PS CALEDONIA

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PS Caledonia One of the most unusual looking of all the Clyde paddle steamers was the PS Caledonia.
She was constructed at William Denny's shipyard in 1934 for the Caledonian Steam Packet Company.
Her side paddle wheels were concealed behind plating rather than the usual decorated paddle boxes and vents, giving her the appearance of a screw steamer.
However, she was shorter and broader than the turbine vessels and her paddles' shallow draft, combined with a fast top speed of 17 knots, made her ideal for her intended purpose.
The CSP, based at Gourock, had been incorporated into the London, Midland and Scottish Railway company's ferry service 11 years before.
Caledonia primarily served as a ferry from Gourock and Wemyss Bay to Dunoon and Rothesay but also undertook short cruises from Largs and Millport.
During the Second World War she was renamed HMS Goatfell and operated as a minesweeper.
Returning to her normal services at the end of the war, she eventually took over the PS Jeanie Deans' route in 1965, from Craigendoran station to Arrochar and Rothesay.
Four years later however, she was sold for scrap but escaped this fate when she was bought by brewers Bass-Charrington.
Renamed Old Caledonia, she served as a floating pub on the Embankment in London until she was destroyed by fire in 1980.
Her position on the Thames was later filled in 1988 by the TSS Queen Mary which had also been built at Denny's yard but had been decommissioned in 1977.

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