Leigh on sea sailing club
Essex Yacht club
The Ships of the Essex Yacht club
The Gypsy
After a few years consolidation in its modest land-based headquarters, the club thrived, increased its membership and soon aspired to greater things, efforts were made to find a more suitable and permanent headquarters. A letter to a member from a friend in Erith gave news that the Gypsy was for sale for £200.
Gypsy was an old American racing schooner, built in 1857by J B Van Densen for a member of the New York yacht Club. of 148 gross tonnage, her dimensions were L O A 101ft, L W L 88ft beam, 22ft draft 10ft. She carried 1986 sq ft of sail.
She took part in many races in New York, winning one a distance of 38 miles in just over 4 hours in a gale of wind, in which one of the opponents was disabled. She was sold for £2500 and sail from New York on 3rd july 1863arriving in Cowes in twenty days the fourth such yacht to cross the Atlantic. (The second was the famous yacht America). After racing in the Solent she was bought by a nobleman whose arms were inscribed the counter. Later she was converted into a houseboat and used as the headquarters of the Erith Yacht Club.on the Thames. She had a large saloon on the main deck, and below, four staterooms, storage rooms and additional berths.
“Gypsy” 1857-1880 The old American racing schooner
Here then was a schooner with a fine racing record which had served well another E Y C. Lengthy negotiations proceeded and the members of the young club with very little capital but astute business acumen obtained acceptance of their offer of £150. To raise the necessary funds to pay for the Gypsy and to cover all other expenses involved in setting up a new headquarters, a limited Company was formed with an issued capital of £250 called “The Essex Yacht Club House Boat Company Ltd” and members readily took up the shares.
It is recorded that Gypsy was towed by two fishing bawls (presumably under sail) from Erith to Leigh in March 1894.
Her arrival was a saga in itself. The Yachting Monthly reported many years later, in June 1930.
“…how the berth was dug for her on the shore, how she took the ground on the intervening flats and was left lying on her bilge by the
Gypsy 1894 The first floating headquarters ship
ebbing tide, how ever empty barrels in Leigh and how nobly the inhabitants responded to the call for more was stowed within and without her, how many pumps the number of thirty nine were installed aboard, how strong tackles were rigged up-anyway, by main force she was dragged “over the top”to what has been her final resting place. Ensconced in sturdy cradled timbered guard, her old age has served gallantly.”
The new ship was remarkably commodious, the large saloon held about 70 members for a social gathering and was furnished and equipped with a billiard table for use when the tide was out and a piano. Full time living in steward and his wife were employed who provided drinks and a meal service to members. Atabout this time, the club handbook indicates a branch at Hole Haven. There is no indication of the use this branch but as Hole Haven was a favourite hunt, maybe this was a room in the Lobster Smack.
By 1895 the club was remarkably well organised. TheMembers handbook was a well presented bound book with details of Officers and committees, List of members and their craft, general rules, sailing rules and programmes, and house rules from which the following extracts are interest
Gypsy 1894 interior of the main saloon (note the billiard table and piano
The club house shall be open daily for the use of members. Refreshments will be served between 6 o’clock
Ship number two The Carllota
The Carlotta
TSS Carlotta was built by A.W. Richardson and Company, London for the London, Tilbury and Southend Railway as a Gravesend – Tilbury Ferry. She was their first twin-screw vessel. She was launched in 1893.
She was acquired by the Midland Railway in 1912 and by the London Midland and Scottish Railway in 1923 and scrapped in 1930. (Then became the Essex Yacht Clubs home).
|
Tonnage |
261 gross register tons (GRT) |
|
Length |
124.6 feet (38.0 m) |
|
Beam |
32.4 feet (9.9 m) |
|
Draught |
7.6 feet (2.3 m) |
She was called up for war time service, Carlotta was sunk by a high explosive bomb at Tower Pier
in 1942.
The third ship The Lady Savile
The Lady Savile
Lady Savile
Iron twin screw turbine vessel built in 1891 by Cammell Laird Brothers of Birkenhead (Build Order no. 583, Yard No V0580) as a Passenger Tender.
Technical Data
Length: 132 ft
Breadth: 30.1 ft
Depth: 12.6 ft
Draught: 9.45 ft
Tonnage: 420 – 379 gross/178 – 103 – 153 net/ deadweight Engines: Compound 4-cylinder engine.
Power: kW/HP
Speed: 12.5 knots
Call Sign: MKDN,
LR Number(1930 – 1931): 84554
Official Number: 152004, 97475 (Lady Savile) Port of Registry: Plymouth/UK, Dover/UK.
1890: Ordered
1891: Launched as SIR RICHARD GRENVILE for Great Western Railway.
April 23rd 1891: Her four trial runs on the measured mile in the Mersey gave her an average speed of 12.25 knots.
April 30th 1891: Left the Mersey. She was intended as one of their Atlantic liner tenders to meet the large mail steamers frequenting Plymouth, and also as an excursion steamer along the coast. Operating from Mill Bay Dock, Plymouth and as the largest of the tenders owned by G.W.R., she joined SIR WALTER RALEIGH, FRANCIS DRAKE and SIR JOHN FROBISHER.
March 10th 1902: Used to transport King Edward VII, Queen Alexandra & party from the Royal Yacht to Millbay Pier.
April 28th 1912: Ferried surviving members of S.S. TITANIC’s crew from S.S. LAPLAND to Plymouth.
1921: Advertised “For Sale”, but eventually returned to service having been renamed PENLEE
1930 – August 1931: Great Western Railway
September 1931: Sold to Dover Harbour Board for £2,500.
