Black Jack - 1 Black Jack 2010 Branch Meeting Programme

Black Jack - 1 Black Jack 2010 Branch Meeting Programme

Price £1.00 Black Jack QUARTERLY MAGAZINE SOUTHAMPTON BRANCH WORLD SHIP SOCIETY www.sotonwss.org.uk Issue No: 156 60th ANNIVERSARY EDITION Autumn 2010 Alive with 1950s atmosphere, this picture sums up what Southampton was about when the Branch formed sixty years ago. The brand new Ocean Terminal; the iconic Queen Mary; a boat train complete with man and red flag; a docks policeman; 1950s vehicles and a man on a bike Black Jack - 1 Black Jack 2010 Branch Meeting Programme Autumn 2010 No. 156 October 12th 60th ANNIVERSARY EDITION Southampton Shipping of 1950 – Branch Produc- tion Editorial team November 9th Mick Lindsay, Nigel Robinson and Editorial Assistant Michael AGM – plus supporting programme Page. Website – Neil Richardson December 7th Lindsay’s Adventures on eBay – Mick Lindsay Black Jack is the quarterly newsletter for the Southampton Branch of the World Ship Society. All contributions to BJ either by post, email, floppy Four editions available for £5 inclusive of postage. disk or CD are most welcome. Any article with a connection to the Solent area would be much ap- Branch Meetings preciated. The BJ Editor could reproduce magazine Venue: or newspaper articles but preference is given to St Denys Conservative Club articles ‘by the branch – for the branch’. St Denys Road Any member who would prefer to receive the Portswood Branch Magazine Black Jack by email please con- Southampton tact the Editor. Colour printing costs are relatively high so all recent Black Jacks can be viewed in full All meetings commence at 19.30 and the meeting colour via the Branch website in pdf format. room is to be vacated by 21.30. Meetings are on www.sotonwss.org.uk the second Tuesday of each month, with the ex- ception of December, which will be on the first Ship Visits Tuesday (7th) of the month. Ship visits, though rare these days, often become available at short notice and more recently during Honorary Branch Secretary the week due to the nature of shipping now. Those Michael Lindsay wishing to participate should ensure their details 7 Elland Close are held by the Visits Organiser and kept up to Fair Oak date. All members participating in visits organised SO50 7JY 023 8069 4558 by the branch do so entirely at their own risk and should be aware that ships and dock areas may Chairman have trip and other safety hazards and are advised John Lillywhite to use personal protective equipment when appro- 1 Thornleigh Road priate. All participants must accompany the ‘guide’ Woolston at all times, unless instructed otherwise, and follow SO19 9DH 023 8043 2181 any instructions from the party leader. Treasurer Andrew Hogg “Debanker” Lyburn Road Hamptworth Salisbury SP5 2DP 01794 390502 Visits Organiser Adrian Tennet 34 New Road Fair Oak SO50 8EN 023 8060 0197 Full details of all committee members can be found on the Southampton WSS website at www.sotonwss.org.uk Black Jack - 2 Where it all started! Reg Garnet, left, and Bert Moody were the two founding fathers of the Southampton Branch and are seen here at a later event. PRINCIPLE OFFICERS OF THE LAST SIXTY YEARS Chairman Secretary Treasurer R. W. Garnett 1950-55 Bert Moody 1950-1969 Bert Moody 1950-69 L. A. Pritchard 1955-56 H. Frith 1969-70 L. Slade 1969-71 H. A. Allen 1956-61 C. Weeks 1970-73 M. J. Maloney 1971-74 R. W. Garnett 1961-64 C. L. Auckland 1973-78 R. Henderson 1974-76 W. H. Mitchell 1964-71 R. F. Baker 1978-08 R. Hackman 1976-78 R. C. Collins 1971-73 M. A. Lindsay 2008-10 M. J. Maloney 1978-80 B. A. Hill 1973-74 D. F. Hutchings 1980-83 J. Havers 1974-86 D. Baker 1983-96 J. Lillywhite 1986-10 A. Hogg 1996-10 Editor – Newsletter, Bert Moody 1951-68; Norman Bird 1968-70; Nigel Robinson 1970-71; Black Jack, Nigel Rob- inson and David Hornsby 1971-82; Rod Baker 1982-3; Bill Mitchell 1983-89; Richard de Kerbrech 1989-91; Frank Bandey 1991-95; Neil Richardson and Doug Toogood 1995-97; Neil Richardson 1997-10; Mick Lindsay and Nigel Robinson 2010- SIXTY YEARS OF THE WSS SOUTHAMPTON BRANCH As the Southampton Branch celebrates 60 years, we The Southern Railway, under its visionary general thought it would be interesting to look back over that manager, Sir Herbert Walker, had overseen the recla- time and select some highlights in the life of the port. mation of the foreshore from the Royal Pier to Millbrook to create the New Docks, later known as the Western Prelude Docks, a huge civil engineering feat and one of the By 1950, the docks had developed into Britain’s major largest to date. passenger port under a number of owners – from 1838 By 1950, the port was getting back into its peacetime it was owned by the Southampton Dock Co. until 1892 