Sunday, 2 December 2018

Decommissioned MTB

This is a photo of Penpol Creek, where it runs into the River Gannel. Crantock and the open Atlantic is downstream to the left.

The headland opposite is Pentire, separating The Gannel Estuary from Fistral Beach....Europe's premiere surfing beach. I was born in a room in a house on top of this headland and this was my play area when I was a child. I learnt to swim in Penpol Creek.

The Gannel was an overwintering anchorage in the Nineteenth Century and a two masted schooner called the Ada was permanently laid up there. Horatio Hodges bought her and used her as a houseboat. Lord Haw Haw once boasted that she had been bombed by the Luftwaffe but the bombs feel on Trethellan Farm where my grandma later kept a caravan so yah boo sucks to Haw Haw. She was eventually turned into a curiosity Museum for tourists. The schooner eventually rotted out after WWII but the family bought a decommissioned MTB and mored her up on the Creek to house the Museum.

There were many of these boats de-militarised and sold off as houseboats.

This is a close up of Ada II. From her lines, I suspect she was a Fairmile, probably a Dogboat. I went on her a few times .

I think she eventually caught fire and burnt out in the 60s but I don't really remember.

 It was all a long time ago.


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6 comments:

  1. Phil Curran3 December 2018 at 07:03

    There are still some MTB hulks at Shoreham and Littlehampton, some little more than skeletons and other heavily modified over the years.

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    1. John Lambshead3 December 2018 at 15:01

      Interesting. I guess many of them were made of wood so deteriorated over time.

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  2. Dave Drale3 December 2018 at 19:45

    Dear John,
    Gavin Maxwell's Harpoon at a Venture involved trying to convert (I think a minesweeper rather than an MTB) to fish for basking sharks for vitamins immediately postwar. He was a complete duffer and his attempt to make a 2-pounder into a harpoon gun is hilarious, but he was a fine writer and his experience would probably explain problems with similar craft in the civilian world.
    All best,
    Dave

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    1. John Lambshead4 December 2018 at 13:14

      I doubt they were built to last. Military gear often has a short shelf life and is optimised very differently to civilian equipment.

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  3. Shaun Murphy4 December 2018 at 07:14

    Enemies among us, hi John there was an E boat in one of the halling boat yards untill a few years ago again being used as a house boat I think. A much bigger affair than the british boats

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    Replies
    1. John Lambshead4 December 2018 at 13:15

      Oh, I wish I'd known .would have been fun to see .

      Delete

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