History on Yacht Halcyon 1929 Wooden Ketch, Southampton

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robhickman

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Could anyone help with any stories or history they might know of Yacht Halcyon, a classic wooden ketch originally built for the industrialist Samuel Turner in 1929.

She was used by Southampton School Of Navigation for over 30 years out of Warsash as their sail training vessel training hundreds of merchant navy seamen. She has also taken part in a number of Tall Ships races.

If anyone knows of her or has any stories to tell I would love to hear them.

She is currently undergoing a massive refit at Tommi Nielsen's in Gloucester and should be ready for the beginning of August.

Many thanks in advance
 
I remember her well, infact I think I got the rig of my mirror dinghy tangled up with her more than once...she was at one time skippered by a chap called John Williams who was instructor at the College, he's still about the Hamble area, I saw him in Tesco a while back, he might know something about here, I think he does seom examining for thr rya so they might be able to get hold of him.
 
Excellent, just the sort of thing Im looking for. I'll contact the RYA and see if he could be contacted directly. Many thanks burgundyben
 
As a cadet at Warsash in 1960 I sailed in Halcyon. She was a replacement for the larger ketch Moyana, which sank in the Western approaches after winning the first Tall Ships race to Lisbon. The officers and cadet crew were safely rescued, with their trophy, by the cargo liner Clan Maclean.
During my time Halcyon was skippered by the fearsome Captain Stewart, Captain Superintendent of Warsash School of Navigation. He suffered from a stomach ulcer and lived on jars of Heinz Orange Rice for Older Babies. I remember Bosun Pitt-Pitts and the mechanic, "Fingers" Ferris. Characters all.
I recognised the boat in Milford Haven Marina when I was there in my boat during the year of the eclipse (August 1999?). She was undergoing a refit then and the owner invited me to look around. He was of the opinion that the skills employed by her builders would soon be difficult to match in any major refit.
Incidentally, the cutlery on board was engraved with the name "L'Alcyone" and I was under the impression that she was originally built for a French owner.
 
Some good stories indeed! If you dont mind I wouldn't mind contacting you in the future for some more yarns.

As far as the ships papers go, the first registered owner was Samuel Turner in 1929. However we have been told of a French connection in the for of Madame Renault (of Renault cars), could you confirm this?

Any other stories would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks again JayBee
 
Can't confirm the Madame Renault connection, but that would certainly explain a French version of the name.
As one of two senior leading cadets I was privileged to bunk in the lazarette, which was basically a stores space with no headroom, right aft near the mizzen. The rest of the cadet crew lived in the focsle, - pretty spartan, just pipe cots and a table for meals.
Every crew member was assigned a station for "on the wind" and "off the wind". During a gybe ("off the wind") my job was to change over the running backstays on their huge highfield levers. Coming up from the heads in a rush I once managed to let go the old weather backstay prematurely, a mistake that had contributed on an earlier occasion to a dismasting - not me on that occasion! I don't think these incidents improved Captain Stewart's stomach problems.
Halcyon carried two boats in conventional davits - a pulling/sailing boat to starboard and a small launch with a Stuart Turner petrol engine (1-2 hp) on the port side. Approaching our mooring on the Hamble my job was to get the launch over the side and run lines to the buoy. All great fun.
Apart from general seamanship, the main role for the ship was navigation training and this included sextant work and sight reduction using 5 figure logarithms and the Marc St Hilaire method, which was standard in the MN of that time.
It's great to know that Halcyon is living on, in a world that would be unrecognisable to those who built and first sailed in her.
Good luck with your research!
 
Some fantastic stories, I cant thank you all enough.

She still has the davits, and the two wooden boats. We were thinking of restoring the old sailing dinghy and replacing the launch with a modern RIB (sorry!).

Hopefully she will be sailing these waters again around August and stir a few memories.
 
Hello,
I too was a cadet at the School of Nav in 1959/60 and sailed in Halcyon. All the points made by JayBee coincide with my recollections.
I am a writer now and once wrote a short story called 'The most miserable day of my life' which recounted a voyage from the Hamble to Weymouth under Captain Stewart. His deputy aboard was Cdr. McKillop, also known as Crapbricks due his tenedency to panic.
Enough for now but more if you want it.
 
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