Builders: Alec Fowler Ltd Bosham 1923
Propulsion type: Twin screw motor vessel
Owners: Southend Motor Navigation Co Ltd
Service dates: 1923 - 1939
Tonnage: Gross 137
Comments:
This little wooden hulled vessel was 104 ft long and was powered by two petrol/paraffin engines supplied by John I Thorneycroft & Co. She had a very shallow draught and this allowed her to take on passengers from beach-side jetties and from the pier at Southend. Whilst not looking very large, she was 137 grt and was the first pleasure vessel of more than 100 tons to be powered by internal combustion engines. She had a good sized saloon, around which ran a narrow alleyway and she was popular for short afternoon estuary cruises.
TSMV New Prince of Wales belonged to the company owned by W.H.Wilson, and his partner Albert Brand. In her first season on the Southend Foreshore, she was the only passenger vessel along the whole 7 miles of Southend seafront from Shoeburyness to Leigh-on-Sea to be granted a Board Of Trade "Steam 6" Certificate which allowed for cross-channel cruising. She was also the first Southend-registered passenger vessel to be fitted with a Radio Room, and the first to be fitted with a P.A. System. She was the first also to have a saloon below-decks and provide on-board catering. Her maximum speed on trials was 15.5 knots light, and her economical cruising speed was 13.5 knots when loaded. She drew only 36" of water when loaded, and Mr Wilson specified that she should have her screws in tunnels underneath the slipper stern. Mr Wilson, a qualified Marine Engineer, designed her engine-room layout in conjunction with Thorneycrofts, and her shaft layout and screws in conjunction with Bruntons. She was also fitted with twin rudders plus a bow rudder, to facilitate easy manoeuvering when coming back to the company's No 2 Jetty or in to the King George V extension of Southend Pier to land or to embark passengers.
HMS TSMVPrince Of Wales was lost at Dunkirk due to the sheer lack of experience of her small naval crew, under the command of a raw Naval officer who did not realise that the Prince's engines were fuelled by petrol/paraffin. As a result, the fuel tanks were topped-off with diesel fuel which caused a number of engine stoppages en-route to La Panne. Off La Panne, her engines stopped again, and she drifted inshore with the tide to be shelled and sunk in shallow water by a German artillery battery engaged in a duel with a French Destroyer. All her crew were rescued, but the SMNCo lost it's Fleet Flagship. The SMNCO also lost the following other members of it's small fleet - the single-screw open launches "King George V", "San Toy I" and "San Toy II", and the TSMV "Princess Maud". The Southend watermen had offered their boats, their only means of livelihood, and representing a lifetime's Capital Investment - on the promise that they themselves would be able to crew their own vessels (which in the event was not allowed) and that the Admiralty - or rather the National Government through the Admiralty- would entirely pay for, or directly fund the replacement of any vessels lost to enemy action.
After the War was over, the first option is just what the Treasury did, although at 1939 book-valued rates. No account was taken of the effects of inflation due to the war. The TSMV New Prince of Wales had cost the Company £11,000 to build through but in 1946, Messrs Thorneycroft's quoted the company £110,000 to build a replacement. The company's owners did not have the money to fight the Admiralty and the Treasury and settled, in the end, for the Admiralty "fair and reasonable offer" - not even enough money to replace the "King George V".
The above picture postcard is displayed by kind permission of Julian Wilson, W H Wilson's son, who now owns the copyright.The picture was commissioned from a local photographer and was sold aboard in the saloon by the Purser (Julian's mum) and her staff . The Southend Motor Navigation Co closed only in the 1970's after declining numbers of day-trippers and holidaymakers to Southend on Sea ceased to make continued sailings viable.
I am extremely grateful to Julian Wilson for supplying the above narrative and for allowing me to reproduce it and the picture here. The narrative is in Memoriam for W.H. 'Bill' Wilson, Commodore Engineer & part owner of the S.M.N.Co.Ltd, exCPO [MEM], HMShips Coventry & Curacao, 2nd Light Cruiser Squadron, 1918-1923