Supporting the preservation and operation of paddle steamers Waverley and Kingswear Castle
It gives me great pleasure to inform you all that Balmoral was successful and has won the £50,000 grant towards the refurbishment of her Britannia Lounge. Congratulations to all involved!!! Gavin StewartScottish Branch Chairman
Gerry Ward’s video of Waverley during Summer 2010. Great shots pity the weather was not more ‘summery’
MV Balmoral, the Glasgow-owned, Bristol-based historic excursion vessel has been short-listed for a £50,000 grant from the 2010 ITV Peoples Millions competition. If successful the grant will be used to assist refurbishing the vessel’s Britannia Lounge (named after the Clyde-built P&A Campbell paddle steamer Britannia), the main passenger lounge located on the main deck, forward.…
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Excellent Gerry Ward video of Waverley escorting the Queen Victoria on the Cunarder’s first Visit to Clydeside in July 2010. The Queen Victoria’s arrival on the Clyde kindled memories of a story related to the first Cunard Queen, the Clydebank-built Queen Mary. Prior to her all of Cunard’s transatlantic liners had borne names ending with…
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There is now a large number of videos of Waverley on the internet video website YouTube. Some depict the ship in her pre-rebuild days and a few of these are digitised versions of old cine film from pre-camcorder days. At the other end of the scale are amazing quality material produced by the latest HD…
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This YouTube video is a tribute to the diesel electric paddle vessel Vevey which ‘retired’ on 30 September 2010 after 103 years service on Lake Leman, joining DEPV Italie and DEPV Helvetie in the laid up fleet at their owner’s shipyard in Lausanne, Switzerland. The three diesel electric paddlers were all originally built as steamers but…
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[youtube][http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DpkRskry_Ps/youtube]
Yes folks it getting towards that time of year again – you know – the one where we all eat and drink far too much, watch the Wizard of Oz and The Great Escape for the zillionth time on Christmas Day and then eat Turkey for the next month!! Well how about getting away from…
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Re following link – officially its not alllowed but its been going on since my first paddle steamer trip in Switzerland in 1975 and probably much longer. Youths of the lakes, especially Lake Leman, surf on top of the large rudders of the lake steamers until distance from shore or a swift turn of the helm…
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Hollycombe Steam in the Country working steam museum home of PS Caledonia’s engine PS Caledonia’s engine is housed in a purpose built building at present it is not open to the public. Volunteers are required to clean and prepare the engine for display and steaming and this would be an ideal project for the…
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On Tuesday 12th October P.S.Waverley operated a special cruise from Ryde, Portsmouth and Southampton to escort the new Cunard Liner our of Southampton at the start of her Maiden Voyage. Queen Elizabeth alongside Southampton Ocean Terminal with the preserved Tug Tender Calshot Waverley follows Queen Elizabeth down Southampton Water. Queen Elizabeth viewed from Waverley …
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After 23 seasons on the Waverley Purser Jim is retiring at the end of the season, on the final south coast sailing of the season the Wessex Branch presented him with a card and cheque and wished him a long and happy retirement. We will all miss Jim friendly face onboard in the coming seasons. Peter Lamb…
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A presentation was made onboard Waverley on Wednesday 22nd September to mark the retirement the two Don’s, Don Drayton and Don Thompson. For many years they have organised the daily raffles for the Wessex Branch onboard Waverley and Balmoral on the south coast raising many thousands of pounds. Peter Tambling, Don Thompson and…
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Jim the Purser, on the paddlebox of his beloved Waverley, at the Isle of Tiree (picture by Helen Strachan) Waverley’s final sailing of the 2010 season on Sunday 17th October brought the retiral of one of her longest serving crew members, Chief Purser Jim MacFadzean, after 23 summer seasons ‘Just Behind the Funnels’…
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To Dr Moore’s widow Mona and the family we wish to record our sincere thanks for all of the hard work that he performed on a completely voluntary basis over the last 3 decades and offer our condolances on your sad loss – he will be long remembered by his many friends on the Waverley. During her final sailings of…
