What it's like on board Waverley as it sails from Shoreham in West Sussex to circumnavigate the Isle of Wight

SussexWorld

Transcript

00:00After the storm, the city was flooded with water.

00:07The city was flooded with water.

00:14After the storm, the city was flooded with water.

00:21The city was flooded with water.

00:28After the storm, the city was flooded with water.

00:35After the storm, the city was flooded with water.

00:42After the storm, the city was flooded with water.

00:49After the storm, the city was flooded with water.

00:55After the storm, the city was flooded with water.

01:02After the storm, the city was flooded with water.

01:09After the storm, the city was flooded with water.

01:16After the storm, the city was flooded with water.

01:22After the storm, the city was flooded with water.

01:29After the storm, the city was flooded with water.

01:36After the storm, the city was flooded with water.

01:43After the storm, the city was flooded with water.

01:49After the storm, the city was flooded with water.

01:56After the storm, the city was flooded with water.

02:03After the storm, the city was flooded with water.

02:10After the storm, the city was flooded with water.

02:16After the storm, the city was flooded with water.

02:23After the storm, the city was flooded with water.

02:30After the storm, the city was flooded with water.

02:37After the storm, the city was flooded with water.

02:43After the storm, the city was flooded with water.

02:50After the storm, the city was flooded with water.

02:57After the storm, the city was flooded with water.

03:04After the storm, the city was flooded with water.

03:10After the storm, the city was flooded with water.

03:17After the storm, the city was flooded with water.

03:24After the storm, the city was flooded with water.

03:31After the storm, the city was flooded with water.

03:38After the storm, the city was flooded with water.

03:47After the storm, the city was flooded with water.

03:55She entered service on the 16th of June 1947 for the London and North Eastern Railway Company,

04:02operating as an excursion steamer out of their Cregendorren base on the port of Clyde.

04:08And here she remained in service for LNER, which then became BR upon nationalisation in 1948.

04:15And she operated under the Caledonian Steam Packet Company,

04:18until they were merged with David McBrain to form what we know as Caledonian McBrain in 1973.

04:24The operators of ferry services in the west of Scotland to this day.

04:281973 was Waverley's last year in service under this company.

04:34She was then withdrawn at the end of that season and offered to the Paddle Steamer Preservation Society for £1.

04:42In fact, she was given over for £1 50 years ago last month, on August 8th 1974.

04:49And she's been operated in preservation under the Paddle Steamer Preservation Society

04:54by Waverley Steam Navigation and Waverley Excursions since May 1975.

04:59She first came to these parts in April of 1978,

05:04and indeed paid a visit to New Haven, Worthing, Hastings and Southampton,

05:11as well as Wright and other areas around the south coast and the Thames.

05:16And she's been a regular visitor back ever since, only exception being 2019, 2020 and 2021.

05:24She was withdrawn from service in 2019, owing to two boilers,

05:28which had to be replaced for the cost of £2.3 million following a successful fundraising campaign.

05:34And due to Covid, she was unable to return until 2022.

05:402023, of course, being Waverley's first sailing from Shoreham.

05:44But she has been a fairly regular visitor to these parts since 1978.

05:51This is the Queen Elizabeth, you'll notice that she's showing on the traffic,

05:57as Prince William, so it's a little bit of a neat one there.

06:01That's it, we've just got to get one back.

06:06Now I mentioned the Bembridge ledge buoy, it's coming up now on our southbound bridge,

06:14and it's a little bit of a challenge to get it off the bridge.

06:18It's a little bit of a challenge to get it off the bridge.

06:21So I'm going to have to make some adjustments to get it off the bridge.

06:24And we'll do it.

06:26Now I mentioned the Bembridge Ledge buoy, it's coming up now on our starboard bow.

06:37It's a cardinal buoy, painted black and yellow, and once we've reached the Bembridge Ledge

06:44buoy, this is the eastermost point of the round the island sailing, we will alter course

06:52and head down towards the white cliffs that you can see ahead there.

07:02A little symbol on the top of the cardinal buoy,

07:08there's a cone pointing up and a cone pointing down, indicates that there is danger

07:14to the west of that point. Shallow water only, Bembridge Ledge.

07:22Now yesterday when we were on Broadway, I believe, we had a fantastic cruise down

07:26on port to the city, and my colleague who was doing the commentary,

07:31and subjects have identified coastal erosion. The average

07:42clifffall, the average retreat of cliff edges, even where it's chalked, is now around 15

07:49centimetres in the air. Think about this, the island is continuing to erode and get smaller.

07:59And this is Sandown Bay coming up ahead on our starboard side is Sandown,

08:06a bit further along, you can see a very distinctly white cliff lift.

08:19So

08:49okay

08:56okay

09:02um

09:19Up to 2018, it was possible to visit the lighthouse,

09:23and indeed climb right up into the vent at the top of the lighthouse.

09:31Three light cliffs, the densely vegetated coast that we followed from Shackland down to

09:39Newcastle changes dramatically, and we turn now to the island's southwest coast,

09:45and it's a far distance there, it's 14 miles, is the headland of the Needles.

10:00So

10:20which once linked the island to the mainland in Dorset, some 14 miles away.

10:27At the end of the last ice age, and that's only 12,000 years ago,

10:31up came the sea level by over 200 feet, 250 feet, and the line of downs which once ran

10:39westwards from here to link up with the mainland in Dorset, gradually were eroded.

10:45And what you've got left are these stacks, these chalk stacks, as I say they are remnants

10:52of a line of chalk down which once linked the Isle of Wight with the mainland of what is now Dorset.

11:02Something else of interest before we get to the Needles is this dell of grass

11:07that you can see on the cliff edge, and you might notice a concrete encasement around the top

11:14of the dell. Well in the 1950s and 1960s that was the site where static tested the

11:22Black Arrow and Black Knight rockets were tested, not fired, but they were static tested on that

11:29site. They were brought by low loader from Cowes to the Needles headland and

11:39put through their paces there in what is now the site. And that program of course

11:46of rockets of the Prospero satellite program abandoned by the Heath government in 1971.

11:54The odds of that partly in between block number one and block number two coming out from the

11:59headland was a narrow pinnacular block called the Needles, and this block collapsed in a great

12:06storm in 1764. The lighthouse was erected there in 1859, now fully automated,

12:18no lighthouse keepers, all operated from the city house.

12:23Um

12:25So

12:27Controlled

12:49Stack it with sandwiches, cheese, ham, jam,

12:53any filling you like, and then turn that thing through 90 degrees.

12:59Well that's what the land movement has done here in the Needles.

13:07That was that for a few days in December of 1648, King Charles I was kept there,

13:16uh imprisoned on his way to London, and his trial, and of course his uh execution.

13:25But anyway that is Norris Castle.

13:31A filth husband, they were a young couple in their 20s. I think they were 26 or 27 when they

13:37first came to the island, and uh the queen wrote in her journal the delights of sea bathing.

13:44And guess what? She went into the sea using this bathing machine which was lowered into the briney.

13:52The queen then splashed about, and her modesty was protected by the fact that she had gone into the sea.

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