The venture school eventually failed and Totnes Castle was left swinging on her moorings on the Dart awaiting her fate. In November 1967 she was bought by the Plymouth scrap merchant. The Demelweek plan was to break up the boat at the mouth of the Dart, safer than risk towing her to Plymouth to his yard at Sutton Harbour. Wintry seas were no place for a small river paddler.

He removed a number of the brass fittings. Slow work. So when he heard the weather report, forecasting a spell of fine weather he decided to take her back to Plymouth. He duly made the boat as watertight as possible and contacted a friend.

"Bill? Have you at tugboat available to tow a paddle-steamer to Plymouth?"

Mr Reynolds had.

"OK good, so we'll see it some time tomorrow. What's the name again?"

He wrote, 'A n t o n y'.

On the worksheet headed Reynolds -Torpoint they added, 'Antony, 9.11.67. Collect. Dart. Totnes C'tle. Tow to Demelweek & Redding, Marrowbone slip, Sutton Harbour.'

Meanwhile the Compton Castle was serving cream teas at Kingsbridge. The Kingswear Castle had arrived at Cowes for her new life having been bought for £600 by the paddle steamer Preservation Society. And Dartmouth Castle, who never left her moorings at Old Mill Creek, where she had been laid up in the war, continued to gently rot away.

Was Totnes Castle to be the first of the Dart paddle steamers to be broken up for scrap?