Waverley is the world’s last seagoing paddle steamer. In 1974, at the end of her working life, she was bought by the charity, Paddle Steamer Preservation Society. She then began a second career in operational preservation, and has carried over 6 million passengers from over 60 ports around the UK whilst being awarded an engineering heritage award.
On the 17th June, the Waverley called at Milford Haven for the first time since 2016, with over 600 passengers who had joined at Tenby, the first call there for 30 years! After disembarking her passengers into 9 coaches to return them to Tenby, she spent the night on a mooring kindly provided by Svitzer Marine.
On Sunday 18th June, the Waverley did two sailings with over 600 passengers on each trip. First voyage was out to St Davids, the Islands and return, with the second being down to Caldey Island and return. After final disembarking and taking on the final amount of bunkers and freshwater, she sailed for an overnight passage to Liverpool.
During the 24 hours that she operated from the Port there were over 1800 passengers moving safely through Milford Docks, which was only possible due to the hard work by both the Marketing and Marina/Docks team with additional support. The Marine team, in particular the pilots, launch crew and VTS, all played a vital role in the safe navigation and docking and it could not have been possible without the support of Andrew Lewis from Inchcape Shipping Services, Svitzer Marine with the overnight mooring and the Svitzer Taku line boat.
