ARIADNE paddle steamer 1824

[aukepalmhof]

Built as a three-mast wooden paddle steamer by W. Evans, Rotherhithe.
1824 Launched under the name ARIADNE.
Tonnage 133 tons burthen, dim. 115 x 19.2 x 8.9ft.
Most probably a 2-cyl. side-lever steam-engine 72 nhp.
20 May 1824 registered for Nicolle & Co., ship-owners at Jersey.

She was sold in 1826, 1831, 1832 and 1835 to various other Jersey owners.
21 July 1836 bought by the South of England Steam Navigation Co., Jersey.
27 March 1838 re-registered to the company, but in Southampton.
13 October 1847 re-registered to the New South Western Steam Navigation Co., Southampton.
12 November 1847 mortgage to London & South Western Railway Co., London.
23 January 1852 register closed, but she was broken up before that date.

The Guernsey post gives:
By Alderney, a set of stamps was issued, which looks at an important period in Alderney’s history which not only transformed the island visually in the 19th century but revitalised its economy. The impetus for the whole episode was the perceived threat from France, whose north-west coast is only six miles from the island and often clearly visible. Should the French choose to attack England the government reasoned, they might logically start from the recently-built large naval base nearby Cherbourg; a “harbour of refuge” for the British Navy in Alderney would enable then to blockade the French port if necessary, while a ring of forts in prominent places around the coast would safeguard the island.
To build all these things they would need stone- and there was plenty of it in Alderney. To extract the stone they would need a concerted quarrying programme, and to move it efficiently to the sites of the proposed harbour and fortifications they would need to build a railway.

In 1847 the harbour was founded by the rolling of a huge boulder down the cliff from Grosnez Point, the site of what was to be the first fort. The steamer ARIADNE had arrived carrying men to start the work, and they lost little time in getting started.
The railway constructed exclusively to cope with heavy consignments of stone had as its first-ever passengers two very distinguished personages, Queen Victoria and Prince Albert, who toured the island in August 1854.
Alderney had never known such excitement, and the whole population turned out to see the Queen from old local families and important quarry workers to the men who would have such an influence on the island in years to come: the men of the garrison.

Alderney 1997 18/25p sgA103/07, scott107/09
Guernsey 2016 57p sg?, scott? (the year of issues is 2016 and not 2019 as given below.)
Guernsey 2020 68p sg?, scott?

Source: Charles Dawson, Sweden. David Asprey.

[D. v. Nieuwenhuijzen]

Guernsey 2019, 57 p. StG.?