THE AVIATION HISTORIAN 75
W
HEN JOHN STROUD was invited
to accompany a motley collection
of motor cars, ancient and modern,
aboard a Silver City Bristol Freighter
across the English Channel in April
1950, the carriage of automobiles over la Manche was
nothing new. Indeed, motor vehicles had regularly
been traversing the narrow stretch of water separating
Britain and the Continent since the late 1920s, when the
Townsend Brothers Company launched the first regular
cross-Channel ferry service with the converted coal ship
Artificer, which, on June 28, 1928, sailed from Dover to
Calais in 2hr 30min with 15 cars aboard. The following
year the service became permanent and by the end of 1931
the Southern Railway Company had opened the Dover—
Calais Autocarrier ferry service, which had a capacity of
120 passengers and could transport some 35 cars.
The days of easy “roll-on, roll-off” shipborne ferry
services were still more than 20 years in the future,
however, the cars having to be hoisted aboard the
converted coal ships and minesweepers by crane
— a time-consuming and labour-intensive process.
Nevertheless, by 1936 some 6,000 cars were being
transported across the Channel each year, rising to 31,000
in 1939, after which the numbers began falling off owing
to the very real prospect of war in Europe.
A golden — or silver — opportunity
One of the regular post-war voyagers aboard the cross-
Channel car ferries was Air Cdre Griffith J. “Taffy” Powell,
former wartime ferry pilot and co-founder and Managing
Director of Silver City Airways, established in late 1946
with money from British and Australian mining interests
to provide a regular air link between the UK and the
conglomeration’s operations worldwide. Powell liked to
“get away from it all” by touring France in his Armstrong
Siddeley Lancaster car, which had to be drained of fuel
once he reached a Channel port, then ignominiously
One of Britain’s most respected aviation journalists and
authors, John Stroud (born April 3, 1919) joined Imperial
Airways aged 14. Six years later he became a freelance
aviation writer and in 1963 was appointed General Editor
of the definitive Putnam series of aeronautical books.
Also a talented photographer, John continued to
contribute articles to the British aviation press until his
death in March 2007. In 2014 a substantial part of
John’s archive, including numerous rolls of previously
unseen 35mm film, was acquired by A Flying History Ltd
and forms the basis of this regular TAH TAH TAH series seriesLEFT Steady as she goes! With the clamshell doors of Bristol
Freighter G-AIFV thrown open in a wide smile, the 1904 Darracq
is reversed down the loading ramp at Le Touquet on Friday, April
14, 1950. The car is still roadworthy in 2017 and remains a regular
participant in the UK’s London—Brighton Veteran Car Run.