paddlesteamers.info : The Internet's leading website for
Paddle Steamers past and presentPaddle Steamers
are ships which are now firmly established favourites in the
tourist industry, providing excursions amongst fine scenery on lake,
river and in the case of the UK's renowned Waverley, coastal cruises.
Their steam engines, linked to large paddle wheels, are a unique
selling point and these engines provide a quiet, smooth and virtually
smell-free experience for the customer. They are, of course, survivors
from bygone days when paddlers were common sights, even on the
high seas.
Photo Above : Paddle
Steamer Schiller at Brunnen, Lake Lucerne in 2008. Schiller is one of
five
paddle steamers in the SGV fleet on this beautiful lake in
Switzerland, where such ships
are now seen as an indispensible tourist attraction and where they
survive as part of an extensive fleet of more modern motor
vessels. What are the distinguishing features of a paddle steamer ?
PADDLE WHEELS
STEAM ENGINES
DECORATIVE
PADDLE BOXES
The form of propulsion unique
to paddle steamers
The engines are a major on-board
attraction
The most distinctive feature
when seen from shore
The method of
propulsion used by the first steamships and still ideal for calm
and shallow
waters. Many paddlers have viewing port-holes on the main deck so the
turning wheels and splashing waters can be seen to good effect.
On most paddle steamers the engines are clearly
visible and are, for many, a major on-board attraction.
Here, lubrication oil is topped-up on Lake Lucerne's PS Schiller
whilst the engines are stopped as she calls at a pier
From a distance, Paddle Steamers
can often be identified by their distinctive paddle boxes, with
vents of different sizes and shapes, often highly decorated. The
Paddle Steamer Waverley's port side vents gets a touch-up of paint
whilst she waits at Tighnabruaich.
FIND OUT ABOUT PADDLE STEAMERS PAST AND PRESENT WITH www.paddlesteamers.info Please
note that this website concentrates on river, lake, estuarine and inshore pssenger paddle
steamers. It does not cover the history of ocean-going vessels, short
sea ferries, tugs, cargo vessels or military ships British inshore excursion turbine steamers are covered in a separate section
Follow the links
on the blue main index
(below and near foot of the page) which take you to the main sections of
the database where you
can research excursion and inshore-ferry paddle steamers in detail whether operational, preserved,
laid-up and at risk or now consigned to the pages of history
books.
Gordon Stewart is
keen to promote paddle steamers, and educate the public into their
historical significance, both objects of the UK's Paddle Steamer
Preservation Society of which he is a member. He
has created
what is probably the internet's most comprehensive reference resource
for excursion paddle steamers worldwide. The
historical database is limited to coastal, river and inland passenger
paddle steamers . The website is illustrated by Gordon's own
photography (of which there is a full archive) and images kindly
supplied for publication by his worldwide correspondents. This is not a
full history of paddle steamers. Readers are invited to research
individual vessels or sailing areas in more detail. A limited
bibliogrpaphy is provided.
WHAT
IS IT LIKE ABOARD A LAKE, RIVER OR COASTAL EXCURSION PADDLE STEAMER ? Come
aboard and take a detailed look around some of our paddle steamers,
going on deck, looking into the deck houses, cafeteria and restaurant
and, of course, the attraction specific to paddle steamers : the
engines. Click here. THE HISTORICAL CONTEXT OF PADDLE STEAMERSThe paddle steamer era was very short - but there was a niche to which they well suited and where some still survive
The
first ships powered by mechanical means were Paddle
Steamers. Although not the first steam-powered vessel by any
means, their commercial use
can be traced back to 1807 when Robert Livingston and Robert
Fulton started a public
service on the Hudson River between New York City and Albany with the
"North River Steamboat", which much later became popularly referred
to as "Clermont". A photo of a centenary replica is shown above.
