Mainsheet
The WWMHS Newsletter Issue 8 2-Nov-11 Editor – Dave Holt
You can help to Preserve the future by helping to preserve the past.
WEBSITE www.wwmhs.org.uk & www.westwalesmaritimeheritage.org.uk
Editors Note
Well, as the man who prematurely arrived at the pearly gates said, “ I wasn‟t
expecting to be here so soon.” Another sailing season is on the horizon – although I do
intend to get out on any decent day until it begins. As workshop members know I also have
a lot of boat restoration to complete and the leader of the opposition has a mountain of
domestics waiting for me, so I don‟t think I‟ll be idle for long.
Feed-back on the yearbook has been very encouraging – thanks to all who got in
touch. It‟s a reflection of the input from you the members. Keep it coming please.
Here‟s an important date 1st April 2006, - the ANNUAL DINNER for those who can make it
for and a chance to meet up in a good social atmosphere. See below for details.
And just to remind you here is Quest awaiting those who wish to sail in
her………….so………….
New members
The numbers continue to grow. We are pleased to welcome Jim Brannan, Stuart
Cochran, Denis Nixon, Norman Bosley and Glyn Newton aboard. Jim is a retired
blacksmith and has built boats for the last 20 years. Stuart claims to be a general DIY
enthusiast and got his hands dirty on his first day in the workshop and is working very
hard (and very thoroughly), on the Silhouette donated to us by Jim. Denis is an engineer
and is doing great things with our engines in between heart bypass operations (- it‟s OK, he
did request time off). Glyn is in the Car trade. It seems that someone new joins us every
other week – keep on coming folks. Richard James & Ieuan Morris are the latest new
recruits (filling in their application forms as I write). –Ed.
Discounts on Petrol Anyone? Check out www.pipelinecard.org - it might work and we
have nothing to lose !
Dates for your Diary 2006
24th February ‟06 Quiz at Pembroke Town Hall – come along to support our team?
10th March ‟06 Talk by Jan Hannaford – The Global Challenge, The Worlds Toughest
Yacht Race. At P.H.Y.C. Hobbs Point, Pier Rd., Pembroke Dock.
11-13th March ‟06 Dale Village Maritime Heritage Exhibition.
17th March ‟06 Talk by David James – The Development of Pembrokeshire. Followed by
a Maritime Quiz. At P.H.Y.C. Hobbs Point, Pier Rd., Pembroke Dock.
Both the talks are open to everyone, and will be supported by
donations and raffle, - admission free. Bar facilities.
1st April 06 Annual Dinner 7 for 7.30pm at Beggars Reach Hotel, near
Burton, Pembs.
Price £15.75 Menu
Starter: Creamy Garlic & Herb Mushrooms in a filo pastry basket. OR
Freshly made soup of your choice
Main: Tender Roast Beef & Yorkshire Pudding with Horseradish Sauce OR
Fillet of Poached Salmon with white wine, Prawn & Dill Sauce OR
Home made Vegetarian option
Dessert: Rich Belgian Chocolate Torte OR
Raspberry Pavlova
And Freshly Brewed Coffee
T.B.A. Welsh Boat Show – Margam Park
2-5 June ‟06 Dublin Docklands Maritime Festival
22nd June ‟06 Pembroke Dock Event. Enactment of “Landing of Louis Barrallier 1820”
24th June ‟06 Pembroke River Rally & Seafayre* Haven week starts here.
16th Sept. ‟06 Neyland Event.
T.B.A. Wexford Vikings Festival
T.B.A. New Ross Festival of the Sea
Yard Open day
Following the success of our 2005 open day at the Front Street yard, we will be holding a
series of open days in 2006 together with Boat Jumble Sales. It will offer more
opportunities for visitors to see what we are doing. Even without publicising the 2005 event
we had a steady stream of people coming into the workshop and there was genuine interest
in our activities. Clearly we can do much more. –DH.
HSL 296 - West Wales Steamboat Plant goes to Chatham
The West Wales Maritime Heritage Society has had to abandon its restoration of HSL 296,
following loss of the premises it was using in Milford Docks and the break-up of the team
doing the restoration. However, Chatham Historic Dockyard has been glad to acquire the
steam machinery and fittings from the boat for use in completing the restoration of HSL
376, which used to belong to the Maritime Workshop at Gosport. Both 296 and 376 were
built at Pembroke Dock at Hancocks Shipbuilders Ltd.‟s yard in Front Street - the very site
which the WWMHS now occupy (on a very temporary basis) as their operating base. There
are two workshop buildings and two storage sheds as well as the old slipway (now a beach)
and a non-operational dry-dock. The last ship built here by Hancocks was launched from
the dry-dock in 1977 for Arklow Shipping. Since then, Haven Maritime Ltd converted
several hulls in the dry-dock.
Farewell, HSL 296! Peter Davison
On Monday, 23rd January, 2006, a team of two men arrived from Chatham Historic
Dockyard, with a 7.5 ton truck, to collect the steam plant and fittings from our Hancock-
built HSL 296.
