1,000 BOAT PAGEANT
FORCES VESSELS AND LIFEBOATS Serving Queen and country
No pageant would be complete without representatives of our armed forces – chiefly the Royal Navy of course, but also the RAF – and also the peacetime services, such as the RNLI (and the independent Caister Lifeboat, whose Bernard Mathews will be in the Pageant) that preserve life and limb around our coastline. Each of the vessels taking part
comes with its own story to tell – sometimes of wartime exploits, sometimes of the scarcely-less heroic efforts to preserve them as memorials to their service and to the men who sailed them. They bear witness to the feats of design ingenuity that were called forth in our hour of need. It’s a matter of regret that the vessel dearest to the Queen’s
BRITANNIA’S ROYAL BARGE
heart is unable to be present. The former Royal Yacht Britannia was a royal residence almost from the beginning of her reign until 1997, taking the royal family on many state visits to the Commonwealth and elsewhere. She is now in static retirement as a museum ship in Edinburgh’s Leith docks. Britannia is represented by her
recently-restored 40ft (12.2m) royal barge, built by Camper & Nicholsons in 1953 and used to ferry the royal family to and from shore. On the day of the Pageant, Spirit of Chartwell fulfils this role. The Royal Barge will be manned
by ‘Yotties’, members of the Association of Royal Yachtsmen who served aboard Britannia, and she will be flanked by two of the Royal Yacht’s smaller tenders.
ONES TO WATCH FOR
AIR SEA RESCUE It was Lawrence of Arabia, working anonyomously at the British Power Boat Co, who helped develop fast rescue boats like HSL 102 to pick up aircrew ditched in the sea during the Second World War.
SIXTY YEARS OF SERVICE Look out for Flying Christine III, representing Guernsey’s volunteer Marine Ambulance Service, celebrating 60 years continuously on call, 365 days a year, 24 hours a day.
ICONIC LIFEBOAT The Liverpool class of lifeboat reflects the iconic design used for collecting boxes and Lifeboat Day flags; it was in use by the RNLI from the 1930s to the 1980s – The Chieftain was based at Barmouth and restored by Tony Gatt of Bristol.
PYRONAUT – LOW-PROFILE FIREBOAT Specially built to pass under the bridges of Bristol, fireboat Pyronaut has an air draught of just 1.5m. She saved many a building, and life in the Blitz, and is now moored in the city’s Floating Harbour.
PYRONAUT
HSL 102
THE CHIEFTAIN CLASSIC BOAT JUNE 2012 17
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48 |
Page 49 |
Page 50 |
Page 51 |
Page 52 |
Page 53 |
Page 54 |
Page 55 |
Page 56 |
Page 57 |
Page 58 |
Page 59 |
Page 60 |
Page 61 |
Page 62 |
Page 63 |
Page 64 |
Page 65 |
Page 66 |
Page 67 |
Page 68 |
Page 69 |
Page 70 |
Page 71 |
Page 72 |
Page 73 |
Page 74 |
Page 75 |
Page 76 |
Page 77 |
Page 78 |
Page 79 |
Page 80 |
Page 81 |
Page 82 |
Page 83 |
Page 84 |
Page 85 |
Page 86 |
Page 87 |
Page 88 |
Page 89 |
Page 90 |
Page 91 |
Page 92 |
Page 93 |
Page 94 |
Page 95 |
Page 96 |
Page 97 |
Page 98 |
Page 99 |
Page 100