Bronze Age Gold from Wales

Monday 18 June 1894. The day of the Westward Ho's first visit to Ilfracombe. She is lying at the face of the pier. The Brodick Castle is rolling offshore. The four steamers at the Stone Bench are Bonnie Doon (nearest camera), then Ravenswood, Scotia and Velindra.

Paddle steamer, P.S. WESTWARD HO (weight 438 tons) was built by S. Mc Knight & Co., Ayr, in 1894 and owned by P & A Campbell Co. Ltd. P.S. WESTWARD HO was renamed HMS WESTERN QUEEN and served as a minesweeper on the River Tyne at Grimsby during World War I. Re-fitted in 1920 the paddle steamer worked on services in South Devon in the 1930s. The paddle steamer returned to the Tyne in World War II, and assisted in the Dunkirk evacuation before becoming an accommodation ship on the River Dart at the end of the war. The WESTWARD HO was not re-conditioned after the war and was scrapped at Newport, in 1946.

P.S. RAVENSWOOD (1891-1955). She became H.M.S. Ringtail from Sept 1943 to April 1944 when she was taken into service during World War II.