Builders : John Brown Clydebank 1909
Propulsion type: Paddle, triple expansion 3 crank engines
Owners: General Steam Navigation Co Ltd
Service dates: 1909 - 1951
Tonnage: Net 435 Gross 793
Comments:
Beautifully fitted out, PS Golden Eagle joined PS Eagle on the run to Margate & Ramsgate from London. Immensely popular, she was returned to the GSN Co in November 1919, after service in the First World War as a troop carrier. Between January 1915 and November 1919 she carried 518,101 men across the English Channel, in addition to large quantities of stores and a large number of early aircraft. After the war, she remained on the Tower Pier to Southend & Clacton service until the outbreak of the Second World War. In September 1939 she assisted in the evacuation of children from London and the surrounding areas to the East Coast of England. For a page of newspaper cuttings showing this event please click here. In the war she was requistioned for use as an anti aircraft ship in the Thames. Again returned to the GSN Co after the war, she was withdrawn from service in 1951. Golden Eagle was father's favourite GSN Co paddle steamer. He remembered Captain Adams as her master.
This wonderful picture comes from a private source and shows Golden Eagle in the Thames Estuary in summer 1949, just two years before she was withdrawn from service.