During the second world war Husbands suffered an early set back to their war work when on the night of 29/30th December 1940, the yard was bombed and both building sheds set on fire. Two of the minesweepers in them were too badly damaged to be repaired. The above image is a photograph of the largest shed which was rebuilt and one of the earliest covered slipways in the UK. The photograph was taken after the 1999 demise of the yard. The black and white photo below is of the yard in the 1940’s, with the above building on the right and the 1,000-ton capacity open slipways on the left.


Unfortunately, there is now very little


remaining at the old Husbands Shipyard site and at the water’s edge at Cracknore Hard - only the old office building (once the Ship Inn) and the jetty remain, at the end of which is a floating piece of Mulberry Harbour.


Mulberry harbours were temporary portable harbours developed by the UK during the Second World War to facilitate the rapid offloading of cargo onto beaches during the Allied invasion of Normandy in June 1944. After the Allies successfully held beachheads following D-Day, two prefabricated harbours were taken in sections across the English Channel from the UK with the invading army and assembled off Omaha Beach (Mulberry “A”) and Gold Beach (Mulberry “B”). Source: Wikipedia


HSL 102 (High Speed Launch 102)


The British Powerboat Company built many of the historic vessels which I am involved with. In 1913 Herbert Scott-Paine with Noel Pemberton Billing both, of whom had an interest in aviation, opened the Supermarine factory at Woolston, Southampton. High speed aircraft evolved into high-speed motorboats and in 1927 Hubert Scott-Paine bought the Hythe Shipyard and formed The British Powerboat Company. In the 1930’s Scott-Paine then entered into a collaboration with T.E. Shaw (the famous Lawrence of Arabia), which was to be of great service to British Powerboats. Throughout that decade the success continued with cruisers, racing boats and new classes of military boats. Next door was the Hythe flying boat facility which was taken over by Supermarine Vickers and later BOAC building the short Sunderland flying boats. The boats built initially for the RAF included amongst others the 100 class HSLs (see HSL 102 below).


In 1935 the British Powerboat Company received the first orders for MTBs from the Royal Navy. These WWII craft included the MGB/MTB types (see MGB 81 below). The production of boats at Hythe had much reduced after the war and the decision was taken to close the yard late in 1946.


ST 1502 (Sea Plane Tender 1502)


The present home for most of these vessels is now the pontoons outside or inside of Boat House 4 in the Portsmouth Historic Dockyard. This boathouse was designed by naval architects for the construction of small naval vessels. The building was originally intended to extend as far as Victory Gate to the south, but construction was halted at the outbreak of World War II. The temporary corrugated iron clad wall of 1940 to the southern elevation remains to this day.


ML 1387 ‘Medusa’ (Harbour Defence Motor Launch) 90 | The Report • June 2022 • Issue 100 MGB 81 (Motor Gun Boat 81)


It is very sad that all these little shipyards, which came into being to satisfy the needs of building a supply of small vessels to support the war effort, have all but disappeared along with a much larger civilian ship building industry in the UK. But I salute the relatively small group of people who fortunately provide the expertise to ensure these wonderful little ships continue to give good service.


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