British commentators, at least, acknowledge
the paddler "Comet" which, in 1812, introduced a service
between Glasgow and Helensburgh to bring customers quickly and reliably
to Henry Bell's hotel on the Clyde coast. There had been earlier
reasonably successful attempts to operate steamships, notably in the
USA, France and Scotland, but not
in a commercial context. The idea of applying steam to drive
vessels went back further still but awaited the advancement of
technology to make it practicable. Mechanical propulsion
meant that ships were no longer subject to the vagaries of the wind and
could sail with some degree of certainty and closely to a published
timetable. Paddle Steamers were
soon to be found criss-crossing the oceans and penetrating major
rivers deep into developing continents as boiler, engine
and paddle wheel technology advanced rapidly. However, the development
of the screw
propellor saw them
made obsolete and replaced in most marine
applications, and even steam was, in time, replaced by new power
sources, particularly diesel.
The
paddle steamer notably continued to hold its own on the
short-sea passenger services
between the UK and continental Europe and Ireland, but the refinement,
after 1901, of the steam turbine,
unsuited to paddle propulsion and finding a couple of extra knots for
services where speed was of the essence,
resulted in no further construction of paddlers for this business.
Relegated to secondary duties, few survived long. Steam turbines also
widely usurped the traditional vertical reciprocating engine in screw
steamers.
On lakes, rivers and coastal
services where paddle steamers were most
suited and
survived the
longest,
a later challenge came from oil and diesel powered vessels,
which brought a significant reduction in fuel consumption. The 1920s
saw the last of the great American paddle steamers, which had evolved
into an enormous size, built. So too in Europe with its much
smaller-scale vessels. In the United Kingdom it would continue
into the immediate post-World
War II period and in the former Soviet Union, a little longer.
It
was not only to new forms of shipping that paddle steamers lost out.
Where once ships provided a vital link with remote coastal communities
and where rivers were the prime means of communication with the
interior, the expansion of first railways and then roads often meant
that services became increasingly redundant. In the USA in particular,
operators went for increased capacity and luxury at a low price. This
tempted many away from the less comfortable overland trips, but when
demand fell, the consequences for the operators were serious and
generally fatal. Some paddle
steamers were designed specifically to carry railway carriages
where expanses of water remained to be bridged, but this was only a
short-term need. Very few car ferries
were ever built as paddle steamers.
Virtually
all
that remained for paddle steamers was excursion traffic and in most
cases this business alone could only justify much smaller vessels.
Often it could not justify any service at all.
Despite the rapid rise in tourism around the world, there was only a
chance of success if the ships were located in places to which the
tourists actually went in large numbers and where they were likely to
wish to take a
boat trip. Traditional holiday destinations such as the resorts on the
Clyde in the UK declined in importance and with them the requirement
for passenger ferry and excursion fleets. Where demand held up it was
still assumed that any remaining
paddlers would
eventually be replaced by motor ships.
Their fortunes turned on
vociferous public
preservationist groups raising awareness of their demise,
persuading operators to retain and renovate their paddlers and raising
money to make it worth the operators' while. Such groups
had their most marked success in Switzerland, beginning with the saving
of Lake Lucerne's PS Unterwalden in the late 1970s. Where they
were
unsuccessful, some groups have had to restore and
operate vessels on their own account.
With
heritage preservation and nostalgia now being key elements in the
tourism industry, those areas still possessing paddle steamers are capitalising on their tourist
potential. In Switzerland no paddle steamer
has been withdrawn since Unterwalden's future was secured. Since then she has passed her 116th
birthday, undergone two major overhauls and it is virtually
inconceivable that she will not receive yet another
when the due time arrives.
It was a short-lived heyday. Nevertheless,
paddle steamers can
be credited with
facilitating a rapid expansion of world
trade, connecting remote communities to a modernising world
and the opening up of undeveloped continental interiors to
explorers, colonists and empire builders. They can now be credited
as opening a window on the past yet providing a fascinating and
enjoyable boat trip for the modern excursionist.
