BOUTIQUE CRUISING
HISTORIC WATERS
The Patricia is based in Harwich, on the River Stour, and the place has quite a maritime history of its own. It was from Harwich the Mayfl ower set sail in 1619, en route to Southampton to pick up the pilgrims. Her master’s home is still inhabited today.
During the
First and Second World Wars, it was the base for a British destroyer squadron.
In 1942, the
Harwich squadron offered the only surface resistance to the Scharnhorst, Gneisenau and Prinz Eugen as they made their improbable daylight dash through the Channel.
Their attempt to halt the battleships ended in valiant failure. Perhaps
because of this, the Admiralty constructed the quintet of giant Maunsell sea forts that loom out of the Thames Estuary.
On their giant spindly stilts, they are scarily reminiscent of the Martians from HG Wells’ War of the Worlds.
They were emplaced in 1942 and remain there to this day, like primeval sea monsters.
60 WORLD OF CRUISING I Summer 2010
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