paddlesteamers.info : The Internet's leading website for
Side-Wheeled Paddle Steamers
These ships are at severe risk. In recent years several paddle steamers have not survived, although these have generally been derelict ships for which the cost of restoration would have made any project impractical. Information is not up to date so some of the ships will have been scrapped or have deteriorated beyond any reasonable hope of recovery
Click here to see which paddlers have been lost in recent years
Click here for laid-up steamers outside Europe
Built in 1959. Withdrawn from cruising on the River Lena in 2007 but was understood to be undergoing restoration with a planned reintroduction in 2014. This appears not to have happened
K.M. Stanyukovich
Russia
737-series steamer built in Hungary in 1957 is under refurbishment at Gorodets, near Nizhny Novgorod on the River Volga, by a private owner. A new boiler has been supplied by Master-Watt who adapted a boiler from Czech manufacturer TN for Russian conditions and the engine now works under steam. Photographs taken in 2016 show the ship outwardly at least looking to be in good condition at the Gorodetsky yard
Current status : unknown
Recent photos and report : http://puteshectvuy.ru/sv/sochi/suda-tipa-stanyukovich-737-proekt-gde-zhivet-nastoyashchii-kolesnyi-parohod/
Details and photos on the Hungarian Ship Register : http://www.hajoregiszter.hu/hajoadatlap/k_m_stanyukovich/1759
Paddle Tug Bystryi was built in 1955 in Kiev at the Lenin Shipyard and was the last of her type on the Volga when it was mooted in 1996 to preserve her for the Polytechnic museum. This never happened and she was laid up at Volgoreschensk. However she was bought by a company based in Yaroslavl in 2006 for refurbishment for tourist purposes as a passenger steamer in Yaroslavl. Renovation began at Hlebnikovo, in the northern suburbs of Moscow.
Current status : unknown
VESSELS AT RISK
The former MAHART passenger vessel lies on the Danube near Budapest, in a poor condition following a fire. Her machinery has already been removed. MAHART had originally planned to return her to service, but funds were not available. She survives, in very poor condition, on the Danube at the Neszmely Ship Museum on the Danube. She is in good hands, however, as part of the Zoltan Foundation collection (named after a paddle tug in the museum collection). Finance for her restoration is not available at the moment.
Former Danube cargo
and passenger boat built in 1898, withdrawn in 1992 and then used
as a restaurant in Belgrade as "Split",the name she assumed
after World War II. Now out of the water and deteriorating
at Kladovo shipyard
A number of the 65 long-distance river
cruise ships of the Soviet 737 project built between 1951 and 1960
in the USSR and Hungary are believed to be in existence, many beached and in very
poor condition. However, Krasnoyarsk is still in operation
and the motor conversion Bogdan Khmelnitskiy
has been returned to operational service in the Ukraine. K.M. Stanyukovich
is under restoration in Russia.
Blagoveschensk
Kiryensk,
Russia
Has been out of service since 2005 but there are reports that she is now under reconstruction for service
Aleksandr Polezhaev
Samara, Russia
Sergey Alymov
Near Saratov, Russia
Appears to be on dry land near Volsk with paddle wheels
missing. One source suggests she got to that position around 50
metres from the riverbank during flood conditions on the river.
VESSELS AT RISK - MACHINERY REMOVED
Benalmadena, Spain
Former US Coastguard cutter, built in 1925 by the Dubuque
Boat & Boiler Co in Iowa for the Lighthouse Sevice on the Mississippi.
200 feet long with an extremely large breadth of 65 feet, she
served until late 1944 when she was involved in a collision and
paid-off in 1945. She became an accommodation boat for the US army
Corps of Engineers, having had her machinery removed. Sold in 1962,
she went to Florida 10 years later but lay abandoned until sold
to Themes International based in the UK, crossing the Atlantic to
Southampton on a semi-submersible in 1989. She went to Antwerp,
Belgium for refurbishment but Themes went out of business and Willow
remained at Antwerp until 1995 when she returned to the UK, this
time to Birkenhead. Her next move was to Spain in 1996 for operation
as a restaurant ship. In 2019 the ship had partially sunk at her mooring.
In
February 2023 it was reported that the legal matters sorrounding the
ship had been resolved and that it was planned to raise and remove the
vessel for scrapping in late April 2023. However, the legal proceedings
continued. In March 2024 it was reported that a resoluton was close but
would likely involve the local authorities having to pay for the
removal and scrapping
Truro, UK
The small ex-River Dart paddler
(1914-1962) is moored at Lemon Quay, Truro in Cornwall,
south-west England and was used as a flower shop and cafe until 2008. She is
an almost identical older sister to PS Kingswear Castle, but
has been rebuilt significantly from her original form.
Compton Castle has been at Truro since 1984. She was sold
in 2008 and expected to be re-opened in fully refurbished form as a nautical-themed restaurant
with a traditional tea room in the lower deck, run by renowned local
chef Kevin Viner.
However, that plan did not come to fruition but property developers
Porthia who now own the boat are reported to be pressing ahead with
refurbishment of the ship whilst looking for a company to lease
her.
Her engines are preserved and were exhibited at the Blackgang Chine
Fantasy Park on the Isle of Wight for many years, but in 2015 were sold
to the Paddle Steamer Preservation Society and are to be exhibited at
Dartmouth, where her cousin, PS Kingswear Castle operates
In
March 2024 it was reported that the local authorities had
received quotes for the removal and scrapping of the remaining hull.
Subsequently a local resident made a proposal to remove the vessel for
future restoration at their farm.
Small privately-built paddle steamer in the UK which latterly offered cruises at Wareham Dorset
