For my Dad’s 70th birthday we went on a jaunt on the last sea-going paddle steamer in the world. The PS Waverley was launched by Glasgow shipbuilders in 1946, replacing her identically named predecessor which was destroyed during the evacuation of Dunkirk.

She sailed the Firth of Clyde and Loch Long until 1973, when she was retired and donated to a preservation society. I suppose she’s the ship equivalent of the many steam trains which were making similar journeys from regular service to heritage travel.

Memory is a strange thing, but I have taken the Waverley once before, in 1987, with my parents and my uncle John Banks, who is sadly no longer with us, and we drank to his memory on board.

I remember the engines, passing under Tower Bridge, and the amazing back room bar, which, as a seven year old, was particularly enchanting due to its portholes sat just above the water line.

Heading below shortly after our departure from Portsmouth, I was delighted to find a child gazing out on the view that had so fascinated me decades before.

Our trip was around the Isle of Wight, and the otherwise Scottish crew was joined by a man who knew a great deal about the island, its geology and its history, and told us all about it for the majority of the voyage from a tannoy. I’m not sure I needed that, to be honest, but he seemed to be living the dream, and departed at Yarmouth in time for dinner, as he told us with some delight.

The other thing I remembered about the Waverley was that it had a post box on board, for the sending of postcards. Presumably back in the day the pre-privatised Royal Mail sent posties out on speedboats to collect. Today’s postcards probably are collected by jet ski, but I’m not quite sure what postmark they will have on them. So I wrote and posted a few to find out.

A good day was had by all onboard, and the various bars and cafes had been recreated in a 1940s style. I am glad it’s still going, and hopefully one day I will again return on board.