List of extant paddle steamers
Echuca/Moama has the largest fleet of paddle steamers in Australia, with seven operating commercially, and a large number of smaller privately owned vessels.
PS Gem, a Murray River paddler built in 1876, that survives as a museum ship at Swan Hill, Victoria's Pioneer Settlement.
PS Pevensey, built in Moama in 1911 and based in Echuca, is still working as a tourist attraction on the Murray River.
[2] PS Etona is now privately owned, but was built as a church mission boat for the SA Murray: sponsored by the Anglican Archbishop of Adelaide, and funded by old boys of Eton (UK).
Canberra was built for the Conner family of Boundary Bend, as their flagship fishing vessel, but has been in the tourism industry since 1944.
[4] PS Emmylou, a replica steamer, was built in 1982 at Barham, and operates a large range of cruises in Echuca – from one-hour sightseeing trips to three-night and four-day fully accommodated voyages.
[6] PS Murray Princess, the largest of the paddle wheelers operating in Australia [diesel, not steam], is a recent build (1987).
It has accommodation for 120 passengers and up to 30 crew, and operates three, four and seven-night cruises along the Murray, from Mannum in South Australia.
It suffered from uncertain water levels, and has been transferred to Lake Mulwala (Yarrawonga Weir, on Murray River).
It was originally PS Ginger Belle on Maroochy River, and retains its steam equipment as a display item.
[citation needed] The fleet of four paddle steamers owned by the Bangladesh Inland Water Transport Corporation was withdrawn from commercial operation in 2022.
As of 2024[update], the agency has undertaken renovation works for the PS Ostrich (1929), which has been leased to a private tour operator.
[11] Sister ships Bluebell and Mayflower became garbage scows and the former's hull is now a break wall in Toronto Harbour.
[citation needed] Paddle wheelers are still in operation on some lakes in Southern Bavaria, such as Diessen (49 m, 161 ft) on Ammersee, built in 1908 and converted to a diesel system in 1975.
As paddle wheelers have proven to be such a great tourist attraction, even a new one was built in 2002 on Ammersee, Herrsching, but it has never been powered by steam.
[citation needed] Michigan is a paddle wheeler built in 1982, for cruising on Lake Biwa in Shiga Prefecture.
Waimarie was built in kitset form in Poplar, London in 1899, and originally operated on the Whanganui River under the name Aotea.
[18] The 1907 Otunui Paddleboat operated on the Whanganui River until the 1940s in her original form as a tunnel screw riverboat.
Currently operating on the Wairoa River at Tauranga, this 17 m (56 ft), diesel powered vessel with hydraulic drive for the paddlewheels offers scenic cruises and charters.
[19] The other paddle steamer in Romania is Borcea, built in 1914 at Turnu Severin, and owned by the School Inspectorate of Brăila.
[20] Switzerland has a large paddle steamer fleet, most of the "Salon Steamer-type" built by Sulzer in Winterthur or Escher Wyss in Zürich.
It is the world's first electronically remote-controlled steam engine and has operating costs similar to state-of-the-art diesels, while producing up to 90 percent less air pollution.
Based at Wareham, PS Monarch (one of the smallest passenger-carrying vessels of her type, with a passenger capacity of only 12) takes trips on the River Frome.
[28] In the USSR, river paddle steamers of the type Iosif Stalin (project 373), later renamed Ryazan-class steamships, were built until 1951.
[29][30] A few paddle steamers serve niche tourism needs as cruise boats on lakes[a] and others, such as Delta Queen, still operate on the Mississippi River.
In Oregon, several replica paddle steamers, which are non-steam-powered sternwheelers built in the 1980s and later, are operated for tourism purposes on the Columbia and Willamette Rivers.
PS Washington Irving, also built in 1912 with a capacity for 6,000 passengers, operated on the Hudson River from 1913 until it was sunk in an accident in 1926.
Belle of Louisville is the oldest operating Mississippi River-style steamboat and was named a National Historic Landmark in 1989.
The San Francisco Maritime National Historical Park is host to the Eureka, which is the largest existing wooden ship in the world.
