Old Swan Pier

The MV Crested Eagle was the first oil fired paddle steamer on the Thames, owned by the General Steam Navigation Company it was a below the bridge excursion steamer servicing Southend, Margate and Ramsgate. She was built by J. Samuel White at Cowes on the Isle of Wight and entered service in 1925. The photograph shows the Crested Eagle leaving Old Swan Pier just upstream of London Bridge in May 1926; with her telescopic funnel in the telescoped position she could negotiate London Bridge. The viewpoint is from the bridge and it also shows the PS Royal Sovereign moored in the centre of the Thames downstream of Cannon Street Railway Bridge. The Royal Sovereign was built in 1893 for Palace steamers and during WW1 was converted for minesweeping duties, after the war she was sold to the General Steam Navigation Company and continued excursion work until 1929 when she was sold to Dutch ship breakers. At the beginning of WW2, the Crested Eagle was converted for minesweeping duties and was one of the flotilla that sailed to Dunkirk during Operation Dynamo to extract elements of the British Expeditionary Force from the beaches. On 28th May 1940, the Crested Eagle was heading back across the English Channel with six hundred men when she was attacked by Stuka dive bombers. She was hit by a bomb and immediately caught fire, she was run aground near the village of Zuydcoote where she was burnt out, over three hundred men died in the attack.

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