Belfast Paddle Steamer Aids The Confederacy!

As well as writing this Sonic Horns Blog I also write an Acoustic Cleaners Blog for our sister company. In my last blog article for that site, I recounted my childhood memory of the steam locomotive railway line which ran from Belfast, Northern Ireland past my home town of Dromore, County Down and onto the lovely seaside town of Newcastle which nestles at the foot of the beautiful Mourne Mountains.

The railway company was called The Belfast & County Down Railway and it also operated a coal powered paddle steamer along Belfast Lough between Belfast and the seaside town of Bangor. One of the most famous paddle steamers used was the PS Bangor Castle (formally the Palmerston). She was built in Glasgow in 1864 as a simple twin cylinder diagonal paddle, had a gross tonnage of 256 and measured 191’ in length by 22’ in width. One reference source has her built as a blockade runner for the Confederate States of America in the latter part of the Civil War.

As you may know, the Civil War began in 1861 when 11 states formed the CSA and lasted until 1865. The CSA bought warships from Britain, the most famous being the CSS Alabama. It is perhaps hard to imagine that this war cost the lives of over 620,000 soldiers. This paddle steamer commenced its daily sailings from Belfast to Bangor in 1888 until it was eventually scrapped in 1899.