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Clockwise – HSL 296 just after arrival in P.D.; Dan III at Pembroke; On our way from P.D.
to Milford Docks and Dan III on a trip up the Haven.
Newcomers to the Society may not know of her history. She was an Admiralty Steam
Harbour Service Launch, 52 ½ ft long, built on the slipway in the yard we now occupy and
serving with the RN „Boat Pool‟ in Milford Haven for two years, ending World War II as one
of the Boom Defence tugs, working in the „Heads‟ where the anti -submarine boom was
strung between West Blockhouse and East Blockhouse. When the war ended, she was laid-
up and offered for disposal by the Admiralty. John Walters of Milford Haven acquired her in
1946. In 1947 he sold her to the Port of Tyne Authority.
The Authority kindly let me have a copy of the file leading-up to the purchase and it
was interesting to see that two personnel visited Southampton, Lymington and Plymouth to
look at similar vessels, all of which they rejected for various reasons but determined to find
an HSL to operate a ferry service across the Tyne. Their reports on the various boats show
a range of defects, but HSL 296 met their high standards! The boat was purchased and,
soon after, was steamed from Milford Haven to Liverpool and then through the trans-
Pennine canal system and up the north-east coast to Newcastle. It was only now that the
Port of Tyne found that the Board of Trade were determined not to allow the number of
passengers to be carried which the Port had assumed they could carry! The idea of an „HSL
ferry‟ was abandoned and a vessel more acceptable to the B of T. was acquired. HSL 296
became one of the fleet of general workboats of the Port Authority. This story unfolded to
us at the same time as we were learning of the new Department of Transport similar
reluctance to allow a reasonable number of passengers to be carried. This was, to a large
extent, due to new European Codes being devised for safety of small vessels (soon after the
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„Marchioness‟ disaster, when sensitivities were high) and the codes included no mention of
steam! More recently attitudes have softened a little and Code „waivers‟ for heritage vessels
are now becoming more common.
During the war and in the late 1940‟s, HSL‟s carried quite large numbers of
passengers, as evidenced by various films, one, notably, starring John Mills as a murder
suspect „on the run‟ and he appeared on an HSL as one of a crowded complement of
passengers and in a later scene he is on the Tyne at night with the Police searching for him
– the „Police Boat‟ was an HSL, with a searchlight on the bow! Was the film called „Yellow
Canary‟? Men on the docks at South Shields when we collected HSL 296, remembered the
film well and assured us that the HSL featured was, in fact, „No. 296‟. Another HSL
featured in one of the „Navy Lark‟ films.
In 1974, the Tyne Port Authority sold „296‟ to Ian Wilton, of Jesmond, Newcastle,
who steamed her as a private pleasure boat. Whether his wife, who acted as engineer /
stoker, thought it was a pleasure is not so certain - apparently he steamed „296‟ with just
the two of them, he as skipper / deckhand while she stoked and ran the main and
auxiliary engines, and on the Tyne! – still quite a busy river, then. It was Ian who sold her
to the Society, when looking for a good home for her after several years „laid-up afloat‟. He
was then in his 80‟s and he died soon after coming to Milford to see how we were getting-on
in the mid-1990‟s. Surprisingly, he was not unhappy with our efforts, which by then
included scrapping the hull of HSL 296 and substituting that of HLD, “DAN 3”, bought
from the MoD who had used her for 10 or more years at Pembroke Dock. She had been
built at Rowhedge in Essex. Milford Docks Co. had given us the use of a site next to the Ice
Factory, near the Docks gate, together with the use of a workshop behind the Milford
Museum building, in which to carry-out the conversion of the new hull. This use was only
for as long as the site was not required by the developers who had an option on the whole
quayside. Our site was to be the last to be developed. In the event, development started
with our site and worked away from it. We were asked to clear the quayside site and, as a
result of a review of the property portfolio, the Docks Co asked us for £2,500 annual rent
on the workshop. Without the site for the hulls, it was not possible to carry on with the
project. Alternative sites were available but the cost of moving the hull; security of tenure,
access problems and location convenient to the work parties, all proved too much. We are
lucky that the work we put into the machinery was not in vain, Chatham Dockyard being
the beneficiary. (The Chatham Historic Dockyard is a charity, with aims similar to ours.) In
conclusion, two thoughts have occurred to me – first, that the old Milford Docks team who
worked on the project might enjoy a reunion (a pie and a pint, or even a full lunch!), now
that the dust has settled on our efforts; secondly, that it might be nice to organise a trip to
Chatham Historic Dockyard to see HSL 376 and all the other exciting things they have
there – a frigate, a submarine, the Frolic, and other vessels as well as the exhibits ashore. If
these jaunts seem too much; how about a trip to the new Maritime Museum at Swansea?
Whether we do one or more of these things (or something else entirely) depends on your
response. I will undertake to try to organise whatever is decided.
