Paddle steamer heading down the Orwell.

Juan Twothree said:
This was one of them today
Click to expand...
Not suprised managed not to see them , came out of St Kats a few weeks ago with my 10 year grandson at the helm, the conversation went as follows.
Heading downstream and approaching Greenwich..............
Grandad, what are we going to do with that ?
Do with what ?
That " boat "in front of us !
Err ....H,mm ...keep it on our port side .
Had totally failed to register the presence of a 10,000 ? ton ocean liner resplendent in coat of brilliant white paint anchored opposite The Royal Naval College.
 
PS Waverley visited the Medway on Saturday...Brisk warm westerly
Rag and stick boats of all sizes out in force, Mobos virtually none :(
 
Can
AntarcticPilot said:
Practically every pier she uses has been dinged by her at one time or another; she basically has no steerage until she's moving pretty fast, for the reasons given above.

It used to be a bit scary being on the pontoons in Rothesay Harbour when she was being turned in the harbour!

I understand that except for specialized vessels, paddle steamers never have the paddles operable separately, because it is possible for the torque of contra-rotating paddles to turn the vessel over. There's also a fairly obvious engineering reason - you'd need two separate steam engines, and if you watch engines like Waverley's operating, there simply wouldn't be space - the pistons operate directly on the shaft on which the paddles turn. As it's a compound engine, the pistons each operate at different steam pressures.

Something that's rarely mentioned is that she's exceptionally quiet, and it's easy to be taken by surprise as her colour scheme tends to blend with the shoreline! She's sneaked up on me a couple of times on the Clyde.
Click to expand...
Can't imagine the waverly being in the harbour in Rothesay
 
AntarcticPilot said:
The outer harbour
Click to expand...
You may be right, but not sure the Waverley ever got into the Inner or Outer harbours at Rothesay, which are quite small and have a narrow entrance. Always seen it docked alongside the pier outside the harbour. Certainly witnessed some amazing ropework springing on and off the pier using a lot of paddle power.
But I haven’t been to Rothesay before about 1990 ish so can’t be sure.
 
dunedin said:
You may be right, but not sure the Waverley ever got into the Inner or Outer harbours at Rothesay, which are quite small and have a narrow entrance. Always seen it docked alongside the pier outside the harbour. Certainly witnessed some amazing ropework springing on and off the pier using a lot of paddle power.
But I haven’t been to Rothesay before about 1990 ish so can’t be sure.
Click to expand...
I was moored at the pontoons in the outer harbour when she was alongside the inside of the harbour wall; not sure exactly when but probably 2010. She was turned using a combination of springs and power, coming awfully close to the boats moored on the pontoons. Unless I'm completely away with the fairies (and some might say that's not improbable), it happened.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Share this page

Top