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:
December 2019:
Paddle Steamer Corfe Castle
Traditionally sea-going ships were registered in specific ports and carried the names of those ports of registry under their names on their sterns as well as on their lifebuoys. It
November 2019:
Paddle Steamer Captain Kuno Stein
Captain Kuno Stein, who will be familiar to many who have sailed on the splendid Lake Lucerne fleet of paddle steamers and motor ships, has recently retired after a career
October 2019:
Paddle Steamer Embassy October 1st 1953
Friday October 1st was the last day of scheduled sailings for the Embassy in 1953. I like the masthead for these Cosens’s Bournemouth steamer notices from the 1950s. I think
September 2019:
Paddle Steamer Southwold Belle
Southwold Belle was the last of seven “Belle” steamers built by Denny of Dumbarton in the decade between 1890 and 1900 for parties seeking to develop, and provide transport linking,
August 2019:
Paddle Steamer Swanage Queen struggles at Bournemouth 1961
Swanage Queen ex Sussex Queen ex Freshwater did not have a good season at Bournemouth in 1961. Her owner Herbert Jennings had brought her to this Hampshire resort, after a
July 2019:
Paddle Steamer Embassy at Lulworth Cove
Cosens’s paddle steamer Embassy did not have the necessary gate cut into her bulwark near the port bow, like Consul, Victoria, Empress and Premier, to accept the shore based landing
June 2019:
KC National Historic Ships SW Regional Flagship of the Year
Kingswear Castle was presented with her South West Regional Flagship of the Year pennant by Alan Watson from National Historic Ships UK at Dartmouth on Thursday 30th May prior to
May 2019:
Paddle Steamer Consul Starts 1964 Season
After dry-docking in Southampton, Consul returned to Weymouth on 14th May 1964 to start her new season of sailings with a completely new colour scheme from the rather eccentric shades
April 2019:
New Inner Funnel for Monarch 1959
Sixty years ago, Cosens’s Monarch had her inner funnel, which protruded ever so slightly above her outer funnel, renewed. Inner funnels tend to corrode away as they are mounted in
March 2019:
Paddle Steamer Ryde Meets Lively Lady 1968
It made a good story. Portsmouth greengrocer Alec Rose sails around the world single handed in his own boat. Ha Ha. The little man, the amateur, the greengrocer had Titfield
February 2019:
More Paddle Steamers Please
Now I live in Weymouth once again I walk around the harbour pretty much every day and it does look so empty. No ships at all and most particularly no
January 2019:
Paddle Steamer Emperor of India Scrapped January 1957?
Emperor had ever been a difficult ship. Built in 1906 as Princess Royal for what became Red Funnel she did not meet her design criteria and so was lengthened in
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