Paddle Steamers were less suitable than screw-propelled ships as sea-going vessels
Only
in sheltered waters, but crowds
at a Royal Navy review on the Clyde in August 1965 edge to the
starboard side of this paddle steamer (Caledonia of 1934) to view a
destroyer leaving the
port-side wheel largely out of the water and paddling thin air. The
starboard wheel would have been bogged down and the paddle box full of
water and the ship would be making very slow progress. This illustrates
how a paddle steamer
might perform when rolling in a lively sea and was one of several
reasons why the paddle lost out to the screw propeller. Paddle steamers
had an advantage in acceleraton, deceleration and reversing and
were thus well suited to services in calm waters with closely-spaced piers, such as
the Clyde and numerous rivers and lakes. Photo by
Ian StewartThe military were not keen on paddle steamers as warships - but they were glad of their assistance When
paddle steamers were in the ascendancy, the British Royal Navy remained
sceptical of any steamship and when won over, quickly adopted the screw
as the favoured means of propulsion. Nevertheless, the military were
glad of paddle steamers on occasion. River paddlers with shallow
draughts were perfect as gunboats and troop transports when campaigning
inland, such as on the Nile, Euphrates and Irrawaddy. Their shallow
draught came in useful as a number were built as and many were
requisitioned by the Royal Navy during both World Wars I and II for
coastal minesweeping and anti-aircraft battery duties. Their finest
service possibly came with their role in the troop evacuations at
Dunkirk in 1940. Two of the largest paddlers ever built were
converted to being aircraft carriers for the US Navy, operating on the
Great Lakes in World War II. The Clyde's PS Caledonia of 1934 is
seen again above as HMS Goatfell when requisitioned by the Royal Navy
in World War II. (Official Royal Navy photograph) Paddle Steamers were not ideal as car carriers and totally obsolete if their ferry run was replaced by a road bridge Tattershall
Castle and her sister Wingfield Castle (1934) were innovative paddlers,
designed to carry cargoes on the relatively short crossing of the
Humber Estuary between Hull and New Holland, and in the photo
above dated 1971 by Jake Dale, it can be seen that the cargo space
became useful for carrying cars. Nevertheless, the two only had a few
more years of working life and their younger quasi-sister Lincoln
Castle only until 1978, replaced by a diesel car ferry temporarily
introduced in anticipation of the ferry service being replaced outright
by a road suspension bridge in 1981. Paddlers ruled here because of the
shifting sands in the estuary which created large areas of shallows,
whose locations constantly changed.Motor ships were more fuel-efficient and required fewer engineering crew Germany's
mighty River Rhine was a stronghold of paddle steamers providing
connections between piers along both sides of the river - primarily for
passengers, but in early years, goods as well. The river has always
been a major bulk freight artery and paddle steamer tugs were once
numerous. PS Goethe (seen on the
right in the photo above taken in 2000 by Gordon Stewart) was
built in 1913 as a goods and passenger ship and has been expensively
rebuilt on two occasions for her now passenger-only role. The last
paddler built for the German section of the Rhine appeared in 1929 and
operators KD have since then specified motor ships (often propelled by
Voith-Schneider units) as road, rail and bridge connections left the
ships increasingly with the tourist trade only. From 1981, Goethe was
the only remaining paddler and even she was withdrawn in 1989. Restored
late in 1996 after a significant rebuild she was placed on the
"Nostalgic Route", the highly-scenic tourist run between Koblenz and
Rudesheim. Still marketed as a nostalgic paddler, she was converted to
motor operation after the 2008 season, partly on technical grounds but
also as a cost-limiting measure. Fuel costs were reported to have
halved after the conversion and there were also savings in engine room
personnel.Some conservatively-minded operators continued to order paddle steamers ..... but they were few and far betweenPaddle Steamer Maid of the Loch (above, at Balloch
in a photo by Kenny Whyte) was built in 1953 for service on Scotland's
Loch Lomond. It was the last of a long line of passenger paddle
steamers built for service in the UK and it was a surprise to many that a motor ship had not been specified. The largest vessel ever built for the loch, she was the sole replacement
for two paddle steamers and prior to World War II, the loch had
