http://www.shipsmonthly.com • Summer 2018 • (^19)
WATERFRONT • http://www.shipsmonthly.com • Cudham Tithe Barn, Berry’s Hill, Cudham, Kent TN16 3AG • t > 01959 541444 • e > [email protected]
news
WHAT FUTURE FOR BRISTOL QUEEN?
ExCURSION VESSEL
There is some hope for Bristol
Queen, which was withdrawn
in 2009 over issues with the
MCA and has since languished
in a Weston-super-Mare car
park. Martin Woolls, director
of MW Marine, which owns the
vessel, has recently started work
in-house, without any external
funding, to completely replate
the vessel’s bottom with a view
to renewing her MCA passenger
certificates to return her to service
to take passengers once again
between Weston and Steep Holm.
The vessel was built as Leven for
the Caledonian Steam Packet Co
in 1938 to run trips in connection
with the British Empire Exhibition
in Glasgow. After the exhibition,
she remained on the Clyde
and was taken over by the Sea
Transport Officer, Clyde during
World War II. After the war, Leven
was used for the Largs to Milllport
and Gourock to Holy Loch ferry
services. In 1965 she was sold
for further service in Torbay and
renamed Pride of the Bay. In 1985
she moved to Jersey and then in
1999 to Weston-super-Mare.
PASSENGER LAUNCH
Veteran Weymouth passenger
launch My Girl received a £15,
refit last winter, which included
work by a local shipwright to
rebuild part of her wooden hull
and the gunwales on both sides.
Part of the Weymouth scene
for more than 80 years, My Girl
was called up for service in World
War II to ferry troops, ammunition
and stores to warships anchored
in the Bay and to the forts and
breakwaters of Portland Harbour.
After 1945 she ran trips to see
the warships in Portland Harbour.
Now owned by Coastline
Cruises, My Girl runs a service
from Weymouth to Castletown
and Portland Marina, as well as
offering Jurassic Coast cruises.
PASSENGER VESSEL
The sad news from Lake Lucerne
is that the 600-passenger Rigi
has been scrapped at a quay
at Beckenried on the lake. Her
owner, Schifffahrtsgesellschaft
des Vierwaldstättersees (SGV),
has been investing heavily in new
tonnage in the last two or three
years, so Rigi has been out of
service for a while.
Ordered in 1951 as a
replacement for the paddle
steamer Winkelried of 1876, Rigi
entered service in 1955 and soon
became a favourite on services
from Lucerne to Fluelen, Brunnen,
Alpnachstad and Kussnacht. Rigi
was smaller than the lake’s largest
vessels so, with more modest
operating costs, she generally
sailed over the longest season of
any of the lake fleet.
SCRAPPED ON THE LAKE MY GIRL^ READY^ FOR^ SUMMER
BOILER
RETUBED
VIC 96
The ex-Admiralty Victualling
Inshore Craft VIC 96’s original
upright Cochran boiler remains
in satisfactory overall condition,
but a survey last year identified
some wasting in the boiler tubes
and around some stay bars. As
a result, volunteers at Chatham
have removed the old tubes and
are replacing them with new ones.
One of a number of similar
craft built towards the end of
World War II, VIC 96 spent her
operational career on the Rivers
Medway and Thames, serving at
Sheerness Dockyard from 1946
to 1959 and then at Chatham,
before being withdrawn in 1973.
Skipper Derek Gransden (left) and
Chief Engineer Tony Slingsby tend to
the boilers on board VIC 92.
Rigi has been scrapped at Beckenried.
The passenger launch My
Girl at Weymouth.
What does the future hold for
Bristol Queen? She is now in a
car park at Weston-super-Mare.
nandana
(Nandana)
#1