PS Kingswear Castle

Kingswear Castle is one of a number of smaller paddle steamers built in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries to provide transport and excursions along some of Britain’s most beautiful rivers. One of three identical sisters, she was the last to be built for service on the River Dart and also the last to be withdrawn, ending her first career in September 1965. Fortunately, she did not follow other paddle steamers into the scrapyard but lingered on, first on the Isle of Wight and then on the Medway, where a sort of restoration began, which culminated in her return to full passenger service in 1985.