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 excursions Portland was a Naval Dockyard and so was not a paddle steamer departure point. And whilst paddle steamers did sometimes pick up and set down at Castletown, just outside the Naval Dockyard, it doesn’t look as though they ever offered lengthy day trips from there.
Before Waverley arrived on the scene the last trip round the Isle of Wight from Weymouth by paddle steamer was on Whit Saturday 5th June 1965. That was the start of Embassy’s 1965 season. She had wintered in Weymouth as usual. She needed to get to Swanage and Bournemouth to position her. So this trip on charter to PSPS starting at Weymouth made a nice fit. My fourteen year old self was aboard with my Dad. We were scheduled to be away from Weymouth (8am) for Swanage (10am), Bournemouth (11am) and Yarmouth (12.30pm).
The day opened with thick fog in the Channel with the mailboat anchored off Weymouth Harbour because it was too foggy to come in. My notes record that, despite it still being pretty thick, we backed out from the Pleasure Pier at 8.25am, almost half an hour late. We saw nothing of the coast or anything else until we arrived at Swanage at 11am homing in on the pier by listening out for the pier bell because we couldn’t see the pier in the fog. Then it was off on a course for Bournemouth with the fog still thick until an emergency full astern was rung on the telegraph when Ballard Point began to emerge from the mists fine on the port bow. Having backed off we made our way on to Bournemouth where we arrived at 11.50am. By this time the fog was clearing. However perhaps mindful of the close encounter with the coast half an hour earlier, Embassy remained tied up alongsdie the pier until 12.30pm. By then it was much clearer so we set off for Yarmouth where we called at 2pm and then back down the Needles Channel to circumnavigate the island anti-clockwise. Nothing much was seen of the island after the Needles with more mist until we were well on into Sandown Bay making our way northwards up to the Solent and back to Yarmouth at 7.05 and Bournemouth at 8.35pm, an hour and a half late. Dad and I disembarked to take the coach provided back to Weymouth.
Trips from Swanage and Bournemouth around the Isle of Wight were part of the Cosens’ roster in a way that such trips from Weymouth weren’t. The distances from and back to Weymouth were just too great to make an enjoyable day of it for most people. And even the Swanage and Bournemouth ones diminished in their popularity as the years rolled on until by the mid 1950s Cosens abandoned them altogether. They were revived after pressure from the PSPS in the 1960s as a trial on an occasional basis. Sometimes these special trips did well. Sometimes they didn’t. The first such in 1964 was a sell out as described in the above leaflet. When Cosens tried a couple more in their own right they found them a complete flop with their own wider customer base. And the high hopes for this pretty unique excursion from Weymouth around the Isle of Wight on 5th June 1965 were not fulfilled. Only a handful joined Embassy at Weymouth at 8am despite the rarity of such a cruise and whilst more came aboard at both Swanage and Bournemouth, Embassy sailed off around the Isle of Wight from Yarmouth nowhere near full.
Back to Portland Cosens started out running a paddle steamer ferry service between Weymouth and Castletown Portland from the middle of the nineteenth century. This dwindled away as motor coaches came to the fore and became a better and more versatile transport option. Cosens continued to run a connecting ferry service for Navy Days with their Consul right up to 1962 and this was continued by Princess Elizabeth running from Weymouth up to 1965.
One hour trips round Portland Harbour to view “HM Ships and Merchant Shipping” were part of the daily roster each season for the paddle steamer trips from Weymouth and occasionally from Swanage and Bournemouth.
In the 1950s Embassy and Monarch sometimes steamed to Southampton from Weymouth to share a drydock for their annual Board of Trade surveys and refits. Sometimes they both used the Admiralty slipways at Portland. With Monarch gone after 1960, towing Embassy to Portland became a cheaper and more cost effective option for her refits so that is where she was slipped in the 1960s up to her last season in 1966.
One other paddle steamer has called at Q Pier Portland in the not too distant past. KC put in there for shelter on her tow from the Medway on her way to start her new life in Dartmouth in December 2012.
Waverley is running on the South Coast until Wednesday 25th September. To find out more and buy tickets click here: Welcome Aboard Waverley – Waverley Excursions
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 September 2024.
