Wednesday 13 October 2010

Chairman's Blog No13 - ps Lincoln Castle Update.

As you may recall the PSPS were offered the former Humber Car / Passenger paddler Lincoln Castle earlier this year. For very real reasons the society council made the difficult decision not to take on the ageing vessel due to the level of work required to make her a viable entity for ongoing preservation whilst not posing a risk to Waverley, Kingswear Castle and Balmoral.

It transpired at the time the PSPS council were making the decision another potential buyer had appeared and all (we thought) was well. HOWEVER this was a false dawn and despite the forming of a preservation group the owner of the vessel took matters into his own hands and demolition of the 1940 Inglis built vessel started.

I recently received an email from Chris Woolley containing the following link which takes up the story and has photos of the vessel in the stages of demolition.

ps Lincoln Castle update.

It is my personal opinion that any potential preservation candidate should of course be considered but in these difficult economic times the financial implications not only of the project but the effect on existing interests must always take precedence. The society's volunteers have helped it keep it's vessels in service through good and bad. Taking on Lincoln Castle would have been a paddler too far.

Thanks to Chris for sending the update link.

Gavin Stewart
Scottish Branch Chairman