supported four plus various much smaller vessels operated by
independent owners. The Maid accumulated increasing losses and was
eventually withdrawn after the 1981 season. She is seen above with
her replacement, the much smaller but much older motor vessel Countess Fiona,
which had been brought overland from the Clyde, alongside. Even Countess Fiona did not last long in her role. Three other
paddle steamers were built for excursion work in the UK in the
immediate post-war period (1946-47), no doubt in haste to recover from
wartime losses and for conservatively-minded owners. The Clyde-based
Waverley is still in operation, owned
by
enthusiasts since 1974, but Bristol Channel-based Bristol Queen and
Cardiff Queen failed to see out the 1960s Paddle Steamers can be
operated successfully - but only if they find a niche rolePaddle
Steamer Waverley cruises up and down the Firth of Clyde. Here she is
seen heading homewards off Skelmorlie in 2013 in a photo kindly
supplied by Kenny Whyte. She now fulfils a purely excursion
cruise role. Ferry services were the main staple of her and similar
paddle steamers, but the link between Wemyss Bay on the mainland and
Rothesay on the Isle of Bute is now maintained by car ferries on a
shuttle service. The current holders of that roster are motor vessels
Argyle and Bute, seen above crossing the Firth with the Cowal coastline
behind and the higher hills of Argyll in the distancePaddlers remained suitable in certain areas and are now valued elements of the tourist economyAt the right place at the right time and going
to the right places, paddle steamers can attract the crowds like Waverley at Largs in 2011 (above). Century-old paddle steamers are being renovated to "as new" but incorporating all modern conveniences 109 years old and as good as new. With the
help of enthusiasts and under the control of a sympathetic shipping
company, PS Unterwalden (above), one of a fleet of five paddle
steamers on Lake Lucerne) returned to service in May 2011 after a major refit. She
was restored to closer to her original profile, but with a glass-enclosed
upper deck to meet modern expectations. Clever design, however,
means she looks much more like she once did, with the heavy construction
of the 1961 refit removed. This
photo of Unterwalden, back in service for the first time since 2009
was kindly supplied by Nadia JoehrHaving a "paddle steamer" is
good for your marketing MPV Herrsching on the Ammersee lake in Bavaria, southern Germany (seen above) is one of a new generation of ships
with a genuine set of paddle wheels. It was a surprise that the
ship was built as a paddler. It would have been even more of a surprise if
she had been a paddle steamer - an option which did receive genuine
consideration, but was ultimately ruled out on cost grounds. Nevertheless,
the operating company saw advantages in having a modern yet "traditional"
vessel on its timetabled services and later rebuilt its traditional (but motorised) paddler Diessen in similar styleSome operators have taken the concept of having a paddler one step further .....The addition of a paddle wheel
to a ship indicates that even just appearing to be a "paddle steamer"
gives a ship an important selling point. Mock wheels tend to be
more common on motor ships trying to imitate Mississippi-style steamers with a large wheel at the stern,
but mock side-wheels are not unknown. The photo above shows the
Yarmouth Belle, taken on the Upper River Thames near London in 2010
and kindly made available under Creative
Commons License
by owner Garry Knight. What is interesting about
Yarmouth Belle, now owned by the renowned and historical Turks
shipping company, is that its wheel, a very poor decorative
representation, has been added only recently to what was a magnificent
historical vessel dating from 1892. The operator's website rather disingenuously called her a "traditional English side
wheeler"The world's Paddle Steamer fleet is growing2013
saw the return to working order of two paddle steamers which had been
out of service for many years and only recently had any hope of such a
renaissance. The provincial government at Como, Italy, sponsored the
restoration of PS Patria and a local enthusiasts' group in Switzerland,
with local government support, arranged the renovation of PS Neuchatel
(above). The Swiss paddler had been used as a restaurant ship for many
years and needed the installation of an engine and boiler. Photo by kind courtesy of Sebastien Jacobi (via Olivier Bachmann) With the help of the public it can grow further Maid
of the Loch
(above) looks like she is ready to cast off from Balloch Pier on Loch
Lomond.
