EPW062738 ENGLAND (1939). The Southend Pier Pavilion, Marine Gardens and the Boating Pool, Southend-on-Sea, 1939

TSMV Britannia, owned by the Myall Familly, - two false funnels, twin Thorneycroft engines, unusual curved transom, allowed to carry 400 passengers [I think] on a "Board of Trade Steam 6 Certificate"; around 137grt, 107ft l.o.a., service speed around 9 knots, and "handled like a Port of London dumb lighter" according to Skipper Albert Brand of the rival SMNCo. Safely voyaged to Dunkirk and back, because she had her own regular crew to take her there, because unlike the SMNCo Owners, the Myall's didn't offer their vessels for the Dynamo operation until May 27th, the day when the Adm. Regulation prohibiting civilian crews had been "rescinded during the Emergency". Saved many more from the beaches than are credited to her - because she several times off-loaded a number of survivors to larger ships "anchored-off"in deeper water, before loading a final time and returning to Ramsgate. Totals of men saved were only done by headcounts of soldiers disembarking at Ramsgate. returned to civilian passenger service on the Foreshore for the 1946 Season. Was last seen semi-derelict in the London Docklands during the late 1980's. More pics can be found at < www.simplonpc.co.uk >

TSMV New Prince Of Wales of the Southend Motor Navigation Co. Ltd, [business rivals to the Myall family]. 105ft l.o.a.; 3ft draught loaded; 135grTons; 11.5 knots Service Speed when loaded; 400 passenger certification from the Board Of Trade, first [and only] Radio Room aboard a Southend Excursion vessel. Commandeered from her ex-RN volunteer crew [who wanted to take their ship to Dunkirk] at gunpoint in Sheerness Dockyard on May 25th,1940, [because on that date Admiralty Regulations still stated that "no civilians are to be allowed into combat zones"; - the Regulation was rescinded out of sheer desperation two days later when more "little ships" were needed and the Adm. was 'scraping the bottom of the barrel' for personnel with small craft experience; - but that was too late to save the seven commandeered SMNCo vessels] - and the NPoW was lost at Dunkirk off the La Panne beaches due to the incompetence of her totally-untrained RN crew, who didn't even realize she was fitted with petrol/paraffin engines, and had allowed her fuel tanks to be topped-off in Ramsgate Harbour with diesel fuel! [Ref: Wilson Family SMNCO. Archives including Adm. papers from the "Court of Enquiry into a War Loss", leading to a "War Loss Replacement Authorization Award"]. More pictures can be seen at the < www.simplonpc.co.uk > website.