30 March 2008: A wonderful Tariff and Menu card from RMS Columba circa 1900 has been added to the Guidebooks Posters Souvenirs and Signs section. This card has been donated by a very kind Roger Graham, who inherited a vast amount of memorabilia from his late aunt. I am indebted to Roger for his generosity.
9 March 2008: Updates in the immediate future may be a little more sparse than regular visitors are used to, due to a family illness. Please bear with me, however as I will update the site when I can. Today's update shows the elegant Thames steamer PS Swift at Great Yarmouth. Pictures of her are very hard to come by and I am pleased to be able to add this one from my own collection. Picture for PS Yarmouth Belle updated to a much more interesting image of her at Tilbury Pier. Finally for today, an enamelled badge of P&A Campbell's PS Devonia has been added to the Guidebooks, Posters, Souvenirs and Signs section.
18 January 2008: Pictures of PS Philomel and PS Laverock updated to show much more interesting and clearer images. Picture added, showing the crew and passengers of PS Snowdon (II). PS Juno has been added to the Bristol Channel Steamer Section.
29 December 2007: Images of a group of Jazz fans on board MV Royal Daffodil in 1960 and embarking after time ashore at Margate on the same trip have been added to the Floating Festival of Jazz section. Doreen Beatty is shown singing with the Mike Daniels Delta Jazzmen aboard MV Royal Sovereign on the return leg from Margate to London in June 1961.
24 December 2007: PS Heather Bell has been added to the Scottish and South Coast sections.
16 December 2007: Cy Laurie and his Jazz Band in June 1960 have been added to the Floating Festival of Jazz section.
24 November 2007: A copy of the programme and ticket application for the 1958 Floating Festival of Jazz cruise from London to Margate has been added.
22 November 2007: Another page added to the Floating Festival of Jazz. This page shows Bob Wallis and his Storyville Jazz Band aboard MV Royal Daffodil in June 1960.
21 November 2007: A new page added to the Floating Festivals of Jazz pages showing the Alex Welsh Jazz Band in 1960 aboard MV Royal Daffodil. Also a flier from the June 1961 MV Royal Sovereign Jazz Cruise, detailing the appearance order of the bands, has been added.
18 November 2007: A new page added to the Floating Festivals of Jazz pages showing the Alan Elsdon Jazz Band in June 1961 aboard MV Royal Sovereign.
17 November 2007: A terrific new section has been added with previously unknown pictures of the GSN Co's Floating Festival of Jazz Cruises from the late 1950's. The first of these shows Mr Acker Bilk at Margate Pier in June 1960 trying his luck on the penny in the slot machines. I would be interested to hear of any visitor to the site who may have been on these cruises. All the pictures come from Pete the Paddler, whose father took the pictures. Pete runs the excellent Thames Tugs site and I am grateful to him for allowing me to share these images with you. Watch this space for more images from these cruises.
5 November 2007: My sincere apologies to all of you who have sent me contributions and emails recently. My seemingly robust Sony laptop "died" and I have been waiting to get a new PC and to get everything configured and back on line. I am pleased to say that we are now back and it will be Business as Usual from now on. I thank you all for your patience and if you have sent me something recently and I have not replied or you have sent me something which I have not yet added to the site then, I am sorry, but I have lost it and would ask you to resubmit. The good news is that I can continue Paddle Steamer Picture Gallery as before and will not need to rewrite the site, something I feared would be necessary at one stage! So, keep your contributions coming and watch out for more regular updates to the site from now on. As always, thank you all for your support. Ed.