Unfortunately she has been out of service since 1981, but much work in
recent years has meant she has been open to the public for static use.
Hopes that a major grant from the UK's Heritage Lottery Fund would
allow her to be returned to service in 2019 were dashed when it was
announced that the project had failed to get the required funding at
the September 2018 round of allocations. It is anticipated that a
bid for the funding will be re-submitted for future assessment, but in
the meantime, her enthusiast owners continue to raise funds and work on
her restoration and renovation.. FIND OUT MORE ABOUT PADDLE STEAMERS The main sections of this database are listed
on the blue main menu below. The main menu can be found on the entry pages to
each section and at other points in the database. You will normally be able
to get back to the entry page for each section by following the return links
at the bottom of individual pages. Homepage Operational
Paddle Steamers Paddle
Steamer Reactivation Projects Laid
up Steamers Statically
Preserved Paddle Steamers Paddle
Steamers Under Construction Lost
Paddle Steamers Paddle
Steamers of the past Paddle
Steamer Engines Clyde
Steamers British
Paddle Steamer Index Paddle
Tugs Sternwheelers paddlesteamers.info photo archiveBibliography
For
a comprehensive guide to paddle steamers in all their guises from a
historical development point of view I would direct you to the
following for further reading :
The Coming of the Comet : The Rise and Fall of the Paddle Steamer by Nick Robins
Seaforth Publishing, 2012 : ISBN 10 : 1848321341 and ISBN 13 : 978-1848321342
It
is an almost impossible task to cover such an enormous subject,
deciding what to include and within those topics, how much detail to
present. This book makes a good attempt. They key things to take away
are the reasons why certain things happened causing the "rise and
fall".
ABOUT THIS
WEBSITE
paddlesteamers.info is researched,
designed and
maintained by Gordon Stewart, life member of the Paddle Steamer
Preservation Society (North of England & North Wales branch) and
is based in England The website aims to be
a source of basic reference, setting the scene for those who wish to understand
the general situation regarding paddle steamers. Those who wish to research
further are directed to the appropriate sources shown in the bibliography sections
of the relevant past of the historical database.
Links to external websites are provided to take viewers to steamer
operators' websites and for general research purposes only. It is not responsible
for the content of these websites. Please report any broken or corrupted links
to webmaster The webmaster attempts to keep information as up-to-date as
possible but does not guarantee that any information such as ship status etc
is necessarily current. If you have any news updates or corrections, please
advise the webmaster so these pages can be updated. Any
views expressed are those of the webmaster alone unless otherwise indicated. Send
an e-mail to the Webmaster, Gordon Stewart
Your
comments and views, questions or information requests are welcomed What counts as a Paddle Steamer in this database
?
Steam
powered side and stern-wheelers including those which have been
converted to diesel power and those which survive statically (even
if the machinery has been removed). Side-wheelers built as motor
vessels are also includedwhere they can be regarded as equivalent in size to the steamers covered.
Stern-wheelers built as motor vessels are
excluded because a large number have been built in recent times (some
are genuine paddlers, others have screw propulsion and wheels
mainly for effect only). Very small steamships of the "hobby
steamboating" nature are excluded. Modern ships primarily
propelled by screw propellor but with a side-wheel either entirely or
substantially for visual effect are excluded (except in the case of
"Freya" which is a genuine hybrid vessel and includes traditional
paddle steamer machinery as well as a diesel motor. The
historical database is limited to lake, river, estuarine and inshore
paddle ships
Copyright
and re-use of information and images
All material and photographs displayed on this
website are the property of Gordon Stewart or
the accredited photographer where shown and not for re-use without permission of
webmaster (uncredited photos are those of the webmaster) or photographer unless
allowed under the appropriate Creative Commons licence (quoted alongside all
photos used under this permission). All
information is presented in good faith based on meticulous research.