stride after all the struggles of World War 2 – the when the powerful London & South Western Railway Queen Elizabeth and Queen Mary were at last operat- Co. rescued the struggling company. The railway ing the two ship Atlantic ferry for Cunard which had grouping of 1923 saw the newly formed Southern Rail- planned to begin in 1940, but had been frustrated by way become the managers until railway nationalisation the war. Also, the Union-Castle mail service to South in 1948 brought the British Transport Commission into Africa was up and running again, along with the likes of being. Royal Mail, Shaw, Savill. Black Jack - 3 1950s In 1950, the port’s owners became the Docks & Inland Water Executive, with Reginald Biddle still at the helm as Docks & Marine Manager, as he had been since 1936 (apart from war service with the MoT when H A Short was manager). He retired in 1956 to be suc- ceeded by S A Finnis. There was also immigration and this was mostly from the West Indies on ships such as the Empire Win- drush. R. P. Biddle, Docks and Marine Manager, 1936-56 Nineteen Fifty saw the New Australia come into service – owned by the Ministry of Transport and man- aged by Shaw, Savill & Albion on the emigrant service, she had been reconstructed by John I Thornycroft at Southampton from the fire ravaged wreck of the Mon- Town Quay was, in the 1950s and 60s, a thriving arch of Bermuda. Originally owned by Furness Withy facility for coastal ships (Coast Lines etc) and traffic and built in 1931, she caught fire on the Tyne in 1947 from the near continent and Scandinavia. Aggregates, whilst refitting after war service. She was much later to coal and timber went to the River Itchen and timber become the Greek Line’s Arkadia. also went to Eling Quay. It was also handled in the docks, often for onward lightering to both the Itchen and Eling. Emigration was quickly becoming a major part of the port’s traffic and many old ships were hastily converted On 31 July 1950, the new Ocean Terminal at 43/4 for the purpose. Later in the decade, and into the berths was opened by the Prime Minister, Clement At- 1960s, bigger and better ships had bigger and better lee, giving Southampton a superb new facility for the conversions (Fairsky, Fairstar, Ellinis and Australis, prestigious transatlantic service, particularly for the two for example) and it seemed that most of them sailed Cunard Queens, which were the main users. RMS from Southampton. Queen Elizabeth was the first ship to use the iconic Black Jack - 4 building, but in the ensuing years, many greats tied up there, including Nieuw Amsterdam, United States and the France. On 8 July 1952, the superb United States steamed up Southampton Water and berthed at the Ocean Ter- minal after taking the eastbound Blue Riband on her Maiden Voyage – she completed the double when she It is noteworthy that Red Funnel were by now operat- broke the westbound record on the return crossing. ing a mixed bag of vessels to the Isle of Wight (pad- dlers, conventional ferries and an ex-LCT), for short cruises and some tendering work. More importantly for Southampton, this was the year Towage was undertaken at this time by pre-war ves- when the Esso Oil Terminal opened at Fawley. It was sels, but these were soon supplemented by new build- not unusual to see many of the famous T2 tankers ings through the decade. Alexandra Towing was the alongside there, such as Esso Manchester, below. other company in the port employed on towing ser- vices. Nineteen fifty-five saw the revolutionary engines aft liner Southern Cross enter service for Shaw, Savill on Between the 4th and 14 May, 1951, the Festival of a round the world service. The following year saw a Britain came to Southampton in the form of the travel- record number of passengers handled in the port, ling exhibition on the ex-escort carrier Campania. 626,856. Black Jack - 5 In February 1957, the Holland America Line placed their new Statendam into service as a prelude to their magnificent Rotterdam, the largest liner ever built in Holland, which first came to the port in September 1959. It was a great act of faith as the competition from the air was already being keenly felt, although at that time the shipping lines did not yet see it as a big threat! The new terminal at 102 berth for Union Castle (re- placing the war-damaged transit shed) was opened in January 1956 and Edinburgh Castle was the first to use it. However, aircraft did not have any further future in the port itself as in 1958 the last flying boats ceased operations – Aquila Airways, with services to Madeira, had carried the mantle for a number of years after BOAC had forsaken Southampton in 1950 for land- based aircraft.

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