Passenger steamers and dockside stories
THE Curtain Falls could well be the title of today's first picture, how well I remember shooting up to the Fort entrance approaches to capture this scene, the death throes of the Newhaven-Deippe passenger service 7.30pm Friday 25 September 1964.
At the East Quay, left to right - the Falaise our first car ferry, a conversion of one of the Southampton passenger steamers, she entered service here in this new role on 1 June 1964, the next vessel is the Lisieux of 2,946 tonnes, a very fast craft of the latest design as in 1952 and very much the flag ship of the French operators, she departed in 1965.
The next and nearest is the double-parked Arromanches, again French, she was launched in 1946 creating great hopes for the future, the war had not long finished and such service as there was, featured our Worthing of 1928 (her two running partners had been lost in war service) and the French Londres, the building of which was completed under German supervision and she bore the names of Vichy and Lothringen until the end of hostilities when she was returned to her rightful owners and after much overhaul entered the service as the Londres.
With the sale of the (old) Worthing, Newhaven had no ferry. The arrival of the new Lisieux made it possible for the Londres to be switched to English crewing, which conformed with the original quota 1/3 English to 2/3 French - this reckoning is said to originate from the relative distances from Port to Capital.
So returning to the photo, the nearest vessel is the Arromanches, named after the famous D-Day beach landing of the last war. All of the passenger boats were fast vessels, for they had a much longer crossing to make, as compared to Dover for example, so a compromise had to be made to use the speed advantage within the restrictions of cost.
Two happenings with this vessel, she brought the French President from Calais to Dover and return for his State Visit and then on 8 July 1964 in a considerable gale and loaded with school children, she failed to make entrance and finished up at anchor off Tidemills where she rode out the storm until day-break, when she up-anchored and charged out to sea, turned and made harbour un-aided, cannot say safely, for not surprisingly the junior cargo was anxious to get ashore at the quay and crowded that side of the vessel, causing her to list and several glass windows were broken by some of the taller piles at the quayside.
I had been able to take some photos from the cliff top and have seen no others. Made me late for work and took a lot of sweet talk to wriggle out of that one.
So now for the last of the three passenger steamers in the photo, this is Brighton No 6 of 1950, a really fine looking craft, despite her good looks, she could roll, I've heard it said, there was one set of stabilisers, the Brighton didn't get them but the Royal Yacht did.
Good dockside story, could be fiction. The story will end with the departure of the three passenger steamers, to be replaced by the French car ferries, Villandry and Valencay.
Oh happy days, shopping was so different, even much of the greengrocers is out on the footpath, where better to view it? Parsons, the shop on the bend of Meeching Road (north) leading into upper High Street, now a taxi booking office. Smiling faces and tempting goods, take a chance about the rain.
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Weather for Lewes
Thursday 09 February 2012
Today
Cloudy
Temperature: 0 C to 2 C
Wind Speed: 8 mph
Wind direction: North east
Tomorrow
Sunny spells
Temperature: -5 C to 2 C
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