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| Home
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and Weymouth / Garrison Life |
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| Paddle Steamers go to War |
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| Source: Various (please see
Site Credits) |
Click any picture to enlarge
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| Neutral ships lying off the Breakwater
Fort |
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In Victorian times and up until WW2 a fleet of paddle steamers
plied the coast of Dorset with trippers, much the same as
buses and coaches do today.
Many of these belonged to the firm of Cozens based on Weymouth.
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| With their flat bottoms
and shallow draughts these ships could land their passengers
on the beaches of Bournemouth and Lulworth Cove, features that
made them particularly useful as minesweepers during wartime;
but their main contribution to the war effort in both World
Wars was to assist in Contraband Control. This was the term
given to the organisation responsible for ensuring valuable
commodities, that could assist the enemy, did not reach him
in neutral shipping. This meant, in the early days of the war,
stopping neutral ships in the Channel, and bringing them into
sheltered waters to be searched. This was the task for the paddle
steamers, entered into the Royal Navy, and their crews - the
Royal Naval Reserves. |
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| Barrel of wolfram being removed from
the hold of a neutral ship |
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| SS Monarch, One of the Weymouth paddle
ships converted during the war |
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| SS Monarch on the Nothe slipway |
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| Cozens steamers brought
their charges into Weymouth Bay where they were anchored and
searched, with the guns of the Nothe and Breakwater Forts making
sure they did not cut and run. Of especial value were barrels
of cobalt and wolfram, useful in the production of high quality
steel. |
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