Paddle Steamer Resources by
Tramscape
South
Coast of England : Portsmouth - Ryde Ferry
Southern Railway (1923-1947), British
Railways / British Rail
(1948-1984)
On railway
amalgamation, the Southern Railway took over the Portsmouth-Ryde
ferry and set about modernising the fleet of paddlers, introducing
seven large passenger vessels in fourteen years.
After World War II, in which two of the vessels were lost, the
company planned to make good the tonnage. The original plan to order
new paddlers was quickly changed , to an order for ultimately two
diesel-powered vessels, which were launched in 1948 from Denny's yard
at Dumbarton. A third similar vessel was delivered in in 1951 as the
scheduled replacement for PS Shanklin, but the high capacity (of up
to 1331) of the new vessels allowed the earlier than anticipated
withdrawal of the paddler Merstone in 1948. With the market for
passenger-only vessels diminishing, the traditional crossing suffered
at the hands of the Portsmouth-Fishbourne car-ferry route and
traditional vessels were displaced from the Ryde route by the arrival
of so-called "Fast Ferries" in the shape of Australian
hydrofoils.These new vessels were puechased by the new private
operators who had bought the "Sealink" operation from British
Railways, marking the end of a long association of the route with
railway ownership.
Attempts at offering cruises to other Isle of Wight ports and into
Southampton water were attempted from time to time but with little
success. MV Southsea, laid up in 1986 alongside her sister Brading,
was immediately recommisioned in one last attempt to offer cruises,
but by 1989 she was back out of service and up for sale. It was not until 2005
that she was finally sold to Danish shipbreakers after many years of lay up
with preservation attempts failing. She arrived at Esjberg on March 15th of
2005.
Five Paddlers taken over from the joint LBSCR and LSWR Fleet in
1923, including:
Duchess of Fife (until 1929)
Duchess of Kent (to
1933)
Duchess of Richmond
Duchess of Norfolk (to
1937)
New Build - Paddle
Steamers
Shanklin
(1924-1951)
Merstone (1928-1948)
Portsdown (1928-1941)
Southsea (1930-1941)
Whippingham (1930-1963)
Sandown (1934-1966)
Ryde (1937-1969)
New Build - Passenger-Only Motor
Vessels
Southsea
(1948-1989)
Brading (1948-1986)
Shanklin (1951-1980)
Return
to:
South
Coast
.