page_title: PS Ryde
section_title: PS Ryde 1945 – 1970
hierarchical_section_title: PS Ryde / Operational history / PS Ryde 1945 – 1970
caption_attribution_description: English: PS Ryde at Portsmouth
context_page_description: PS Ryde is a paddle steamer that was commissioned and run by Southern Railway as a passenger ferry between mainland England and the Isle of Wight from 1937 to 1969, with an interlude during the Second World War where she served as a minesweeper and then an anti-aircraft ship, seeing action at both Dunkirk and D-Day. After many years abandoned on moorings at Island Harbour Marina on the River Medina, she was purchased by the PS Ryde Trust in late 2018, with the intention of raising money for her restoration. That project was abandoned in January 2019.
context_section_description: Reverting to her pre-war name upon her return to Southern Railway on 7 July 1945, PS Ryde worked on her former route and undertook a variety of chartered trips as well, such as being chartered by Gilbey's Gin to serve as a 'Floating Gin Palace' in London in 1968. However, the nationalised British Railways started to commission more modern motor vessels after the war at the expense of the paddle steamers, starting with two diesel vessels in 1945 to replace PS Southsea and PS Portsdown. In July 1966, PS Sandown was retired and scrapped, and, in September 1969, it was decided to retire PS Ryde as well. At the time of her retirement, she had ferried passengers across the Solent for thirty-two years and was the last sea-going coal-fired paddle steamer in the world.
caption: 1969 at Portsmouth.
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