News, Local history and Thanet issues from Michael's Bookshop in Ramsgate see www.michaelsbookshop.com I publish over 200 books about the history of this area click here to look at them.
Saturday 7 June 2014
New Britannic in Ramsgate Harbour
7 comments:
Comments, since I started writing this blog in 2007 the way the internet works has changed a lot, comments and dialogue here were once viable in an open and anonymous sense. Now if you comment here I will only allow the comment if it seems to make sense and be related to what the post is about. I link the majority of my posts to the main local Facebook groups and to my Facebook account, “Michael Child” I guess the main Ramsgate Facebook group is We Love Ramsgate. For the most part the comments and dialogue related to the posts here goes on there. As for the rest of it, well this blog handles images better than Facebook, which is why I don’t post directly to my Facebook account, although if I take a lot of photos I am so lazy that I paste them directly from my camera card to my bookshop website and put a link on this blog.
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OMG, someone has murdered her, where has the wheelhouse gone? the awning poles? There was a big sign 'New Britannic' on the stern transom.
ReplyDeleteI worked as crew on this old lady when she was skippered by Captain A T Mastin.
Thanks for the picture Mike, I have added it to the post, I guess it was mostly time that did for her, but now she is partly restored I guess she may be saved for a lot longer.
DeleteI am almost as pleased to see the old gal afloat again as our brave soldiers were when she plucked thousands off them off the beaches of Dunkirk her's to the memory of Wally Read and his crew,
ReplyDeleteStargazer.
Walter Read is my great grandfather. I used to stay over in the Scillies when I lived in Cornwall and when I used to go out for a trip on the then Commodore, I always got a funny feeling, and now I have found out that the New Britannic was named Commodore while it was stationed down there doing day trips, wow what can I say. So so glad it has been restored.
ReplyDeleteDuring the school summer holidays of 1955 (age 14) I worked on the New Britannic taking the holiday makers on cruises. I loved every minute of it. I got paid. As the boat came back into the harbour the hat was passed around purporting to be a collection for the 'widows and orphans'. This collection money comprised my wages, and it was quite a lot. The boat was operated by Bob and his mate, I think, called Arthur.
ReplyDeleteOn one occasion we put to sea with the knowledge that the boat was leaking through the propeller shaft. The sea water was visibly coming up through the decking. Not unreasonably, some of the passengers were concerned. I was given the task of going amongst them explaining that the boat was perfectly safe. It seemed I did OK.
This was one of the best summer holidays of my life.
Ah for the world before the invasion of the safety elfs I did a significant of Ramsgate Harbour related work aged around 14 too
DeleteYep, and they even taught how to drive the boat and steer by compass in a mist. However, I had to keep a low profile when entering the Harbour, presumably because of HMCGs watching.
DeleteIn the Autumn we used to put out in some quite rough weather. I enjoyed this too. Though, I'm not sure if all the passengers did.