A paddle steamer is a steamship or steamboat powered by a steam engine that drives paddle wheels to propel the craft through the water. In antiquity, paddle wheelers followed the development of poles, oars and sails, where the first uses were wheelers driven by animals or humans.
PS Waverley is the last seagoing passenger-carrying paddle steamer in the world. Built in 1946, she sailed from Craigendoran on the Firth of Clyde to Arrochar on Loch Long until 1973. Bought by the Paddle Steamer Preservation Society (PSPS), she has been restored to her 1947 appearance and now operates passenger excursions around the British coast.
CSS Robert E. Lee was a fast paddle-steamer, originally built as a Glasgow-Belfast packet boat named Giraffe, which was bought as a blockade runner for the Confederate States during the American Civil War, then subsequently served in the United States Navy as USS Fort Donelson and in the Chilean Navy as Concepción.
USS Clyde was a paddle steamer captured by the Union Navy during the American Civil War, and commissioned to patrol Florida waters. She had been built in 1861 in Glasgow, Scotland as the Clyde passenger steamer Neptune, but sold in 1863 to become a blockade runner, making two successful round trips to Mobile, Alabama before capture. After the war she was sold to mercantile interests as Indian River, but lost shortly afterwards.
Numerous vessels have borne the name Talisman, including:
PS Scotia was a steam paddle passenger vessel that ran between England and Ireland from 1847 to 1861, and then became an American Civil War blockade runner.
PS Jeanie Deans was a Clyde paddle steamer, built in 1931 for the London and North Eastern Railway. She was a popular boat, providing summer cruises from Craigendoran until 1964.
PS Iona was a MacBrayne paddle steamer, which operated on the Clyde for 72 years, the longest-serving Clyde steamer.
Several steamships have been named Fingal, including:
The blockade runners of the American Civil War were seagoing steam ships that were used to get through the Union blockade that extended some 3,500 miles (5,600 km) along the Atlantic and Gulf of Mexico coastlines and the lower Mississippi River. The Confederate states were largely without industrial capability and could not provide the quantity of arms and other supplies needed to fight against the industrial north. To meet this need blockade runners were built in Scotland and England and were used to import the guns, ordnance and other supplies that the Confederacy desperately needed, in exchange for cotton that the British textile industry needed greatly. To penetrate the blockade, these relatively lightweight shallow draft ships, mostly built in British ship yards and specially designed for speed, but not suited for transporting large quantities of cotton, had to cruise undetected, usually at night, through the Union blockade. The typical blockade runners were privately owned vessels often operating with a letter of marque issued by the Confederate States of America. If spotted, the blockade runners would attempt to outmaneuver or simply outrun any Union ships on blockade patrol, often successfully.
Neptune may refer to a number of ships named for Neptune, the god of freshwater and the sea in Roman mythology.
PS Vulture was a passenger vessel built in 1864. She served briefly as a blockade runner during the American Civil War. She then traded in British coastal waters until she was broken up in 1886.
P & A Campbell was a shipping company based in Bristol which operated steamship services in the Bristol Channel between 1893 and 1979.
Agnes E. Fry was a US Confederate blockade runner built by the shipyard of Caird & Company in Greenock on the lower River Clyde in Scotland, and launched on 26 March 1864 under the name of "Fox". The paddle steamer had an iron hull, and was powered by two oscillating cylinder steam engines. The ship was under the command of Joseph Fry, who renamed it after his wife when he took command. She was scuttled near the mouth of the Cape Fear River, Oak Island, North Carolina sometime around January 1865. The ship's wreckage may have been found by sonar on 27 February 2016.
PS Waverley was a Clyde-built paddle steamer that carried passengers on the Clyde between 1899 and 1939. She was requisitioned by the Admiralty to serve as a minesweeper during World War I and again in World War II, and was sunk while participating in the Dunkirk evacuation in 1940. The current PS Waverley, launched in 1946, was built as a replacement for this vessel.
Several ships have been named Vulture for the vulture, a scavenging bird of prey:
Several ships have been named Juno for the Roman goddess Juno.
SS Douglas may refer to the following four ships:
