The weather has not been kind to Waverley for her visit to the South West this year. But she did make it to Dartmouth to meet KC on Saturday 30th September and on Monday 1st September was able to run from Dartmouth at 10.45 with a call at Torquay at 12.15 to Weymouth where she arrived at 16.30 before making off for a two hour cruise along the Dorset Coast passing White Nothe, Durdle Door and Lulworth Cove, mainstays of the paddle steamers of Cosens and Co in years gone by.
Here are some pics of Waverley at Torquay:
The two paddle steamers most associated with Torquay were the Duke of Devonshire and her sister Duchess of Devonshire which, from their base at Exmouth, ran in the area from the mid 1890s to the mid 1930s.
They had competition from Cosens’ Alexandra, seen here at Lyme Regis, 1925 – 1927.
And from P & A Campell’s Westward Ho, which was really much too big for the available traffic, in 1932 and 1933.
After the war the former Thames Belle steamer Essex Queen turned up renamed Pride of Devon and tried to make a living at Torquay in 1947 and 1948.
P & A Campbell tried again in 1951 stationing their Empress Queen there. That wasn’t a success and she didn’t return.
Meanwhile after the war and until 1963 one of the Weymouth based Channel Island mail boats usually came down to Torquay once a week in the season to run a day trip to Guernsey. Looking at the harbour today it is hard to believe that they managed to squeeze ships of that size into it but they did.
One of the issues at Torquay is that the prevailing south westerly wind blows ships off the Haldon Pier berth as they are arriving. The trick here is to have a couple of tugs or small boats positioned down wind of the ship to push her back up against the pier if she is blown off. Look at the pics of Waverley arriving at Torquay yesterday and you can see that they had a couple of little boats standing by to do just that.
Princess Elizabeth was based at Torquay in 1960 and 1961.
She returned as a one off on a day trip from Weymouth to Torquay on Saturday 27th June 1965 on charter to the PSPS. This trip was not the financial success hoped for but there were a number of enthusiasts aboard that day including my fourteen year old self and Pat Murrell who can be seen in the duck egg blue anorak in one of the above pics of Waverley at Torquay yesterday 60 years later.
So before Waverley the last paddle steamer to call at Torquay was Princess Elizabeth in June 1965.
KC is running one of her rare trip to Totnes on Thursday 4th September away from Dartmouth 3.30pm back 7pm. Tickets are still available online here.
For more details of Waverley’s sailings on the South Coast and elsewhere visit www.waverleyexcursions.co.uk.
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
