PADDLE POWER
letter of the month
I enjoyed the article about the famous paddle steamer Waverley (SM, Oct), although I remain a little confused about what constitutes a Diamond Jubilee, and so it seems does the Cambridge Dictionary. Waverley is one year older than I am, and I have enjoyed some splendid outings on her over the years, including a sailing down the River Clyde and another along the coast from Portsmouth to Lulworth Cove. My wife did a trip on her to Lundy Island in the 1980s.
The survival of the ship shows how much hard work and dedication has been put into the work of preservation at all levels, from the engineers to the fund-raising volunteers. All society members are to be congratulated.
A few weeks ago I was in Portsmouth and saw Waverley returning to the Harbour Station pier to offload her happy passengers, who had been out in the Solent, possibly around the Isle of Wight or down the coast to Bournemouth. Waverley’s return that evening had followed that of HMS Prince of Wales, which had returned to Portsmouth Naval Base after her unfortunate breakdown.
The breakdown gave me an offthe-wall idea: perhaps the UK MoD should have built aircraft carriers powered by paddle wheels. After all, in World War II the United States Navy had two aircraft carriers powered by paddles, USNS Wolverine and USNS Sable. Admittedly their operations were confined to the North American Great Lakes and they were only used for flying and deck landing training of US and allied naval pilots, but they performed a vital function.
Cruise ships are becoming more and more like theme parks, hosting incredible state-of-the-art activities that would never have been possible 20 years ago. The brand-new Disney Wish, for example, features a watercoaster called the Aquamouse, which Disney is marketing as the first ever real Disney attraction at sea.