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White Funnel Fleet, handbill
Blue print on both sides of white paper. White Funnel Fleet Grand Combined Sea and Coach Tour of the Menai Strait and the Isle of Anglesey on the Bristol Queen, Cardiff Queen, St. Trillo, Waverley, Devonia, Lundy Queen & Westward Ho!, June 5th-Sept. 14th, 1964.
P.S. BRISTOL QUEEN. Built 1946 by Charles Hill & Sons Ltd., Bristol (with triple-expansion engine by Rankin & Blackmore Ltd), for P. & A. Campbell Ltd. She was the largest paddle steamer built for the company. 1959 – Laid up at Penarth for two years, she returned to service in the Spring of 1961. In August 1967, she hit a submerged object off the coast at Barry, and damaged her starboard paddle wheel. She was taken out of service three days later, and laid up at Cardiff. Despite attempts to preserve the vessel, she was towed to Ostend in March 1968 and broken up.
CARDIFF QUEEN. Built 1947 by Fairfield Shipbuilding & Engineering Co. Ltd., Govan, the last paddle steamer to be built for P & A Campbell Ltd. 1966 – Laid up at Cardiff Docks, and put on the sales list. 1968 – Sold to Critchcraft Ltd., Chepstow. It was intended to use her as a floating nightclub at Newport, and was moored at Mill Parade Wharf in February. The tidal range, however, proved obstructive, and after an expensive recovery operation, the vessel was sold to John Cashmore Ltd in the April, to be broken up further upstream. (Source: “Bristol Channel Pleasure Steamers” - Robert Wall)
Built in 1946 to replace the ship lost during World War II
The P.S. DEVONIA was launched on 22 March 1905 by John Brown at Clydebank. Engines - Compound diagonal 34.5 and 71 in x 60 in. Dimensions : 245 ft x 29 ft. Gross Registered Tonnes 641. She was built for the Barry Railway Co. Ltd. She was bought by P. & A. Campbell in 1911, after they had succeeded in forcing the rival Barry company out of business. During the First World War she became H.M.S. DEVONIA and served as a minesweeper on the East Coast. She was assigned to the South Coast when Campbells returned to that station in 1923, remaining there until 1932. She then served on the Bristol Channel until being laid up in 1939, when she was reconditioned for use as a minesweeper and sent to eastern Scotland. Attended the Dunkirk evacuation, but was abandoned on the French coast on 31 May 1940 under heavy fire from enemy aircraft, though unfounded rumours persisted for many years that she had been salvaged and put into service on the River Elbe.
Built 1938, in service till 1985, broken up 1996.