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The two paddle steamers
Duchess of Devonshire
and
Duke of Devonshire were built for the
Devon SS Co in 1891 and 1896.
Due to the lack of suitable piers on the exposed Devon coast, they were
designed to run up on the beach and unload passengers via a wooden gangway
hinged from the bow. They passed to the newly formed
Devon Dock, Pier and Steamship Co in 1898. The
Devon Dock, Pier and
Steamship Co ran these two coastal paddle steamers between the 1890s and
1930s. They also owned the piers at Exmouth and Teignmouth, Exmouth Docks
and ran the Exmouth-Starcross and Torquay-Brixham ferries.
The
Duke of Devonshire of 1896 was a slightly
larger repeat of
Duchess of Devonshire, and was also was built by R&H Green in
London. She was 175 ft long and 257 gross tons, powered by a two-cylinder
compound diagonal engine. She was designed to run up on the beach to
load/unload passengers.
Duke of Devonshirewas sold to P.& A.Campbell
in 1933, but was not used by them. They resold her to J.Dwyer of Cork. In
1936 she was bought by Alexander Taylor of Torquay, who ran her out of
Torquay for two seasons. He resold her to
Cosens & Co in 1938, who renamed
her Consul. She served with
Cosens & Co until 1963.
Consul was withdrawn by
Cosens after the 1962 season. She was bought by South Coast and Continental
Steamers Ltd, who put her back into service in 1963. With a former Cosens
master, she ran a programme of sailings on the Sussex coast running from
Brighton, Eastbourne and Hastings.
Consul suffered a series of mechanical problems and the season was
not a success, and she built up substantial debts. In September she spent a
couple of weeks on the Thames under charter to New Belle Steamers. The
Consul was in poor shape by this
stage in her career and her performance in 1963 was not helped by engineers
unfamiliar with her machinery. For 1964
Consul returned to Weymouth
where former Cosens engineers was available to assist. She ran faultlessly,
mainly on landing trips to Lulworth Cove, but suffered by being in
competition with the paddle steamer Princess Elizabeth.
Consul was offered for sale at
the end of the season was bought for use as an accommodation ship with a
sailing school at Dartmouth, but was sold again for scrap in 1968.
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