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Author Topic: Fairmile "B" Motor Launch ML162  (Read 3860 times)

RickF

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Fairmile "B" Motor Launch ML162
« on: November 16, 2006, 01:58:14 pm »

Quote from http://www.maritimebritain.co.uk/risklist.html

Fairmile “B” Motor Launch ML162 (later known as Golden Galleon)

This historic wartime ship was built by Dickie’s of Bangor in 1942 and saw war service in the Royal Navy based at Swansea and Milford Haven before being transferred into the Dutch Navy. She was sold in 1946 and converted to carry passengers. Then named Golden Galleon she originally ran sea cruises from Great Yarmouth, but for many years has sailed from a River Yare berth above the Town Bridge on daily trips across Breydon Water towards Reedham.

However since 2000 she has been laid up at Reedham on the River Yare. The Broads Authority is being pressed to scrap this former excursion vessel amidst fears that she may sink and become a hazard for navigation in this part of the Broads National Park.

Surely this historic wartime motor launch, designated by the National Historic Ships Committee as part of the Designated Vessels List, should be saved for present and future generations to tell her remarkable story. Perhaps a suitable home could be found for her in her former wartime haunts in South Wales?


I well remember her, as holidays at Gt Yarmouth in the fifties were not complete without a cruise to Reedham.

Sadly, as reported in today's local paper,  the breakers started work on her yesterday. She was, apparently, beyond saving.

http://new.edp24.co.uk/content/news/story.aspx?brand=EDPOnline&category=News&tBrand=edponline&tCategory=news&itemid=NOED15%20Nov%202006%2021%3A28%3A18%3A143

Rick
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chromedome

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Re: Fairmile "B" Motor Launch ML162
« Reply #1 on: November 16, 2006, 02:51:39 pm »

thanks Rick ,for that sad news........
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kayem

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Re: Fairmile "B" Motor Launch ML162
« Reply #2 on: November 16, 2006, 03:58:23 pm »

A sad story indeed, but slightly sadder are some elements of the way it's been reported in the newspaper. Isn't it always the same? You see in print or on TV a piece on a subject you have some knowledge of, and it's virtually guaranteed that the story will contain basic errors. In this case the reporter has been told some details of Fairmiles in general, misunderstood, and attributed it all to this surviving example. For example, Dickie of Bangor didn't build 650 examples of the Fairmile B, they built just nine, 650 was the total B production from more than 40 separate UK shipyards. Also their 'pioneering techniques', getting furniture makers to assemble frames & other components so that these could be put together in a yard like Dickie's was the way that almost all Fairmile types A, B, C, D etc were built, and the idea came from Fairmile themselves. An interesting aside is the origin of the Fairmile name, the boats were designed by Noel Macklin, a real 'Boys Own' style adventurer, who took the name 'Fairmile' from his house in Cobham, Surrey.
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