The Medway 1938. BFI Film .

[oldgit]

Found by Chris Murr.
Source to Sea.
Actually the trip appears to have been down in reverse order to narrative.
https://player.bfi.org.uk/free/film/watch-watery-trail-river-medway-1938-online
Battleships and Sunderlands its all there.

Instead of going to Bluewater or Lakeside why not suggest to your dear wife that she finds her galoshes and discovers the source of the Medway, mid winter appears to be best.

 

[Nauti Fox]

Thanks Fred, enjoyed that.

 

[Poignard]

Well done OldGit. I shall enjoy watching that later. Many thanks.

 

[No Regrets]

Fred was in it

 

[oldgit]

Fred was in it

OK,it was me drifting past with the broken outdrive halfway through the film

 

[Kukri]

Thanks. My inner nerd spotted the Transatlantic mail plane "Mercury" at 20.06

 

[oldgit]

Suspect a fairly well off couple ? ..especially with that car.Interesting to watch filling up with fuel and the heavenly absence of "other" motorists on rural roads.
......and difficult to age that couple seem 25-30 going on 50 ?
Everybody appears so old

 

[oldgit]

Thanks. My inner nerd spotted the Transatlantic mail plane "Mercury" at 20.06

Maia...?

 

[Kukri]

I wondered if the flying boat seen afloat (odd - portholes for passengers and a tarpaulin over what might be a forward turret under construction?) might be “Maia”? - but she is not.



https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Short_Mayo_Composite

 

[oldgit]

Went to Duxford over weekend with grandsprogs, a Sunderland in main hall.
Did not realise nuclear bombs were so small,visions of Fat Man etc.
Interesting about Broken Arrow.
Also confirmed missed absolutely nothing by never flying on Concorde,claustrophobic or what

 

[Poignard]

I wondered if the “C” class flying boat seen afloat (odd - portholes for passengers and a tarpaulin over what might be a forward turret under construction?) might be “Maia”? - but she is not.

Might it be covering up the hatch that these flying boats used to have in the bow from where a mooring could be picked up?

 

[Kukri]

I now think the flying boat seen afloat is an early Sunderland, perhaps a prototype. The bow was modified in trials to take a Frazer Nash turret which could slide back for mooring, and perhaps that is what is going on under the cover.

I have an American friend, Ian McColgin, who relates that his father, having commanded a bomber squadron in WW2, was happy to join Pan Am's Sky Gods, on demobilisation, as Sixth Officer (!) on flying boats; one of his tasks was indeed to open the nose hatch, take out the boathook, and either find the buoy and moor up or drop the anchor- on one occasion the Captain cut all engines short of the mooring and Sixth Officer McColgin executed a perfect dive from the bow platform and swam to the buoy with the painter. His mother having spent the war as a ferry pilot was graciously permitted to become a stewardess...

 

[Poignard]

I read somewhere that the very popular CQR anchor was designed by Professor Geoffrey Taylor for use by flying boats.

 

[sailorman]

I read somewhere that the very popular CQR anchor was designed by Professor Geoffrey Taylor for use by flying boats.

correct. My father worked on the Sunderland, possibly making the floats. I believe there were workshops in tunnels around the Rochester area

 

[Nauti Fox]

I lived in a house on the old Blaw Knox site which backed onto the tunnels, never went exploring but lots did.

 

[Kukri]

The Sunderlands were equipped with CQR anchors, with special Baby Blake WCs with aluminium castings in place of bronze, with Taylor’s paraffin stoves and with “Grabit” boathooks, but the CQR was actually developed by Professor Taylor for use on his own yacht. There’s his own account of his invention in the January 1938 “Yachting Monthly”. The anchor that was developed for seaplanes and later used for yachts was the Northill, which was invented by Northrop, as in Northrop Grumman.

Catalinas and Pan American Boeing flying boats had Northills, Imperial Airways “Empire” flying boats and Sunderlands had CQRs!

 

[tr7v8]

H65 the Naval ship seen in the last few minutes I have just found out was HMS Boadicea, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HMS_Boadicea_(H65) Interesting career.

 

[oldgit]

Those tunnels and those of Fort Clarence , immediately above, were the somewhat dangerous playgrounds of certain posters in early 1960s.
Remains of one wooden ramp and a concrete hard, now occupied buy Medway Rowing club,still remain along the Esplanade.
In the early 1960s some small derelict naval craft, poss corvettes and minesweepers were still moored just above what is now RCC.
Being the Medway Towns everything not bolted down on the boats had been "liberated" by the locals.

 

[Roger52]

Fasinating film, thanks for posting it. My uncle who was killed in December 1943 was in Coastal Command and flew in Sunderlands so to see them was particularly interesting.

 

[Dave_Seager]

I wondered if the flying boat seen afloat (odd - portholes for passengers and a tarpaulin over what might be a forward turret under construction?) might be “Maia”? - but she is not.



https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Short_Mayo_Composite

I think that is a Sunderland. The forward turret could be slid back into the fuselage to provide a forward cockpit (nautical) for mooring. It would be reasonable to rig a canvas cover over this to keep the rain out if moored for a while. The portholes are also right for a Sunderland, including the three under the wing where there was a hatch to allow the bomb racks to slide out.