Paddle Steamer Resources by Tramscape
The Internet's largest database of
mainly European Paddle Steamers past and present
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Paddle
Steamer Preservation Society / Waverley Steam
Navigation Co Ltd / Paddle Steamer Kingswear Castle Trust (Trading) Ltd
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A heroic tale tells how a paddle steamer
was retained on the Clyde against all
expectations....
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..... and now taken regularly around the
UK coast to piers such as Clevedon on the Bristol Channel.
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A River Dart paddler was also saved from
near dereliction and reactivated on the Medway
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The Paddle Steamer Preservation Society's ships -----
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Waverley
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Kingswear Castle
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The Paddle Steamer
Preservation Society, a registered UK charity, is the beneficial
owner of the Paddle Steamers Waverley and Kingswear Castle. It also
owns the traditional motor cruise ship Balmoral, which is operated in
support of PS Waverley, the last of the famous "Clyde Steamers".
For legal and financial reasons, the vessels are owned and operated
by separate companies on behalf of the Society. In the case of
Waverley and Balmoral , the
owners are Waverley Steam Navigation Company and the operators are
Waverley Excursions Ltd.
The Paddle Steamer Preservation Society, a specialist group of
dedicated preservationists and cruise lovers, never expected to be
vessel operators. The founding of the Society in the early 1960s
coincided with the increasingly frequent withdrawal of a once large
coastal fleet. Not only were paddle ships and steam ships
disappearing; they were, in many cases, not being replaced at all and
the possibilities for the traditional pursuit of coastal cruising
were dwindling. The Society aimed to preserve as much as possible of
the memory of these vessels whilst attempting to delay their
demise.
Ownership came early, with the purchase of the near-derelict small
River Dart paddler, Kingswear Castle. Clearly the Society did not
have the financial means nor the knowledge and experience to operate
the vessel and she lay for many years tended but without real hope of
a return to service. In late summer 1969, the society was instrumental in delaying
the scrapping of the Clyde paddler Caledonia which had been sold for scrap and
lay at her new owner's quay at Dalmuir. The best the society could hope for
was her static preservation, and the brewery company Bass-Charrington came to
the rescue and moved the ship to London to begin a new life as a pub.
The whole situation changed when Waverley was withdrawn by her Clyde
operators after the 1973 season. Too costly to operate and in need of
significant expenditure, her owners, Caledonian-MacBrayne, large
ferry operators and with a tradition of steamer ownership going back
for almost a century, gladly gifted the vessel, the last of a long line of Clyde paddlers
to the PSPS for the
token sum of one pound. Terry Sylvester and Douglas McGowan, two young businessmen
forefronting the Society's negotiations, were convinced that the vessel
could be returned to steam although Caledonian-MacBrayne and almost everyone
in the Society believed that it would be a non-starter. Just in case, Caledonian MacBrayne
stipulated that she should not sail in competition with their
remaining cruise vessel, TS Queen Mary.
Willing to go along with Sylvester and McGowan's optimism, a massive fund raising campaign was initiated by the Society, and
behind the scenes, an organisation was put in place to attempt to turn the
dream into reality. The Society had no experience of operating a vessel - but
a highly professional set-up would be essential if they were to succeed..
Waverley did sail in 1975, but at that time it was virtually
unthinkable that she would still be sailing into the 21st century,
with the expectancy of many
more years in service after major renovation at the turn of the century. Even more unlikely would be that a second
paddler, Kingswear Castle would be in frequent service, with MV Balmoral
also continuing the tradition of coastal cruising under the beneficial ownership
of the Society..
The contribution of Balmoral, herself a cruise ship in the classic
mould, is indispensible to the economics of the Waverley operation as
well as providing additional opportunities for cruising around the UK
coast. Balmoral owes its survival to the tragic events off the South
Wales coast of August 3rd 1981 when the PSPS's first supporting motor
vessel "Prince Ivanhoe" was holed, beached and lost at the height of
her first season.
The efforts of volunteers and fund raisers, most of whom are members
of the Society and its several regionally-based branches, continue to
be the backbone of the Waverley story. Without them, there would now
be no Waverley. However, she has become a well-established presence
on many parts of the British coast and can now be regarded as
operated as a "going-concern", run to the highest standards of marine
practice.
The importance of both Waverley and Kingswear Castle to
the maritime heritage of the United Kingdom has been recognised by
their inclusion in the "Core Collection" on the National Register of
Historic Vessels, maintained by the National Historic Ships
Committee
National Historic Ships
Committee : National Register of Historic
Vessels
Motor Vessel owned on behalf of the PSPS
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Balmoral
..... a traditional motor vessel was saved to
sail in support of the two paddlers
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Historical
Motor Vessel
Prince
Ivanhoe
Built in 1951 by Denny of Dumbarton for British Railways'
Portsmouth-Ryde ferry service, where as MV Shanklin she joined her two younder
sisters of 1948 (MV Southsea and MV Brading). She sailed on this route until
March 1980, but was not inactive long as the Paddle Steamer Preservation Society
bought her as a running mate for Waverley. Her new life was all too short as
on August 3rd 1981, at the height of her first season, she was holed, beached
and lost at Port Eynon on the South Wales coast.
Internet
Links
Paddle
Steamer Preservation Society
- PSPS's section for younger
enthusiasts : Young
Paddle Wheels
www.heritagesteamers.co.uk
: The PSPS's Heritage Archive and Collection website : How to get access to
the collection / buy publications / join discussion forum
Waverley
Excursions : operating company of the Paddle Steamer Waverley and motor
vessel Balmoral
PS Kingswear
Castle
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