If any information is clearly wrong,
please advise the webmaster and it shall be corrected
All photographs displayed are with the permission of the acknowledged photographer
but are not to be copied for re-use for any other website or publication without
the specific authorisation of the photographer. You are welcome to use the text
from this website as a research source and basis for your own work but it should
not be copied and republished elsewhere verbatim or only slightly altered. All
material on the paddlesteamers.info database (formerly and including the Paddle
Steamer Resources by Tramscape database) is
Gordon Stewart or the individual photographer where acknowledged.
Photos not otherwised attributed are by Gordon Stewart
Acknowledgements
The
webmaster gratefully acknowledges many sources of information,
including websites shown on the links page, magazines such as Paddle
Wheels and Dampferzeitung and published books which he has read and
absorbed information from. Many of these are listed in the Bibliography
sections of the main pages to which they refer and readers of this
website are referred to these books for much more detailed information
about the relevant subjects. Thanks go to everyone who has submitted
photos. They are acknowledged on the website alongside their photos.
Particular thanks to Kenny Whyte, renowned ship photographer resident
on the Clyde coast for his kindly allowing me to use numerous images
from his collection.
Paddle Steamer Information Requests
Most of the information available to me is
presented in abbreviated form in this database and it is unlikely
that I will be able to help with ships which are not included in this database,
but please send the webmaster an
e-mail and I will give as much assistance as I can. I
can for example also give general guidance about paddle steamer services in
Europe (e.g. Swiss lake steamers operations) and guide you to the best sources
of external information. The "Paddleducks" website www.paddleducks.co.uk
is the home of the world-wide modelling community where there is a lively
forum for information about paddle steamers as well as modelling issues. Paddleducks members often have access
to ship plans and other information of specific relevance to modellers.
Paddle Steamer Preservation Society in the UK accepts enquiries for inspection
of the material in its historical collection for research purposes.
Can You Help With This database ?
The webmaster would be delighted to receive
any updates of relevant information and photographs (of which you own
copyright) which could help to keep this database as up-to-date as
possible and fill in gaps in the historical record. Howeever,
photographs of PS Waverley are not required due to the enormous number
of images of her now available on the internet ASSOCIATED WEBSITESClyde Turbine Steamers
Although
Clyde Steamer fleets were dominated by paddle steamers, the introduction
of the turbine steamer King Edward in 1901 dramatically improved
the quality of the long-distance day excursion fleet. The world's
first ever passenger ship powered by turbines brought a new
level of speed, comfort and smoothness and in the next 35 years
a number of excellent vessels joined the Clyde fleet.
The
only surviving example is TS Queen Mary
(seen above in 2017 in Prince's Dock, Glasgow) which sailed from 1933
to 1977. She was bought by a
Scottish charity the Friends of TS Queen Mary in October 2015 with the
intention of taking her to Glasgow and preserving her in a permanent
berth near the city centre and she was returned to the Clyde on May
15th 2016 to be prepared for her new life. Stripping out of old
fittings was proceeding rapidly when the above photo was takenInTramCities with Gordon Stewart : Infrastructure, Architecture and Environment along streets with trams
Gordon
Stewart travels
regularly throughout Europe to create what is perhaps the finest
tramway photograph resource on the internet. Although
trams are the focal point and
common thread throughout, it is where they are running which provides
the diversity and interest in his photos. As well as city centres with
their grand
architecture, Gordon takes you to less well-known suburbs to give
a real feel for the tramway city. The photos are becoming an important
historical record for those interested in the city itself as well as
its trams and also show how trams fit into urban environments to
provide an attractive and accessible transportation system.paddlesteamers.info Domain
front pageGordon Stewart 2001-2019 BM
Gordon Stewart or the individual photographer where acknowledged.
Photos not otherwised attributed are by Gordon Stewart
