World of Ships – May 2018

Kingswear Castle on the river

Medway, passing one-time

Elizabethan Fortress Upnor Castle.

PADDLE STEAMERS

Paddle Steamers I World of Ships I 13

OWNER Paddle Steamer Kingswear Castle Trust; operator

Dart Pleasure Craft

BUILT 1924 by Philip and Son, Dartmouth, for the River Dart

Steamboat Company

TONNAGE 94 gross, 47 net

DIMENSIONS 113ft 8in x 17ft 6in (hull), 28ft 0in (Over paddles)

PASSENGERS 235 (Class V and VI waters)

MACHINERY Compound diagonal built 1904 by Cox and

Co., Falmouth, transferred from earlier Kingswear Castle in

1924; single furnace coal-fired boiler replaced winter 1961-

SPEED 8 knots

Kingswear Castle, built in 1924 to run

between Totnes and Dartmouth on the River

Dart in company with similar steamers

Dartmouth Castle (1907), Compton Castle

(1914) and Totnes Castle (1923), really came

into her own when returning to Devon in

2013 to begin a 15-year charter to the Dart

Steam Railway and Riverboat Company.

This followed a lengthy restoration under the

auspices of the Paddle Steamer Preservation

Society while the vessel was based on the

Medway. Carrying up to 400 passengers,

Kingswear Castle ran on the Dart to the end of

the 1930s before use during World War II as

a storeship at Dittisham Pier; later there was

use as a harbour tender for the US Navy.

She was part of a three-steamer Dart service

after the war. A new coal-fired boiler was fitted

in 1961, but after motor vessels were brought in

in 1964, Kingswear Castle was left as the only

Dart paddler. She was withdrawn after the 1965

season, with rising operating costs principally

blamed. Laid up in Old Mill Creek, Kingswear

Castle was bought for £600 by the Paddle

Steamer Preservation Society in 1967, with a tow

in August that year to the River Medina on the

Isle of Wight, to berth close to the then statically

preserved paddle steamer Medway Queen.

The work of restoration began in earnest

after a move to Rochester on the River Medway

in June 1972, followed by stationary tests for

the boiler in 1981, before successful sailing

trials in 1982 and a return to operational steam

in November 1983. The vessel sailed for 20

days after obtaining her insurance certificate

with a volunteer crew and a 12-passenger

limit, venturing as far as Gravesend.

Passenger Certificates were obtained to

allow commercial operation from 1985, with

an expansion of sailings on the Medway and

Thames Estuary, including trips upriver

to pass through Tower Bridge and enter

London’s Upper Pool. There was also work

to improve onboard facilities, all taking place

under the inspirational guidance of John

Megoran, who acted as both the steamer’s

captain and general manager.

By 1993 finances were sufficiently buoyant

for substantial replating of the ship’s bottom

to take place. Further major restoration

during the eight years from 1999 included new

decks, a new bow, new sponsons and paddle

boxes, a new fiddley, a new saloon entrance,

and replacement etched glass windows. The

ultimate achievement was the installation of

a new coal-fired boiler, financed by trading

profits and grants from the Heritage Lottery

Fund, the Paddle Steamer Preservation Society,

the City of Rochester upon Medway Council,

Medway Council and the Manifold Trust.

Kingswear Castle’s return to the Dart in

December 2012 followed lengthy negotiations

between the Kingswear Castle Trust and the

Dartmouth Steam Railway and Riverboat

Company, whose general manager, Andrew

Pooley, said at the time: ‘It has taken nearly

DART PADDLER

KINGSWEAR CASTLE

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