The history of Thames pleasure steamers begins in 1814, when the first steamer arrived in the river to ply her trade, and continues to the present day, with the annual visits of the Waverley and the Balmoral as well as the down-river excursion programmes offered by the Princess Pocahontas and the river steamer Kingswear Castle.

It is an exciting story that encompasses triumph and disaster as well as intrigue and financial trickery. The key players were the General Steam Navigation Company and its fondly remembered post-war fleet the Royal Sovereign, Queen of the Channel and Royal Daffodil. The New Medway Steam Packet Company, seen as a rival of GSN, was bought by the latter company in December 1936. Other operators were the earlier fleets of Belle Steamers and the London Steamboat Company; the latter failed in the light of the loss in 1878 of the big paddle-steamer Princess Alice downstream of Woolwich. The company was ultimately succeeded by the Victoria Steamboat Association, and holding companies such as Palace Steamers, which collectively operated the magnificent Koh-Noor, Royal Sovereign and La Marguerite.

The story of Thames excursion ships has been told in different ways by different authors, and the time is right to bring the story up to date and to place all the events and happenings in their appropriate historical context. Nick Robins’s definitive history, written in a warm and easy style, is prolifically illustrated with period photographs, handbills and paintings and provides a definitive history of the vessels that came out in the summer and flitted about, leading to their nickname of ‘Thames butterfly boats’.

Dr Nick Robins is a professional geologist working with the British Geological Survey in South Oxfordshire. He narrowly missed being able to join the Merchant Navy, but a life-long passion for the service, especially passenger-carrying ships, led him to start writing articles for Sea Breezes magazine in the 1980s. He wrote his first book in the early 1990s, and is now the author or co-author of ten titles covering many different aspects of British shipping.