Please give me a call on 01646 682 465. Peter Davison
Yes, let‟s do that! Sign on now. -Ed
Vandalism at Front Street yard. Peter Davison
On Saturday, the 21st January, vandals got into our yard at Front Street, Pembroke Dock
and caused enough damage and nuisance to waste about 20 man-hours, although the
actual damage sustained was slight.
This was limited to the bending of a bolt on the door to Shed 2, which they did using
a battering ram, (conveniently provided by us amongst a pile of timber baulks ready for the
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Chatham team to use in loading their lorry) and the very slight damage to my trailer when
it (and an old boat trailer) were pushed over the edge into the dry dock. The William‟ car,
boat and caravan were all broken into, but without real damage or loss.
Annoying was the act of discharging a dry powder fire extinguisher all over the
contents of Shed 2 – most of which was the Steam boat plant, ready for Chatham to collect
on the 23rd. I suspect that this was the first thing they did in the shed and it must have
made so much dust in the air that they left, apparently without stealing anything more
than a felt pen! Thank goodness!
The boat trailer was virtually unharmed but my steel car trailer needed the bearings
stripping and cleaning (luckily no corrosion, as well-packed with grease) and general
pressure washing, since it landed upside-down in the thick mud in the dock, and on top of
the six pallets, which I had just loaded into it earlier in the day. One weak joint, which I
knew I would have to weld soon, parted, so I was lucky. The pallets (again ready for the
Chatham boys) were still in it, but the whole was upside-down. It took some neat boat work
by Ivor Williams and his shore-party to recover the pallets, after the trailer was lifted off
them.
Building a crude derrick, to hoist the trailers out of the dock, took a few hours to
construct but it worked and with much grunting and perspiration the team got both out
without a hitch. (But using every heavy shackle, block, strop, scaffold tube and clamp we
could find!). Thanks you all who helped.
FOR SALE
There are limited numbers of copies of the YEARBOOK (£2.50) & earlier editions of
MAINSHEET (£0.65p) incl. P&P
Inkjet Printer HP 720C £15.00 & Scanner UMAX ASTRA 1210P £15.00 (Dave 01646 681600)
GRP open sailing boat with inboard
Stuart Turner P6 petrol engine (Just
overhauled). Lots of extras; Anchor;
manual/electric bilge pumps;
battery; etc.
£800.00 o.n.o.
Dave 01646 681600
Boat CHIPPY IV 15ft + bowsprit
20' Workboat with inboard 3 cylinder
Lister diesel engine. Sound but in
need of T.L.C. £150 o.n.o.
Further details from Val & Ivor
Williams 01267 220071
Boat OLD WILL
Fire Blankets (£7), Smoke Alarms (50p), Gas Alarms & Carbon Monoxide detectors
suitable for boats & caravans at silly clearance prices. Dave 01646 681600
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WANTED
Articles for MAINSHEET & YEARBOOK 2006
John Hamilton of Sligo, Ireland, is looking for a similar boat to General Picton (shown below. If you
can help, please email John - alanternroom@hotmail.com
Small dinghy for use as a tender – local fisherman. (contact Dave Holt)
OUR WEBSITE
Our new website www.westwalesmaritimeheritage.org.uk will be up and running in a week or so
and www.wwmhs.org.uk will be phased out when renewal falls due. Please make a note of this and
use the new one as soon as you can. Also watch out for the new pages. Content will be updated
regularly so watch for the new stuff.
Seafair Haven - A whole week of events. Full programme in the next issue
Did you see the Cornish Crabbers
Association at Pembroke Quay a year or two ago?
This great picture by Barry Mellor certainly
brings back the memory of a beautiful Summer
evening.
What a great sight they made. This year there
will be not only the Crabbers Association but
many other visitors, hopefully including the
Atalanta Owners Association.
It will be a week long series of events and our
Society will be playing a key role in organizing
the water-borne events.
It is hoped that as many members as possible
will make themselves available. It will be a lot of
fun the more of us there are the more fun it will
be – the hardest work actually goes into the
preparation.
Future Publications
I am planning to publish a number of short illustrated monographs featuring our boats; our
workshops; A record of our Society etc. which will not only form a record of our activities and
achievements but will provide information to those interested. They will also add to the items we can
sell to raise funds. I would be grateful for any photographs and memorabilia you might consider
sharing. – Ed.
FOR SALE H.L.D. HULL
Surplus to the Society HSL Project – Admiralty „Harbour Launch – Diesel‟; 52-1/2 Ft long with 13-
1/2ft beam; max. draught 5‟ 3”aft. Construction of double diagonal teak planking on 2” x 2“ oak
frames at 10” centers. Planking and frames sound; work needed on stem, transom and at deck level.
Superstructure galvanized steel showing some corrosion at lower edges. Lying in tidal berth. All
power plant and shafting missing. Rudder off hull, needs lower pintle brazing. Steering cable &
pulleys, wheel & pedestal all available. Many HLD‟s have been converted into pleasure cruisers,
houseboats, etc. or for fishing, diving & passenger boats. This hull is a good starting point and it
must go. Purchaser to take possession & remove hull & parts from our yard within 2 months of
purchase.
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