S.S. LORD WARDEN
- 16 June 2014 17:26268155Johnny Hopkins worked on Normannia for quite some time so it could well have been this incident to which Vic is referring. There is no record of Lord Warden 'going down'?
- 16 June 2014 17:32268156That could be the case then my old grey matter is not what it was.
- 16 June 2014 17:50268158The mystery ship does indeed appear to be the Normannia, as Alain Hobbs has concluded. The article below on Dover Ferry Photos states that the engine room was flooded, seriously damaging the turbine machinery. It also includes a photograph of her high and dry at low tide at the shallow end of the Admiralty Pier where she had been moved in order to install a concrete box to render her watertight until permanent repairs could be effected. Derek Donnelly commented on the photo on Facebook as follows: "She is laying behind "A" shed where the Packet yard put a temporary concrete repair in the gash in her side. As Alain said she hit the submerged girder-work of the old paddle steamer berth at no 5 berth Ad pier where she was going to lay by for crew change. She moved ,with all pumps going, to here so she would sit on the bottom at low tide."
http://www.doverferryphotosforums.co.uk/ts-normannia-past-and-present/
There was certainly one ferry which sank in Dover in peacetime and that was the Belgian ferry Ville de Liege back in 1929. She grounded on the Mole Rocks, which are now buried beneath the Hoverport, and was holed and settled on the bottom. The Mole Rocks were the remains of the abortive attempt by Henry VIII to build a great mole out into the sea and presented a danger to shipping for centuries thereafter. The Ville de Liege was subsequently completely rebuilt into Belgium's first car ferry and renamed the London-Istanbul.
- 17 June 2014 06:06268182Thank you great photos sounds like I was wrong unlike me Ha
- 17 June 2014 09:20268190No Vic, it's a matter of time dulling memories!
My point however is that it's good to ascertain the facts so that history does not get distorted. - 17 June 2014 15:33268209Further posts on the Facebook group "Dover for Dovorians." Derek Donnelly was there and knows what he is talking about.
Derek Donnelly: She is laying behind "A" shed where the Packet yard put a temporary concrete repair in the gash in her side. As Alain said she hit the submerged girder-work of the old paddle steamer berth at no 5 berth Ad pier where she was going to lay by for crew change. She moved ,with all pumps going, to here so she would sit on the bottom at low tide.
Jan Higgins: Thanks again for the help I will pass the information on.
Andy Stevens: Our dad worked on both the Normannia and The Lord Warden and I never recall any mention of them sinking. Vic Matcham's imagination running wild again on the Loony Forum?
Derek Donnelly: She was in danger of sinking Andy Stevens as she was actually "leaning" against the Ad. pier ,she had a 10ft gash in the side, where she was flooding so fast. She had the tugs pumps as well and they moved her very quickly to the back of "A" shed so she could sit on the bottom. Its where the lifeboat berth is now. I was working that afternoon and we were all rushing around like B.A. flies getting sandbags on board.
Ed Connell: Yes indeed, Derek Donnelly. Alain's info and photo above are culled from Nigel Thornton's excellent article on Dover Ferry Photos without attribution and omits the words "with water pouring in and flooding her engine room, seriously damaging the turbine machinery." This means that the water was already well above the bottom plates and rising, and a flooded engine room means only one thing, the ship is going down. One of my old ships is at the bottom of the Atlantic thanks to the engine room flooding. Perhaps those of us on the Loony Forum are not as daft as Andy would like to think, incidentally the looneys he is probably referring to are long gone.
http://www.doverferryphotosforums.co.uk/ts-normannia.../
Ed Connell: This is the thread referred to on Dover Forum. Vic's only mistake, forty years after the event, was in thinking that the ship seriously damaged and settling to the bottom was the Lord Warden and not the Normannia.
https://www.dover.uk.com/.../dover-forum/ss-lord-warden...
Ed Connell: Incidentally, for a photographic record of everything that is going on in the port of today, and the wider Dover Strait, see the separate Sea News section on Dover Forum.
http://www.doverforum.com/sea-news/ - 18 June 2014 23:53268306The famous 4 'handsome' ferries were Lord Warden, Maid of Kent, Hollyhead Ferry 1 and of course Dover. The chances are at least one will once again grace Granville Dock. From what I have learned Lord Warden built in 1952 was the best loved of these vessels-however, looks like it's going to be 'Dover',very popular in her own right that flies the flag again for all of them.Never give up...
- 19 June 2014 11:14268333Missed one out the Maid of-------other name please yes I do know it in its day it held the blue flag for the crossing
- Jan Higgins
- Location: Dover
- Registered: 5 Jul 2010
- Posts: 13,904
19 June 2014 11:27268335Maid of Orleans was one of the few my husband did not serve on. .
http://www.doverferryphotosforums.co.uk/ts-maid-of-orleans-past-and-present/-----------------------------------------------------------------------
I try to be neutral and polite but it is hard and getting even more difficult at times.
------------------------------------------------------------------- - 19 June 2014 12:22268341That's the one Mrs Higgins great ship in its day I might know your husband I have worked on most of the ships and even crew member on some of them,still got my seamans book now.
- Ian Handley
- Location: Norfolk UK
- Registered: 30 Oct 2013
- Posts: 412
19 June 2014 13:39268347My Uncle - Fred Pilcher better known as "Bisto" worked for many years on The Lord Warden also the Invicta.Ian Handley
Former Operations Controller DHB Terminal Control (1978-1995)
Dover born (1946) & bred, Moved from area in 1999 - family still living in Dover
