Why is Sheriden Marine called Sheriden Marine?

Alpha22

Alpha22

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Does anyone know why Sheriden Marine is called Sheriden Marine???? Who is or was Sheriden???
Inquisitive minds need to know.

I'm doing some research and the name Eric Sheriden Corless came up in relation to a particular Freeman cruiser in 1970.

Now, Andrew Corless currently runs Sheriden Marine......???????? Any connection?????
 
Previously before Andrew Corless owned Sheridan Marine it was owner by Hobbs. I would suggest to you that Andrew named it after a relative.
 
Iv'e done some digging and it's time to come clean......

This is a bizarre story that spans 4 decades. Let's start at the end and work backwards.

April 2013.
Early Saturday morning and my wife digs me out of bed early with the promise of visiting Jones' boatyard in St Ives to 'just have a look' at the Freeman 32 that had just come on the market. We had a long look, and whilst perusing the paperwork discovered that the boat we were looking at was previously owned by a chap called Tim Atkinson. Although carrying the name Infinity, she was actually Liberty of London. The very boat Tim purchased with the proceeds of the sale of his Freeman 22, Alpha that we bought from him some 6 years previously!! Strange quirk of fate??
We purchased Liberty there and then.
I have since caught up with Tim and had a laugh about me buying all his previous boats!!!!

January 2014.
In an idle moment in the dark months, I did some research to try to find if there was any surviving paper records relating to the "Official Number", carved on the wooden plaque onboard Liberty. I ended up at the website of 'The National Archives' in Kew. A careful web search of the ON found a record in the library.
"Description:Ship Jenvin, official number: 341064. When built: 1970. Registry closed: 1989."
Click to expand...
Listed in the Registry of Shipping and Seamen.
1970 would be the right date... could it be??? JENVIN... Jennifer and Vincent??? Joint owners???
I put in a request for a copy, but sadly it was turned down as not practical. I could go to Kew and look at the record and make my own copy, but no postal service. Ho hum... maybe one day.

September 2014.
Just for pure devilment, I sent in another request for a copy of the records and was stunned to receive a reply that they would do it!! Some money changed hands and a few weeks later a very large brown envelope arrived at my house. In it was 30 pages of A3 photocopies. All the paperwork relating to the owners of my boat from the first owner through to 1989. There is lots of fascinating information on the different owners, all the dates of transfer and mortgage company details addresses and such. It turns out that it wasn't Jennifer and Vincent after all, but actually JENnifer and GaVIN. Tacky!!!
I read through all the way back to 1970 and her first owner.
It didn't strike me the first time I read it, but the middle name of the first owner was Sheriden. The second time I read it two days later it clicked!!! Sheriden..... as in Sheriden Marine??? Could there be a link, or just pure coincidence?
I then looked closer and the the full name of the first owner was Eric Sheriden Corless. To see the names Sheriden, Freeman and Corless on the same piece of paper, dated October 1970, had to be too much of a coincidence. Andrew Corless is of course the main man at Sheriden Marine.

I Googled Eric Sheriden Corless and could not believe my eyes.
SHERIDAN ASSOCIATES LIMITED (active)
Eric Sheridan Corless was employed as Director at SHERIDAN ASSOCIATES LIMITED from 09 October 1991 to 25 January 1997
resigned
Company address: SHERIDAN ASSOCIATES LIMITED
THE BOAT HOUSE, MOULSFORD, OXON, OX10 9HU
Company documents: 60 - buy documents
SHERIDAN MARINE (2000) LIMITED (dissolved)
10 July 2000 - 30 March 2010
Eric Sheridan Corless was employed as Director at SHERIDAN MARINE (2000) LIMITED from 15 July 2000 to 16 November 2009
resigned
Company address: SHERIDAN MARINE (2000) LIMITED
42 SANDY LODGE WAY, NORTHWOOD, MIDDLESEX, HA6 2AS
Click to expand...

October 1970
Eric Sheriden Corless buys a Freeman 32 and names it White Cavalier.
GOLD!!!!! It is one and the same. Eric was born in 1920 and Andrew 1951. It has to be Andrew's fathers boat. Eric would have been 50 years old and Andrew 21 at the time.
Also totally amazing is that the company address of Sheriden Marine (2000) is exactly the same as on the 1970 Certificate of British Registry. Eric has lived in the same house all these years.

Things to ponder.......
Was White Cavalier part of the "Thames Explorer Boats" hire fleet?? I don't think so, I believe they were all 22's. She is still in exceptional condition today, I can't imagine she would be that well preserved if she had been a hire boat.
Did Andrew ever holiday on her??? I would imagine so.
Who buys a boat in October????
Did Eric know John Freeman??? Would he have known the Weekes' family?? The Weekes' knew John Freeman very well and were very well respected Thames boaters. They also owned Ivory Gem/Silver Gem(same boat), the Freeman 30 I sold to purchase White Cavalier/Liberty. Did Ivory Gem/Silver Gem ever cruise with White Cavalier/Liberty?????
 
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John Weeks is still alive and kicking living in Henley and still owns Ivory Gem although it is for sale. He sort of acquired her through his marriage to Margaret Free who's husband Roger Free had the boat built in 1972. I have the dinghy in my barn built at the same time for the boat show.
 
Thanks to Alpha22 for sharing this story. I knew a boating couple, Henry & Louis Meyer (now deceased, but used to cruise a lot in their boat Profogus), and their son Graham, who knew John Freeman, and commissioned a twin engined Mk1 22 in the early 60's, which they used to trail to the South of France and back. As Byron has mentioned John Weeks, I did see him in Henley some years ago but didn't say hello as boating people often don't recognise one another out of the boating environment, but back in the early 90's we were going down to the Kingston RNLI Rally on Straight Across and were in Bell weir, I was using the heads and I could hear my wife talking to somebody. When we got going my wife said the owner of Ivory Gem had related some stories about my grandfather - who had bought SA in 1956 - and in the next locks and at the Rally I talked to John, who told me lots of details like his father & my grandfather joined the Navy together in 1919, my grandfather owned the first light Austin van in Southall reg no. ......... (he lots of precise details) then sold to his father, and loads of other things which I had to write down in a notebook. I believe Margaret was from the family who owned the chemists opposite my granfather's cycle shop, and we had met her on Ivory Gem back in the early 70's.

I talked to the user of ivory Gem a couple of years ago at Shiplake lock, I think they were son/son in law or at least related to John & Margaret?
 
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