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On Tuesday 12th October Waverley undertook a sell out cruise to view and escort newly delivered Cunard cruise ship Queen Elizabeth leaving Southampton on her Maiden Voyage. This is the second cunarder Waverley has escorted in 2010, the first being QE’s Vista class sister Queen Victoria when she visited Greenock in July. Photos can be found here &…
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As you may recall the PSPS were offered the former Humber Car / Passenger paddler Lincoln Castle earlier this year. For very real reasons the society council made the difficult decision not to take on the ageing vessel due to the level of work required to make her a viable entity for ongoing preservation whilst…
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After looking at the video clips suggested by Stuart I thought I could share some pictures taken of La Suisse when I visited Lake Geneva in 2009. The standards of the recent rebuild are very high and I was particularly impressed by the main dining saloon. I tend to take a number of interior photos as…
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Some interesting short High Definition videos of the recent circa £12m (if I remember correctly) rebuild and re-entry to service of the Lake Leman (Lake of Geneva) paddle steamer and flagship La Suisse, which has been celebrating her 100th year on the lake in 2010. The videos appear on YouTube and, as I could not…
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Another short story from Robin Copland – this time focussing on a trip more than a particular vessel. Photos are all copyright and cannot be duplicated elsewhere without premission of the holder. Buses have never done anything for me – really, they haven’t. It is funny how very early in your life, you take…
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A super colour film of the weekly Friday cruise up the River Clyde to Glasgow on one of the paddle steamers of the Caledonian Steam Packet Company. The film dates from 1965 (probably August). The Friday upriver sailing was shared by the paddle steamers Caledonia and Waverley. In this film we join the Caledonia…
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On Wednesday 8th September in the Western Solent paddle steamer Waverley stopped to commemorate the part played by her predecessor HMS Waverley during Operation Dynamo, the evacuation of Allied Forces from the beaches of Dunkirk 70 years ago. The present Waverley was built in 1947 to replace HMS Waverley which was lost at Dunkirk. One of…
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Views of Paddle Steamer Waverley departing from Swanage Pier on Thursday 9th September 2010 Photographs by Chris Phillips of Swanage
The 43rd anniversary of the launch of the iconic Queen Elizabeth 2 is to be marked by events at her birthplace of Clydebank.
After a dismal July it was good to see Waverley enjoy better weather and loadings in August. The last 2 days of her main Clyde season were particularly good with blue skies and crystal clear views – the following pictures were taken during the last half hour of the final day sailing to Ailsa Craig…
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Good to hear and see that the paddler has been attracting good numbers in August 2010 following the atrocious weather conditions in July. The picture below shows the big queue that was awaiting her arrival at Largs pier on Sunday 22nd August for the ‘one-off’ sailing to Ardeishaig. This would have been Waverley’s first call…
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When the Clyde from Glasgow to the Tail of the Bank was still full of ships A sail from the Bridge Wharf on Glasgow’s turbine steamer Queen Mary II Points of note On departing from Bridge Wharf (beside KGV Bridge) – brief view of dredger and William Sloan’s vessels (traded to Bristol and London at…
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Any of us who have viewed the Clydesite web forum will know Robin Copland – a long time Clyde steamer enthusiast who is well known on the site for his stories and musings entitled “Monday Morning Light Relief”. During Waverley’s sailing to Oban this year I was chatting to Robin over a dram when the…
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Visit the display of Paddle Steamer models including PS Waverley and PS Freshwater plus a large display of paddle steamer photographs and handbills Full details of Waverley and Balmoral’s sailings in all areas available also Great Dorset Steam Fair information and advance ticket sales July 23rd, 24th & 25th – Netley Marsh Steam &…
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(All pictures are my own except where noted otherwise – click on them to enlarge) Last Sunday Waverley operated her longest excursion of the 2010 summer season – all the way along the navigable River and Firth of Clyde – and all the way back again. In the 198 years that paddle steamers…
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