paddlesteamers.info : The Internet's leading website for
Side-Wheeled Paddle Steamers
Thames
Estuary, River Medway, Kent, Essex and East Anglia Coast, England,
U.K.
and services to France and Belgium
New Palace Steamers
Ltd
Glasgow shipbuilders
Fairfields repossessed three modern steamers from the Victoria
Steamboat Association and operated them from 1895 on their earlier
Thames services under the name New Palace Steamers Ltd. Services to
Clacton / Harwich, Kent and Boulogne in France. Second hand tonnage
in the former cross-channel ferry Paris (working in Germany as Flamingo) was chartered to develop the cross-channel
business and sailed under the name La Belgique.
Unsurprisingly, losses were incurred and the largest and most
expensive vessel, La Marguerite, despite her popularity on the French
run, was withdrawn after the 1903 season and transferred to
Fairfield’s other subsidiary operating on the North Wales coast, the Liverpool
and North Wales Steamship Company.
The outbreak of the First World War at the height of the 1914 season
brought a premature reduction in traffic. Koh-i-Noor was sent to
Scotland for refitting, but work never started and she remained
laid-up throughout the hostilities and was never reactivated. Royal
Sovereign was also laid up but sold in 1918 for further use on the
Thames as Fairfield closed its
operation
Like
many major steamer operator companies, New Palace Steamers published
their own post cards - an effective marketing tool if posted home
from the many trippers and holidaymakers using their palatial steamers.
Although the company was not to survive the First World War and paddler
Koh-i-Noor went for scrap, Royal Sovereign went on to have a much
longer life on the Thames
Koh-i-Noor
Royal Sovereign
La Marguerite
La Belgique (on charter for services to Ostend)
Go to Ian Boyle's Simplonpc site for postcard views of these steamers : http://www.simplonpc.co.uk/NewPalace.html
Return
to:
Victoria Steamboat Association
River Thames
Historical