Paddle Steamer Resources by Tramscape

Paddle Steamer Preservation Society / Waverley Steam Navigation Co Ltd / Paddle Steamer Kingswear Castle Trust (Trading) Ltd

A heroic tale tells how a paddle steamer was retained on the Clyde against all expectations....

..... and now taken regularly around the UK coast to piers such as Clevedon on the Bristol Channel.

A River Dart paddler was also saved from near dereliction and reactivated on the Medway

Waverley The Paddle Steamer Preservation Society's ships Kingswear Castle
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 1959 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The whole situation changed when Waverley was withdrawn by her Clyde operators after the 1973 season.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

Balmoral

..... a traditional motor vessel was saved to sail in support of the two paddlers
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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