In a “first ever” move Waverley is re-positioning from the Firth of Clyde to the South Coast by circumnavigating much of Great Britain. In this mammoth voyage which will see the ship steam well over 1,000 nautical miles she will sail up Scotland’s west coast before cruising across the top of Scotland and down the entire east coast of the UK to then sail along the south coast.
The initial intention was for Waverley to make her usual transit from the Clyde to the south west by steaming down the Irish Sea and rounding Land’s End. However given the forecast strength of winds and predicted severe swell off Land’s End in the coming days the decision was made to go, what can only be described as, the long way round.
A simple comparison puts the Irish Sea route at around 420 nautical miles from Ayr to Falmouth, the clockwise route from Ayr to Falmouth clocks in at around 1,150 nautical miles. On fuel usage the difference in the two routes will be in excess of 30,000 litres adding at least £20k to the fuel cost. There will be additional costs due to making extra fuel stops and the associated berthing dues. The time taken to complete this journey is yet unknown but it will exceed 80 hours on what could have been around 30 hours.
The change of route resulted from the possibility of either having to cancel most, or all, of the south west sailings or arriving late in the hope that some sailings can go ahead as planned to therefore avoid disappointing several thousand passengers that are booked to sail.
Waverley has made excellent progress since she departed Ayr at 8pm on Monday evening (25th August). She ran with the tide for much of the initial part of the journey passing through the Sound of Mull at first light before rounding Ardnamurchan. By 9am Tuesday she was safely berthed at the Railway Pier, Kyle of Lochalsh, for her first fuel and water stop. On departure from Kyle just after 10am she passed under the Skye Bridge and continued north sailing on the east side of the Crowlin Islands. By midday she was abeam of Gairloch and almost three hours later was passing Old Man of Stoer.
Just before 5pm on Tuesday 26th August Waverley rounded Cape Wrath and pointed her bows east as she transits a coastline which last heard her paddle beats 22 years ago when she sailed north about from Great Yarmouth to Glasgow at the conclusion of her Heritage Rebuild in 2003. In the intervening years there has never been the occasion to sail north about.
At around 11am on Wednesday 27th August Waverley berthed at Dundee to take on fuel.
The last paddle steamer to be based at Dundee was the B L Nairn which, together with the Voith schneider propelled Abercraig and Scotscraig, ran the ferry service across the Tay until the new bridge was opened in August 1966. Built in 1929 by the Caledon Shipbuilding and Engineering Company at Dundee B L Nairn was powered by two compound diagonal steam engines, one for each paddle wheel, and was scrapped at Blyth in 1967.
An earlier Dundee paddle steamer was Lass O’Gowrie, built in 1883 for passenger trips and towing on the River Tay at Dundee. She ended up with a South Coast connection being bought by Cosens and Company of Weymouth in 1889.
Cosens used her for towing as well as carrying passengers not least as a liberty boat for the Navy anchored off Weymouth and in Portland Harbour. In this pic she is loaded with matelots going back to their ship. This could sometimes be difficult work. There is a press report in the Dorchester archives of an occasion when things got a little bit out of hand with the captain of Premier reportedly blowing down the voice pipe to the chief engineer telling him to ignore the telegraph as it had been taken over by a group of RN seamen rather the worse for wear after a night ashore in the many pubs of Weymouth.
The past can sometimes seem so very far away from us today but sometimes links with it are closer than we might imagine. Sandy Rashleigh, the seaman highlighted with the arrow on Monarch alongside Bournemouth Pier in 1928, joined Cosens as a boy after the First World War and so would have known and sailed on all the paddle steamers in the Cosens’ fleet back then including the Albert Victor which was not broken up until 1928.
I remember him as a much older man in my childhood when he was bosun on Embassy in the 1960s. Here he is in his usual position for berthing standing on the paddle box platform ready to throw the heaving line ashore for the stern rope at Bournemouth Pier just as it is done on Waverley all these years later today.
Topped up with fuel Waverley left Dundee in the mid afternoon of Wednesday 27th August to continue her voyage south.
For full details of Waverley’s sailings click here.
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
