Megoran’s Musings

Having already topped up her bunkers at Holyhead and Falmouth on her way from the Clyde to Chatham, Jeanie Deans made a call at Southampton on Friday 12th November 1965 to fill

On Monday 11th November 1963 Caledonia came close to being blown ashore on the rocks in Millport Bay. She had spent the previous night stormbound at Millport. The weather moderated

With bunkers, fresh water and food topped up Jeanie Deans set off from Holyhead on the morning of 10th November 1965 on her voyage from the Clyde to the Medway with the

The 9th November dawned with Jeanie Deans still sheltering in the lee of the NE corner of the Isle of Man in Ramsey Bay on her voyage from the Clyde to the

Jeanie Deans spent Monday 8th November continuing to shelter from the storm in the lee of the Isle of Man. Today ships have a plethora of weather forecasting and significant wave

I had left the Jeanie Deans the previous day to return to school but of course Captain Woods, Ken Moore and Alfie Le Page were still aboard and they updated me on

Having come to anchor off Stranraer at the end of the previous day the crew were up at first light to steam Jeanie Deans into Stranraer on Saturday 6th November 1965 to

So we were ready to go. About 4pm the pilot came aboard and by 5pm we were off and sailing down the Clyde into the gathering darkness and out towards

The original plan of campaign was to set off south on Thursday 4th November 1965 but this was not to be as there were still things to do to prepare

By Wednesday 3rd November 1965 Jeanie Deans was ready to run trials. Alongside in the fitting out basin at Lamont’s Shipyard, Port Glasgow, steam was raised. The engine was warmed through. And

Having arrived aboard the previous night we were all up at the crack of dawn to shift ship from the outside berth on the pier by the side of the

Don Rose had bought the Jeanie Deans. He had persuaded Captain Stanley Woods, master of Princess Elizabeth in the 1965 season, to take command. He had asked two of the Lizzie’s seamen Ken Moore and

On Sunday 31st October 1948 Red Funnel’s Solent Queen arrived under tow in the scrapyard of T W Ward on the Thames at Grays in Essex. She was a ship

On Wednesday 30th October 1957 the Bournemouth Echo ran an article expanding on its announcement the previous day that Red Funnel’s Bournemouth Queen was to be withdrawn. The article makes

On Monday 29th October 2018 Stadt Luzern’s outgoing Captain Kuno Stein and her new master Roger Maurer, who will take command on completion of her rebuild, spent the day clearing

On 28th October 1897 whilst collecting the mail at the Jersey Dock in Southampton to take out to the North German Lloyd ship Trave, Princess Beatrice was rammed by the

Bournemouth manager Captain Baker left Cosens’s employment at the end of the 1955 season. It had been an odd sort of summer not only in the way that the paddle

On Tuesday 26th October 1965 Jeanie Deans was up on the slipway at Lamont’s Shipyard at Port Glasgow with work continuing to prepare her for the voyage south to the Medway for her

On 25th October 1895 Belle Steamers Ltd placed an order with Denny of Dumbarton to build a new paddle steamer to be called Southend Belle to be ready for the

On Tuesday 24th October 1967 Princess Elizabeth arrived at the scrapyard in Southampton. She was towed from her layup berth in the Backwater, through the Town Bridge and on down

Thursday 23rd October was the last day of the season at Bournemouth in 1947 and was operated by Red Funnel’s Bournemouth Queen which had run the services for this last

On Sunday 22nd October 1922 there were five round trips offered between Portsmouth and Ryde with each of the sailings inward and outward bound also calling at Southsea’s Clarence Pier..

On 21st October 1969 Eppleton Hall was at sea and making her approach to put into Madeira the following day on her voyage from the UK to San Francisco. The

On Thursday 20th October 2011 Kingswear Castle ran a thirty minute trip from the Historic Dockyard Chatham at 12 noon for two coach parties who were spending the rest of

On 19th October 1961 P & A Campbell’s coal-fired paddle steamer Glen Usk was towed out from Penarth Dock to Cardiff by the tugs Loyal Celt and Carolyn Davies, where

On Monday 18th October 1920 P & A Campbell’s Britannia shifted ship from Bridge Wharf Glasgow, where she had arrived from Bristol on the previous Friday, to the yard of

Monday 17th October was the last day of the 1949 season for Glen Usk which she spent making three round trips on the Cardiff/Penarth/Barry ferry to Weston-super-Mare. At this stage

A memorial service was held for Tony McGinnity, doyen of paddle steamer preservation in the 1960s, at St Olave’s Church in the City of London on Thursday 16th October 2008.

On the morning of Monday 15th October 1962 British Railways’s coal-fired paddle steamer Sandown left Portsmouth for Weymouth for refit work by Cosens & Co on her engine and boiler.

Chris Collard records in his excellent book “White Funnels Volume 2” that on Thursday 14th October 1920 Lady Evelyn sailed light ship from Cardiff to lay up for the winter

On Sunday 13th October 1963 Caledonia was rostered to be out and about on the Clyde ferry service starting and finishing her day at Gourock and taking in Millport. For

After her short trial running on the Bristol Channel for P & A Campbell, the former Red Funnel Vecta set off from Cardiff on Tuesday 12th October 1965 for the

On 11th October 1961 Lyme Regis Council met to discuss what to do about three ladders and six stone steps which allegedly had been damaged by the Princess Elizabeth on