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The first Halcyon
The first Halcyon sailing in 1930, the second in 1912 and in around 1930-35
The first and second Halcyons in Roving Commissions’ workshop
John Owles of Roving Commissions at Southdown in Cornwall has been in touch to tell us something of what he’s been up to.
He’s currently working on two half-decked gaff cutters built by Paynters’ at St Ives, of carvel construction with pine on steamed oak timers, and both originally carrying the name of Halcyon:
- a 28-footer built in 1904 with plumb stem and square counter, very much along working boat lines. The asbestos tycoon, Sir Samuel Turner, learnt to sail in when he was a youngster
- a 30-footer from around 1910-12, which was commissioned by Sir Samuel, which is more yachty with a spoon bow and finer counter
Sir Samuel later had the 90ft Halcyon built that is currently owned by Andrew Armour and featured in the July 2007 issue of Classic Boat.
The older boat had moved to the Isles of Scilly and had her name changed by the time the 30-foot Halcyon was built. Then, in the 1920s, Sir Samuel had the 90-foot yacht built and, in order to retain the name, gave the younger Halcyon to Dan Paynter as a wedding gift, renaming her Mamie, after Dan’s bride. This also meant Sir Samuel was able to keep the name Halcyon for the new yacht, commemorating the original St Ives fishing boat of that name in which he was taught to sail.
I’ll let John tell the rest of the story:
‘All three boats have now been returned to their original names – which can be somewhat confusing, especially when two of them are being worked in the same yard at the same time for different owners.
‘We are also working on a 30 foot carvel fishing boat, currently going by the name of Kingfisher, which used to be the Bush Radios company angling boat.
‘On the larger side, we are restoring S130, the last surviving WW2 German schnellboot or E boat, to his (German boats are male) 1943 launch specification inside and out. At 115ft it is still, for the most part, traditional timber boat building, being double-skinned carvel construction on steamed oak timbers. (Click here for a post on this project.)
‘At the smaller end of things we are about to restoring a 14ft mahogany clinker motor boat built at Dartmouth in the early 1950s, and still with her original Stuart Turner engine.
‘Alongside all this I am also working on the design of a fast shoal draft motor boat, capable of 16 to 18 knots with a draft of 6 inches.’
“Dad I’ve found her!”
My Grandfather had charge of “Mamie” at one point. My father found a large framed photo in the loft of my Grandparent’s house in Truro.
In 1982 my Dad went on a mission to find out where she was. First he asked if the fishermen on Smeaton’s Pier recognised the picture. “My Lor’! That’s the Mamie!” was the reply, they didn’t know what had happened to the boat but one suggested that she had May have been moved up to Plymouth. We stopped off at Plymouth Harbour Masters to view the registration documents but there was no record.
The name change back to “Halcyon” may have masked it.
I’ve recently learnt that my Dad’s cousin Mary Paynter operated a boat named “Halcyon” and my Aunt had given Mary a wooden plaque with Halcyon on it. Coincidentally my Aunt’s house was named Halcyon and the plaque was no longer required as the name had been incorporated into the iron gates on the driveway.
I don’t think that Mary’s “Halcyon” was once “Maime”. I’ll ask my 3rd cousins.
It’s a shame that I’ve only now discovered this information as my father passed 5 years ago.