page_title: PS Caledonia (1934)
section_title: Service
hierarchical_section_title: PS Caledonia (1934) / Service
caption_attribution_description: English: Photograph of British auxiliary minesweeper, later anti-aircraft ship, HMS Goatfell (PS Caledonia in peacetime).
context_page_description: PS Caledonia was a paddle steamer built in 1934. She principally provided an Upper Clyde ferry service, later moving to Ayr and then Craigendoran. Her final days were as a floating pub in London until destroyed by fire in 1980.
context_section_description: Caledonia had a regular ferry programme connecting Gourock and Wemyss Bay with Dunoon and Rothesay. She also provided cruises to the Kyles of Bute and short cruises from Largs and Millport.
  In 1939 she was converted to a minesweeper and renamed HMS Goatfell. Her wartime service continued after 1941 as an anti aircraft ship.
  In 1946 Caledonia was returned to her owners, but in 1954 the car ferry revolution displaced her to Ayr as excursion steamer, with relief sailings from Ardrossan to Arran. In 1965 she moved up-river to Craigendoran, to replace the withdrawn Jeanie Deans, cruising round Bute for a further five years, until the disastrous economics of Clyde cruising signalled the end.
  In 1969 she was retired from service and sold for scrap. Saved by subsequent sale to Bass-Charrington, she served as a floating pub and restaurant named Old Caledonia on the Victoria Embankment of the River Thames. Badly damaged by fire in 1980, she was beyond economic repair and was scrapped in July 1980 at Milton Creek on The Swale near Sittingbourne, Kent. Her place in London was later taken by stable mate TS Queen Mary, until 2009. Caledonia's engines were saved and are preserved at the Hollycombe Steam Collection near Liphook, Hampshire.
caption: HMS Goatfell during World War II
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