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Side-Wheeled Paddle Steamers
Cosens
& Co
Captain Joseph
Cosens, a newly established provider of coastal excursions, and
newspaper proprietor Mr J Drew established Cosens & Co in 1852 to
operate steamships between their home port of Weymouth and Portland.
Captain Cosens and his younger brother William were experienced
sailors having been engaged in the coastal trade and chartered their
first vessel, the tug Highland Maid, to capitalise on the need for a
good link to the new naval dockyard at Portland. As well as
carryinging goods and employees, Cosens also carried numerous
sightseers to the new facility, putting their new vessels Princess
and later Prince on the run. With the 120-ft Prince, excursions were
offered further afield along the Dorset coast and also across the
channel to France.
In 1858, the two vessels of their local competitor Philip Dodson were
taken over and two years later the interests of John Tizard were
incorporated into the Cosens concern.
Cosens went on to dominate the excursion scene at Weymouth and the
popular resort of Bournemouth, seeing off competition from the
Bournemouth, Swanage & Poole Steam Packet Co and taking over
their PS Brodick Castle. Cosens became a limited company in 1876,
soon after the deaths of Joseph Cosens and John Tizard, and continued
to expand its other interesta,of ship repair and general engineering,
coal trading, ice import, manufacture and cold storage. Shipping
interests also included towage and salvage for which they owned
paddle tugs which could, if required, be used for passenger
services.
Cosens were not able to have everything their own way and the
Southampton-based Southampton, Isle of Wight and South of England
Royal Mail Steam Packet Company increasingly placed vessels at
Bournemouth. In the 1930s there evolved some cooperation between the
two companies and in 1946, Cosens became a subsidiary of the
Southampton company. The two companies' services then operated under
separate flags although not in direct competition.
Cosens steamers continued to serve the existing trade with an
increasingly outdated fleet. The one post-war addition was Monarch in
1951, a former Solent ferry which was already 27 years old but became
Cosens' youngest vessel (the last ship ordered new by Cosens had been
the Majestic of 1901 which was lost in 1916). From 1964, the 53-year
old PS Embassy was the sole fleet survivor struggling on to make her
last sailing in September of 1966.
The company's other interests, including steel fabrication, continued
until Cosens Engineering Ltd went into receivership in 1999.
Above
: Embassy was the last Cosens steamer in service with 1966 being her
final season. Despite some alterations after World War II which did not
help her performance, there was no getting away from the fact that she
was an old vessel. Cosens had not bought new tonnage since 1901 and
Embassy, bought in 1937 was formerly the Duchess of Norfolk, built in
1911 for the Portsmouth to Ryde ferry connection. Even the last
purchase for the fleet, made in 1951, was a twenty-seven year old ferry
from the same Portsmouth-Ryde station. Clearly Cosens strategy was to
buy cheap and make the best of their vessels whilst they could. The
cost of work needed for Embassy to sail in 1967 was regarded as
prohibitive.
Photo by kind courtesy of Nigel Lawrence
Vessels with dates of Cosens ownership:
Princess (1849-1853)
Cosens & Co
Prince (1852-1888)
Premier (1860-1938)
Bannockburn (1860-1869)
Empress (1879-1958)
Victoria (1884-1953)
Monarch (1888-1950)
Majestic (1901-1916)
Brodick Castle (1901-1910)
Emperor of India (1908-1957)
Alexandra (1915-1931)
Consul (1937-1963)
Embassy (1937-1967)
Monarch (1951-1961)
Wave Queen (on charter in 1852)
Audrey (on charter in 1911)
Lord Roberts (on charter in 1911)
Paddle Tug/Tenders
Highland Maid (on charter in 1848)
Tug/passenger vessels taken over from P Dodson in
1858:
Contractor (1858-1863)
Ocean Bride (1858-1865)
Commodore (1863-1890)
Queen (1883-1920)
Albert Victor (1889-1928) ex
Dundee tug Lass o'Gowrie. Built in 1883 by JT Eltringham at South
Shields. Side lever engine by JP Rennoldson of South Shields. 106 ft :
128 GRT
Helper (1910-1920).
Melcombe Regis (1913-1923)
Helper (1919-1927)
Built in 1873 by W Allsup at Preston
131.3 ft : 173 GT
Engines : 2 x 1 cylinder 38 in x 40 in
Built for the West Cornwall Railway & Dock Co and based at Plymouth and named Sir Francis Drake, passing to the Great Western Railway Co in 11880
Renamed Helper in 1908
Sold in 1910 through a brokerage to Cosens & Co at Weymouth
Taken over by the Admiralty during World War I and used as a tug and later a minesweeper
Soon after the end of the war she was sold by Cosens to the Alderney Steam Packet Co
Was generally used in summer only on a ferry run to Sark
In May 1927 she was taken to Appledore, Devon, and exchanged for a new vessel and subsequently scrapped
Melcombe Regis
Built in 1892 by Thomas B Seath & Co of Rutherglen
Length 129 ft : 253 GRT
Engines : Compound diagonal 28 and 48 in x 54 in by Rankin & Blackmore of Greenock
Ran a passenger service from Fleetwood to Heysham and excursions to Blackpool and Morecambe as Lune
Sold to Cosens in 1913 and operated as a tug tender until 1923
Bibliography
Cosens of Weymouth 1918-1996
By Richard Clammer
Published in 2001 by Twelveheads Press
ISBN 0-906294-47-9
The definitive history of the later years of the well-known south coast operators by a well-known steamer expert
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