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The UK excursion paddle steamer industry reached its apotheosis from the 1890s through to the First World War. The newer steamers, of which P & A Campbell’s Britannia, built 1896,

Ventnor was the Isle of Wight’s most exposed pier sticking right out into the English Channel with no shelter from winds from the east through to the west. Imagine yourself

These two paddle steamer sister ships were built during the first World in 1916 as HMS Atherstone and HMS Melton as part of the Royal Navy’s Ascot (sometimes called Racecourse)

What is this mysterious four decked paddle steamer out on a seemingly open sea somewhere on a grey November day last year with flags fluttering in the chill air and

The paddle steamer Cygnus (pictured above) and her sister Aquila were built of iron on the Clyde in 1854 for the North of Europe Steam Navigation Company’s link between Harwich

Fifty years ago in the “Deep Freeze” winter of 1962/63, Cosens & Co of Weymouth boosted their refit work by securing contracts to do major overhauls on two paddle steamers

Providing food and drink for the passengers was ever a part of paddle steamer operations although what was provided and how it was done naturally varied according to the route

1949 was the apotheosis of post-war paddle steamer excursions from Weymouth with no less than four steamers based at the port in the peak weeks (from left to right in

In September 1959 Capt Philip St Barbe Rawle, seen here wearing his Cosens’s hat with its distinctive badge with the house flag above the anchor, retired after a long career

Good news from Lake Geneva. Funding has now been raised to rebuild the Diesel electric paddler Vevey (pictured here a couple of years ago) and return her to service by

Many paddle steamer masters stayed with their ships for very many years. For example, the Medway Queen had only two peace time masters, Capt Bob Hayman before the Second World

Good news of sort from Lake Geneva. The Helvetie, which was withdrawn after the 2001 season and has since lain in a gradually deteriorating state in the harbour at Lausanne

Today the ferry from Southampton to the Isle of Wight takes us only to Cowes. In the 1930s, when these pictures were taken, and indeed right up to 1968, there

PS Emperor of India in September 1950 laid up in the Backwater. On the promenade deck the varnished seats have been piled up and packed away under a tarpaulin to

With no less than nine paddle steamers, the Saechsische Dampfschiffahrt Company at Dresden owns and operates the largest and oldest paddle steamer fleet anywhere in the world. Here are four

Alderney is the third largest of the Channel Islands although much smaller then either Guernsey or Jersey being only three miles long and about a mile wide. It has never

It is an autumn day and we are off in search of one of Switzerland’s rather less well know paddle steamers, the little Fribourg, which is tucked away in the

The paddle steamer Unterwalden returned to service on Lake Lucerne this summer after a major renovation which included a new boiler, new decks and much else. Pictured here at Fluelen

Brian Waters has had a life long love of paddle steamers fostered by childhood trips back in the 1930s aboard Cosens’s paddlers at Bournemouth, including their veteran twin funnelled Monarch.

The Bordein was one of five paddle steamers ordered from Samuda Brothers of London from 1862 by the Khedive for their Ottoman use to expand Egyptian rule in Sudan and,