Cost a Packet

Saturday, 06 June 2009 09:11

Lancaster's Maritime Museum may be located on the Lune River but a good part of the museum is dedicated to the Lancaster Canal too.

They have a full scale mock-up of a Packet Boat, complete with horses, luggage and Postilion!

1833 Advertisement for the new Packet Boat service

The Lancaster Canal Company built four boats: Water Witch, Swallow, Swiftsure and Crewsden. The name Waterwitch lives on today, as the name of the pub in Lancaster basin.

Me in the bows of the Packet Boat

John in the very comfortable saloon

Packet Boats were 72 feet by 7 foot and were pulled by pairs of horses, changed every four miles. The horses were driven by the Postilion and the Packet Master steered from the stern. They averaged a speed of 9 mph, giving the 70 passengers a smooth and comfortable ride.

Lancaster to Preston took 3 hours and they ran to a strict timetable; other boats understood they had to give way. The comfort of the passengers was important and the boat was heated in the winter and a steward served food and drink from a small galley.

The Packet Boats were competing with the railways and at the time the rail journeys were very short on comforts! During 1883 to 1846 these boats were THE way to travel between Kendal, Lancaster and Preston - 6 shillings for the whole journey!

To compete with the Lancaster and Preston Railway, opened in 1840 the fares on the Packet Boats were halved. However they did timetable them to link with the trains!

1839 Packet Boat Timetable - note half fares

However, when the line was opened to Carlisle in 1846, the Canal Company could no longer compete and the Packet service was withdrawn.

Boundary post for the L and NW Railway Company

Of the four Packet Boats built, two survived for a while, although in storage! Crewsdon (renamed Waterwitch II) was cut down into an Inspection Launch in 1915, but finally broken up in 1929. So ended the age of luxury travel on the canal, arguably until the leisure industry started producing "luxury bespoke" shiny boats for the comparatively wealthy 20th Century boaters!

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