Penlee – Dover Express (03/10/1931)
October 5th 1931: Arrived in Dover to act as a tender taking passengers to and from ships off Dover. Initially remained as PENLEE.
January 1932: After being overhauled and repainted at Dover she was renamed LADY SAVILE (the name the wife of the Admiralty’s representative on the Harbour Board).
During the W.W. II, she served as a Clydeside tender to QUEEN MARY and other troopships.
Now with an enclosed wheelhouse, the grey painted vessel was laid up in the Wellington Dock Dover wearing the name ‘RN 78’ on her bow and looking very much the worse for wear with large areas of rust across her hull and superstructure. The liner traffic for which she was built had evaporated and post-war austerity had all but killed the coastal excursion trades.”.
1947 Looking for new headquarters, Essex Yacht Club were made aware the LADY SAVILE was available to purchase. The vessel was valued at £7,000 but approximately £2,500 would be required for the removal of machinery, boilers and auxiliaries. An offer of £2,000 was made, and as far as can be discovered this was accepted.
September 14th 1947: After being on the slip undergoing repairs and renovations, towed by the seagoing tug ZEALANDIA from Dover to Leigh-on-Sea and beached her at Leigh on sea, Essex. She was converted into a Club Headquarters with minimum of structural alteration. The engine room was floored and fitted as a changing room with four bunk rooms
The fourth ship The Bembridge
Bembridge arrived at Leigh in 1976, the fourth in a line of ships to act as club headquarters.
History
THPV Bembridge was designed by Sir William Reed in early 1938 for Trinity House London as a first in the history of British pilotage motor cruising pilot cutters. She was built by the famous Smith’s Dock Company Co. Ltd. South Bank in the Middlesbrough area. Built as a cruising pilot cutter operating at the Nab and Needles stations she was commandeered for service in World War II. Post war she returned to pilotage duties based on the Dungeness and Sunk pilot stations. Eventually the vessel was sold out of service and in 1971 was bought with the purpose of operating her as a training vessel. However, in 1972 she was bought by the Essex Yacht Club and moored as the club headquarters at Leigh on Sea until 2009.
The Bembridge
Dimensions
Beam 27.10 feet (8.27 m)
Length 150.00 feet (43.75 m)
Draft 10.60 feet (3.27 m)
Tonnage Gross 413.00
The latest information on Bembridge
It’s become more than a project, and seems almost a mission. Rafal Zahorski of Magemar is restoring the ‘MV Bembridge’, a task that has seen him trawl the lengths of the UK for its original equipment.
‘Our old lady’, Mr Zahorski tells MJ, had been languishing for some time after a failed attempt to turn it into a restaurant. He adds that fresh paint had been used to cover serious decay. Moved by the vessel’s plight, he devised a plan to restore the boat and use it as a floating office for the maritime company.
However, at the time the boat’s identity was still a mystery. The nameplate couldn’t be relied on and there had been many changes to the craft’s outline over the years. It had lost a huge part of its rear main deck to give room for a boom and other stern equipment, and the shape of the bridge had been changed. The vessel had lost its engine, chimney and all davits and lifeboats when it became the Essex Yacht Club’s HQ in the 70s, as has subsequently been learned.
Eventually the team pieced together the past of THPV Bembridge. It was built at the well known Smith’s Dock yard at Middlesbrough in 1938, having been designed by Sir William Reed for Trinity House’s Isle of Wight district, a prototype of a new class, the Diesel Cruising Pilot Cutters, which took 25 pilots and 19 crew members. The vessel saw ‘a lot of life’, including action at Dunkirk and Normandy before becoming, amongst other unexpected commissions, a floating night club.
The boat was taken back to Poland for repairs where it gained a new chimney, third mast and the original boom. Mr Zahorski explained that the whole deck had to be rebuilt, but the most difficult project was the hull. ‘We were forced to replace 80 square metres of steel plates. Now she looks almost like new.’
After tracking down a number of original items, Mr Zahorski and another of the team improbably loaded some of them into one car, including a table from the Pilot Saloon, the original navigational lights, three oil lamps from the engine room, two voice tubes, a Marconi Radio, some 100 signal flags, documents concerning a school for underprivileged youth, and charts which proved where Bembridge had been working.
Repairs and more items followed, including pilot boarding boats, the last two of the model in existence. The craft will now be more than a company HQ, housing its own museum and showing memorabilia from the Smith’s Dock shipyard, including the history of Trinity House London pilot activity and pilot class vessels.
The project is nearing completion, and soon the brass lettering will be back on the stern, bearing the legend ‘BEMBRIDGE LONDON’. There will be cheers and perhaps a few tears. Meanwhile, Mr Zahorski is still tracking down the last of the fittings, including the original bell.
The Bembridge at Leigh
The fifth ship Wilton
HMS Wilton (M1116) was a prototype coastal Minesweeper/mine hunter for the Royal Navy. She was the first warship in the world to be constructed from glass-reinforced plastic (GRP). Her design was based upon the existing Ton-class minesweepers, and she was fitted with equipment recovered from the scrapped HMS Derriton. The use of GRP gave the vessel a low magnetic signature against the threat of magnetic mines.
On commissioning, Wilton joined the 2nd Mine Counter Measures Squadron (2nd MCMS) based at Portsmouth. In 1974, she took part in Operation Rheostat, the Royal Navy’s part of the international efforts to clear the Suez Canel of mines. Wilton was unofficially known as HMS Tupperware HMS Indestructible, and “The Plastic Duck” or “Plastic Pig”. She was retired by the Royal Navy in 1994; she ended up in store until being sold in August 2001, when she was fitted out as the new home of the Essex Yacht Club at Leigh-on-sea.