Waverley, the last seagoing paddle steamer | Hacker News Reader

Waverley, the last seagoing paddle steamer

diamondgeezer.blogspot.com

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I live on the Firth of Clyde and the Waverley passes my house twice a day during the summer, plus it sales round the local lochs so when you are out and about you always catch glimpses of it. Part of it's charm and allure is that not only is it beautifully restored, but you can visit the engine room to see a traditional piston engine, and observe the paddles in the water as well - it's a gateway drug into engineering for many a child here. There is something magnificent about watching the Waverley catching and passing a Vanguard-class Trident submarine on it's way into or out of base. The paddle steamers certainly aren't slow - the Waverley is one of the fastest boats on the river - it's faster than the cross-clyde Ferries normally - I check them all using the magnificent Marine Traffic app! For anyone in London, it does a short Autumn season down there, sailing under Tower Bride and out to Southend for a trip round the big windfarm etc

fellow firth of clyde-r here so I love the point about seeing the Waverley pass the subs! Family and I went for a trip on Waverley last summer and it was great. Seeing the engine in action up close really is something for someone who's so used to moving bits around. And when she gets up to speed on the open water it really feels fast.

Yes, I saw it chugging down the Thames around this time last year. A nice little surprise when you aren't expecting it.

The Thames estuary cruise is fantastic -- coming into London from the North Sea on this gives you a whole new perspective.

Reminds me of the beautiful paddle steamers still running up and down Lake Zurich. It's hard to even glance up at the scenery rolling past the portholes when you can stare at the big gleaming brass and chrome engine in the well in the middle of the boat that you can completely watch working.

Add: first hit on youtube is nice https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z3okBYfi2lg

I spent the entire 2 hour journey from Rapperswil to Zurich just mesmerized by the engine. It moves with a certain ballet like fluidity and beauty. As an amateur metalworker I also appreciate the craftsmanship that must've gone into making the engine frame, the pistons and all the moving parts.

I skimmed through the blog post and also the Wikipedia entries about paddle steamers and paddlewheels, but I couldn't seem to find an answer to this question: why were people still building such ships well after the screw was invented? Ships with screw propulsion were already very commonplace by the time the Waverley was built (1946), so why was it built this way? Was there some advantage to paddle wheels?

I don’t know the answer, but I doubt it was an engineering decision. If she was always a touring boat, paddle wheels are more interesting to experience for the tourist, and might be an edge against your competition. Tourists aren’t taking a boat to get anywhere fast, after all.

It does make me wonder if there are other advantages, like what kind of engine disturbs the environment the least.

I was thinking maybe paddlewheel boats can traverse shallower water, but if that were the case, wouldn't they still be in use?

I believe most use cases where really shallow draft is required has been taken over by waterjets. Less efficient than propellers, particularly at slow speed, but more efficient than paddle wheels, AFAIU.

Then there's other things like channels having been dredged over the years, roads have been massively improved, ships have echo sounders etc., so maybe there's less need nowadays for traversing really shallow waters with big boats.

See also https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_Queen (built 1995 - but besides the steam engine-driven paddlewheel also has a diesel-electric propellers "in case of an emergency and for maneuverability around tight areas")

Over here there's a paddle wheel tourist ship (no steam though, just plain diesel). But the cheeky thing is that it's actually powered by propellers, the paddle wheel is just turned around by a small electric (hydraulic?) motor for show.

Shallow draught. Paddle steamers were very useful at Dunkirk, big boats that could get very close to the beach and embark the evacuees directly.

Clearly not enough of an advantage to keep using them, but Waverley was built for a route already being serviced by a fleet of three other paddle steamers, and presumably a screw ship would've required some operational changes, so it's easy to imagine the company deciding to stick with what they knew rather than get with the times.

This is a great video about the Waverley: https://youtu.be/wuBbnIdwOHA?si=cw9P7wQQ7jf0krmf

Ha I went on this when it was up in Scotland, it did runs around Mull from Oban I think it was, or something in that area! It was neat being able to see a lot of the engine/cranks that are exposed doing their work as you steam across the sea.

Yes! It bases itself at Oban for part of the year and serves those routes, so your memory is correct

Nice. I would love to do a trip.

I heard about Waverley when I visited the Maid of the Loch https://www.maidoftheloch.org/ which is a paddle steamer that they are currently repairing at Loch Lomond where it used to do trips.

Was about to say that: maid of the loch is definitely worth a visit!

I grew up in Helensburgh, one of the Waverley's stops on the Clyde. Went on it many times including a memorable trip 'up the watter' to the Glasgow Garden Festival with the rest of my secondary school.

Had an impression on me when I first went on it and still does whenever I see it.

I knew Clydeside had built a lot of ships, but I hadn't realised quite how many until I found this:

"In the 1890s, British shipyards built seventy-five percent of ships worldwide, two-thirds of which came from Clydeside"

https://blogs.loc.gov/inside_adams/2017/09/clydeside-shipbui...

It is simply heart-breaking when you journey to somewhere like South Korea, where there are miles and miles of huge shipyards churning out tankers, as its a grim reminder of what we once had here on the Clyde and the skills and jobs we have lost.

In a salient lesson to everyone on complex software projects, one yards latest attempt to build an innovative new car ferry has been a financial and political disaster - move fast and break things doesn't work very well with ship design! It's almost finished and doing regular sea trials at the moment to find the last bugs .... https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MV_Glen_Sannox_(2017)

There's a real sad lesson for everyone involved here; enough patriotism was built up to support the idea of giving Scottish shipbuilding one last go, to bridge into the 21st century, and Ferguson Marine dropped the ball so hard that it's not coming back.

Can you imagine the response you'd get to suggesting that you build miles of shipyards up the West coast of Scotland these days? You'd die under an avalanche of environmental impact statements.

Indeed! It blew my mind when I read that factoid in the Glasgow transportation museum(?) back when I visited about 10 years ago.

FWIW, a similar percentage of the world's steam locomotives were also made in the area in the same timeframe. Mind-boggling concentration of the worldwide heavy industry at the time!

Glasgow transportation museum(?) back when I visited about 10 years ago.

Looks like that would have been the new Riverside Museum (very distinctive Zaha Hadid building in an open area) rather than the old Transport Museum?

For anyone reading this thread, I highly recommend visiting the Riverside if you get a chance, as well as the Tall Ship moored next to it, which has been developed into an excellent historical museum in its own right in the last few years.

> Looks like that would have been the new Riverside Museum (very distinctive Zaha Hadid building in an open area) rather than the old Transport Museum?

Ah yes, that must be it, looking it up online I recognize the building. It appeared very shiny and new when I visited, which seems to match the timeline (per wikipedia, it opened in June 2011, and I was there in spring 2012).

Waverley did a tour of the UK this year I think, I saw her in Falmouth towards the end of August then a week later in Plymouth and I heard they were doing trips for a few days, they certainly looked packed out on deck. Unfortunately the day they were doing a trip out to Eddystone lighthouse (7 miles off), there was fog so I don't know if it went ahead or was very interesting.

I saw this going under Tower Bridge last week! Made me late for the dentist... :)

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