PS Ryde is a paddle steamer that was commissioned and run by Southern Railway as a passenger ferry between mainland England and the Isle of Wight from 1937 to 1969, with an interlude during the Second World War where she served as a minesweeper and then an anti-aircraft ship, seeing action at D-Day. After many years abandoned on moorings at Island Harbour Marina on the River Medina, she was purchased by the PS Ryde Trust in late 2018, with the intention of raising money for her restoration. That project was abandoned in January 2019. Operational history PS Ryde 1937 – 1939 PS Ryde was commissioned by Southern Railway in 1936 as a sister ship for . Costing £46,800 () she was built by William Denny and Brothers in Dumbarton on Clydeside and was licensed to carry 1,011 passengers. After her launch on Saint George's Day 1937, by Lady Walker, wife of Sir Herbert Walker, General Manager of the Southern Railway she replaced the on the Portsmouth to Ryde Pier passenger ferry service. HMS Ryde 1939 – 1945 In 1939, at the outbreak of the Second World War, PS Ryde and PS Sandown were both requisitioned by the Royal Navy. She was renamed HMS Ryde, and initially both were used as Minesweepers in the Thames Estuary and Dover Straits. She was converted to an anti-aircraft vessel in 1942. In May 1944 she traveled to Portsmouth, from where she sailed to the Normandy coast to take part in Operation Neptune on D-Day, where she protected the Mulberry Harbours at Omaha beach. At one stage during the landings, she was hit in her engine room by a shell, but it did not explode. In spite of being instructed to beach the ship, if she ran out of coal, Ryde's commander, Lt. Commander Beamer, was able to return her safely to Portsmouth. After D-Day, HMS Ryde was anchored off Bembridge to help to protect Portsmouth Harbour from V-1 flying bombs. PS Ryde 1945 – 1970 Reverting to her pre-war name upon her return to Southern Railway on 7 July 1945, PS Ryde worked on her former route and undertook a variety of chartered trips as well, such as being chartered by Gilbey's Gin to serve as a 'Floating Gin Palace' in London in 1968. However, the nationalised British Railways started to commission more modern motor vessels after the war at the expense of the