How PS Waverley navigated choppy waters to become world's last seagoing paddle steamer

In 1940, the paddle steamer PS Waverley was sunk while ferrying British troops back from Dunkirk. Its replacement, also called the PS Waverley, was built in Glasgow in 1946 and like its predecessor takes its name from Sir Walter Scott’s first novel. It was built for the London & North Eastern Railway for the Firth of Clyde steamer route, which ran from Craigendoran Pier near Helensburgh up Loch Long to Arrochar.

The ship was withdrawn from service in 1973, but between 2000 and 2003 it underwent a substantial rebuild at Great Yarmouth, with new boilers installed with the help of funding from the Heritage Lottery Fund. It then returned to service as a passenger ferry – the last seagoing passenger-carrying paddle steamer in the world, with room for up to 800 passengers. It has a displacement of 693 tons and a Rankin & Blackmore triple-expansion steam engine producing 2,100hp at 58rpm. In acceptance trials it has achieved a speed of 18 knots.

The ship resumed passenger excursions from Bournemouth, Glasgow, Southampton and London. In 2011, the ship was awarded an Engineering Heritage Award by IMechE, but in 2019 it was withdrawn from service owing to boiler problems. A fundraising appeal secured £2.3m in donations, and by August 2020 the PS Waverley was back on the water.

Find out more about the institution’s history on the Engineering Heritage Awards page.

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