tuesday also connected with Consul at Swanage (11.30am) freshly arrived from Weymouth which took intending passengers on to Lulworth Cove giving about one hour ashore. In earlier years Consul brought passengers up from Weymouth for Swanage and Bournemouth or Totland Bay on days with this Lulworth connection with Monarch taking her Bournemouth bound passenger onwards or Embassy taking those for Totland Bay. However Consul was not a fast ship and was apt to be late into Swanage. This didn’t really matter for the Lulworth passengers. They could just wait on Swanage Pier until Consul arrived but it did matter for Monarch‘s scheduled departure at 11.30am back to Bournemouth. If Consul was late and she had to wait then so did her Bournemouth bound passengers too. So in 1960 Consul’s 9.30am departure from Weymouth was scheduled to run only as far as Swanage with no mention made of Bournemouth for these connections.
On the evening of Friday August 5th Monarch ran the Jazz Cruise for the first and only time in the 1960 season. Her Class III Passenger Certificate to be outside the Categorised Waters Limits was valid only until one hour after sunset so by 10pm she would have had to be back in Poole Harbour for a slow crawl up to Poole Quay (11.30pm). In subsequent weeks Embassy was rostered for a similar but rebranded “Showboat Cruise” on Thursdays with “Dancing on deck 8pm to 10pm”. So no dancing after 10pm once back in the confines of Poole Harbour. Maybe there had been complaints about the noise.
The only other break from the daily routine of the Swanage service came on Wednesday evenings, when Monarch ran a 6pm cruise from Bournemouth to mop up any overflow of passengers which Embassy had been unable to accommodate on her 4.45pm departure from Totland Bay. Some intending to travel on the earlier sailing, turned away because Embassy was full, may not have been best pleased at having to wait three and a half hours for Monarch to arrive.
Any irritation — and any hunger from missing their dinners — was likely eased by Monarch offering “Special Ham and Egg Suppers” at 4/6, a filling and reliable meal easily produced in her tiny galley on the aft side of the port sponson. It was exactly the sort of dish that required no high‑end culinary skill: properly cured ham, eggs and potatoes keep well, take little space, and need no refrigeration, a facility unknown on Cosens’ paddle steamers.
Monarch started her 1960 season on Tuesday 31st May running on the Swanage service on Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays, to Totland Bay on Sundays, Mondays and Fridays and to Yarmouth on Thursdays until she was joined by Embassy on Sunday 3rd July. After that Embassy took over the Isle of Wight trips with Monarch on the Swanage service. Her last sailing of the season, and indeed the last public sailing of her career, was on Thursday 8th September after which she sailed back to Weymouth to lay up the following day.
Monarch was scheduled for just five days off during the whole summer of 1960 so that comes in as an operating season of 98 days at best without taking into account any cancellations due to weather. The return fare between Bournemouth and Swanage was 7/6 which comes in at just under £9 in today’s money. Monarch could carry over 700 passengers. So if she had been full on at least three of her trips between Bournemouth and Swanage each day that would have given a maximum revenue of £18K per day which scales up to £1.7 million for the season in today’s money. If she had been half full then that would have been around £800K. If only a third full than that maximum revenue falls to just over £500K.
There were days when she was running to, or near to, capacity in the peak weeks of this season but there were many more when she was not. Of the trips I made on her with one or other of my parents in 1960, she was only lightly loaded with just a handful of passengers aboard on each occasion. 1960 was her last season. She was towed away to be scrapped in Cork the following March.
Kingswear Castle returned to service in 2026 after the second part of a major rebuild which is designed to set her up for the next 25 years. The Paddle Steamer Kingswear Castle Trust is now fund raising for future rebuilds. You can read more and how you can possibly help here.
John Megoran
This article was first published on 20th September 2021.
