Monthly paddle steamer articles written by John Megoran, author, manager and principal captain of Kingswear Castle for nearly 30 years on the Medway and the Thames as well as the River Dart.
You can read more of John’s paddle steamer reminiscences in his regular Megoran’s Musings features on the Paddle Steamer Preservation Society website here.
Choose a year to see more Pictures of the Month:
October 2021:
Glen Gower 1954
1954 was P & A Campbell’s centenary season celebrating 100 years since their first steamer Express sailed on the Clyde. And whilst this was true it was not until 1887
September 2021:
Day Trips from Bournemouth 1953
The 1953 season at Bournemouth opened in mid May with Monarch. She was joined by Embassy on Whit Sunday 24th May with Consul making her first appearance of the season
August 2021:
Bournemouth Queen August 1956
Built in 1908 for what became Red Funnel, Bournemouth Queen spent most of her peacetime summers running excursions from Bournemouth and Swanage up to 1950. After that she spent the
July 2021:
Brighton Sailings 1948
Before the Second World War P & A Campbell had generally provided three, and occasionally four, paddle steamers to run their services on the Sussex Coast from the piers at
June 2021:
Paddle Steamer Crested Eagle
Founded in the 18th century White’s Shipyard at Cowes on the Isle of Wight expanded substantially under the management of John Samuel White in the 19th century and in the
May 2021:
Captain Albert Robson Symes
In late May 1901 there was a little bit of a kerfuffle in the offing in Weymouth with the focus falling on Cosens’s Albert Victor. Some money had been stolen
April 2021:
Paddle Steamer Kenilworth
At her annual dry-docking in the run up to the 1936 season the Board of Trade started to make noises about the amount of work which would be needed to
March 2021:
Winston Megoran 1913 – 1971
1st March 2021 is the 50th anniversary of the death of marine artist, yachtsman, PSPS member and my Dad Winston Megoran. Of the several thousand water colours, oil paintings, etchings,
February 2021:
Paddle Steamer Captain John Hayward
Captain John Hayward on the bridge of the Princess Elizabeth arriving at Millbay Plymouth for the first time at 2.50pm on Thursday 16th June 1960 on a day excursion which
January 2021:
Paddle Steamer Consul at Cowes
Consul approaching Cowes. She was never a regular visitor to Cowes. Indeed I can’t, so far anyway, find any record of her running into or out from this Isle of
December 2020:
Cosens’s Captain Haines
Captain Haines aboard Embassy cutting the cake with Mrs Mary Cox, wife of Bernard Cox one of the founding members of the PSPS, to celebrate the ship’s Golden Jubilee in
November 2020:
Paddle Steamer Jeanie Deans November 1965
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
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