The PS Monarch

PS Monarch is one of three operating steam powered paddle steamers in England and she certainly is the smallest at only 42 feet long and with a passenger capacity of only 12.

 She is the result of a long term project by Brian Waters who had an ambition to build his own paddle steamer after volunteering on a project to restore the PS Kingswear  Castle. His labour of love has really paid off and the vessel looks sufficiently authentic to have been featured in a BBC historical reenactment based TV documentary series called Edwardian Farm.

He started construction in 1984 but it took  nearly 20 years and she was not completed until 2003. The steam engine was converted from a late 20th century steam powered tar pump salvaged from a Caerphilly tar distillation works (not a 19th century pump from the gas works as indicated on the official web site). The pump was a Lee Howl duplex with 8 inch diameter cylinders and a 10 inch stroke. It was originally installed at St Anthony's tar distillation plant in  NE England in 1974 so even the steam plant is relatively new. The boiler is of a modern oil fired design.

The old Edwardian look is not all that it seems in other ways too. In addition to the two, 4 foot diameter, side paddle wheels, the Monarch is equipped,  with electrically powered, bow and stern thrusters to aid manouverability in the narrow rivers she operates on.

The Monarch has been a much travelled vessel. From 2003 to 2007 she was based at Sandwich, Kent, where she undertook a passenger operation on the River Stour. After her first relocation and operating for three years on the Isle of Wight she moved to the Morwellham Quay Museum , on the River Tamar near Calstock, Cornwall. Her latest move, in 2012, was to Wareham, Dorset, on the River Frome (from the upstream limit of navigation down to Poole Harbour). She is now operated  by Wareham Steam Navigation in association with Wareham River Cruises. A major overhaul was carried out in 2015.