One and only Barry:

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One and only Barry, Lady of the waves.

Our Paddler the Barry was a beauty in her day,
She cut the cloth and sails were off, she was out to pay her way.
Sailing from her birth place as a lady of the sea,
A Princess of our channel roads she was born to be.

Designed to give much pleasure, she sailed from Barry Port,
A fine young Lady of the waves, she never danger sought.
The roads of the Bristol Channel saw her Pleasure days,
When her Country called her, she voyaged in defensive ways.

To the early conflict she bravely sailed from Wales,
Returned in all her glory via the Dardenelles.
Mentioned in dispatches, she had a tale to tell,
This saddened grey old lady, had seen a bit of Hell.

Of the town’s own paddler and of her claims to fame,
She once cruised just the channel then safely home again.
She was our favourite butterfly boat, well known in her day.
Meant only to came out in summer, in a butterfly way.

There were many changes in those earlier days,
Her make up was updated, painted many ways.
Her adoptions also saw a change in her very name,
From: Barry to Barryfield, to Waverley and back again.

Her bravery long forgotten, heroic actions passed,
She was lost in 41, the conflict was to be her last.
She paddled to save our Nation, for Country and the King,
A beauty built for Barry Town proudly did not give in.

Her demise saw her as Snaefell, a heroine in her way,
A little ship at Dunkirk she helped to save the day.
Just a short year later the Luftwaffe made her pay.
She has become a war grave, destined to end this way?

It seems quite normal now to get on with modern life,
Forgetting, past achievement the old day’s troubles and strife.
Forgetting Miners Fortnight and the Barry’s excursion ride,
A day out on a steamer, if wet you sailed inside.

KG.

[Admin]

Waverley Excursions announced a remembrance in 2011 for the former PS Barry / Waverley. Anyone looking in and a bit confused I will attempt to explain in brief.

The Paddle Steamer Barry was built for the Town of her name: Barry, Glamorgan, South Wales. In her time she bore several names. Her service in Word War 1, saw her become Barryfield and in WW 2: Snaefell.

On two occassions she was Waverley, although never built as a Waverley class, she is a distant relation in name, stepping in between the Waverley gaps of the times. There have been quite a few actual Waverleys over the years. The Waverley lost at Dunkirk, had been virtually retired and moth balled until her Country needed her, She sailed under her own name and the Barry / Waverley became HMS. Snaefell.

Sadly the older Waverley was lost off Dunkirk and the towns paddler Barry now Snaefell was lost herself approx a year later.

Report: Waverley Excursions

In 2011, we marked the 70th anniversary of the sinking of the White Funnel Paddle Steamer once known as a 'Waverley'. Lost during the last war, in 1941. The ship had originally been built as the Barry.

The PS Barry bore the name Waverley twice: She has been reported as being the only Waverley not to carry the title from her creation. The vessel was a fine looking paddle steamer built by the John Brown shipyard in Clydebank for the Barry Railway Company who adopted a funnel livery associated on the Clyde with the NBR fleet - red with black top and white band - although the Barry Railway's white band was narrower.

She was called Barry, named after her base port on the coast of South Wales between Cardiff and Swansea. From 1907 when she arrived from Clydebank Barry ran across the Channel from Barry to Minehead and Weston. After four years she was sold to the Campbell company, abandonning her tricolour funnel for Campbell's all white stack livery.

She continued as the Barry for some years and served far and wide in the Great War taking part in the Galipoli landings serving in the Mediterranean and Aegean Seas being based at Salonika. There her name was changed to Barryfield to avoid confusion with the American destroyer USS Barry.

After the war she came to Troon for a complete rebuild by Ailsa Shipbuilding. In 1926 she changed her name, becoming the Bristol Channel fleet's second Waverley although she spent almost all of her time as Waverley on the company's south coast services at Brighton In their book 'West Coast Steamers' Duckworth & Langmuir designate her Waverley (II) of the Campbell fleet.

Requisitioned again in 1939 she had to be renamed again, as the fifth Waverley already had the title HMS Waverley. So the sixth Waverley became HMS Snaefell. Like the fifth Waverley she rushed to the rescue of the Allied troops at Dunkirk in May 1940 and the two Waverley's may have been close to each other in that desperate mission.

Unlike the Clyde's Waverley: HMS Snaefell / Barry survived the Dunkirk onslaught but her reprieve was short - just over a year later, on 5th July 1941, she succumbed to the attack of Luftwaffe bombers off Sunderland. Thus the two fine Clyde-built paddlers, united in title and with over 70 years of yeoman service between them passed into history service under the White ensign.

The Town of Barry, will also remember its own paddler somehow this year.