RAF BOATS IN THE 60'S/70'S
Possibly the last two boats stationed here?
By Andy Gilbert
Following on from my comments on another page, I had a look through the archives at the Museum, where there are a couple of books dedicated to the RAF station and the 'crash boats', as they were so often called.
Their history is already covered, but here are a few photos of what I think may have been the last craft to be stationed here.
5012 was a former Royal Navy Ham class minesweeper. I've heard her described as HMS Watchful but can find no record of her under that name. According to the museum files, she was loaned to the RAF as a floating 'testbed' for their boffins to use. It doesn't say what the boffins were up to and I guess we'll never know (a bit like the Army's Colonel Templer moored on the opposite side of the river). The two photos here show her before and after a major refit to her accomodation and bridge.
There were many of the 63' pinnaces stationed here over the years. I can remember 1380, 1390 and 1392 and, as the photos show, 1389 may well have been the last. Newhaven Museum also has photos of a pinnace and lifeboat holding a joint Remembrance Sunday service in Seaford bay.
The final picture of 5012 was taken by Ron Herriott one chilly April evening in 1971
5012 before..
Kind permission of Newhaven Museum
...and after.
Kind permission of Newhaven Museum
1380, one of the 63' pinnaces
Kind permission of Newhaven Museum
5012 and 1389 - the final pairing?
Kind permission of Newhaven Museum