River Dart Steamboat Co Ltd
| Private | |
| Industry | Transport |
| Fate | Renamed River Dart Boat and Leisure Co. Ltd |
| Predecessor | Dartmouth & Torbay Steam Packet Co. Ltd |
| Successor | River Dart Boat & Leisure Co. Limited |
| Founded | Dartmouth, Devon, United Kingdom (1906) |
| Founder | Charles Seale Hayne |
| Defunct | 1976 |
| Headquarters | Dartmouth, Devon, United Kingdom |
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Area served
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South Devon |
| Products | River Dart ferry services |
| Parent | Evans & Reid Investment Co Ltd (1952-1976) |
| Subsidiaries | Devon Star Shipping Co Ltd (1961-1964) |
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The River Dart Steamboat Co Ltd (RDSC) and its predecessors, the Dartmouth Steam Packet Company and the Dartmouth and Torbay Steam Packet Company, were the major ferry and excursion boat operators on the River Dart in South Devon for 120 years, until the company's demise in 1976. The company was famous for its distinctive paddle steamers, which were a familiar sight on the river until the late 1960s.
The diagram on the right illustrates the network of routes operated by the company and its predecessors.
The premier route of the company, this route operated year-round until 1929, thereafter being a summer only service. This route was around 10 miles long, and the journey time was an average of 75 minutes, though journey times of less than an hour were possible before the introduction of a 6 knot speed limit. Calls were made en route at Dittisham Pier, and off Duncannon, where passengers for Stoke Gabriel and Cornworthy were embarked by small rowing boat. Totnes is tidal, and so the ferry could only run at high tide. In its early years the service was a true ferry, connecting Dartmouth with the markets and main line station at Totnes, and carried mail until 1929. As the years went by, it became more of a tourist cruise service
From time to time the company experimented with operating other ferry services. These either closed, or were taken over by other operators
For the brief period between the Dartmouth and Torbay Railway reaching Brixham Road Station in 1861 and Kingswear in 1864, a regular connecting ferry service was run four times per day between Dartmouth and Greenway Quay, where the steamers were met with a horse-drawn omnibus to the station at Brixham Road.
On 16 August 1864 the Dartmouth and Torbay Railway reached Kingswear, across the river from Dartmouth. The Act of Parliament incorporating the railway gave the railway company the right to operate the ferry to Dartmouth. The route was a short 5 minute crossing; from the pontoon adjacent to Kingswear station, to Dartmouth Pontoon, where an unusual station was built, with ticket office and porters, but no track. Initially the ferry was leased to the Dartmouth Steam Packet Company, who built the PS Newcomin and the doubled ended PS Dolphin for the route. In 1901, the Great Western Railway (GWR) took over the running of the Kingswear Ferry, and purchased the Dolphin. As the GWR only owned one passenger vessel on the Dart, relief steamers continued to be provided by the River Dart Steamboat Company until 1957
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Wikipedia