Seaplane accident near Valley, 1932 [Archive]

Genghis the Engineer

30th Nov 2015, 14:23

I snapped this off a pub wall a few months ago - unfortunately it was lunchtime and the staff were far too busy to ask.

https://scontent.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-xfl1/v/t1.0-9/12294677_1060043740681329_7892900418938585649_n.jpg?oh=5d665 6219f88fb0425c4c3a9ff7ba068&oe=56ED26AF

The building on the left looked like it was probably a few houses down from the pub in question, whose website is here...

Ty Coch Inn, Porthdinllaen (http://www.tycoch.co.uk/)

Does anybody know anything of the story?

I have no high or academic reason for asking - I'm just curious.

G

Fournierf5

5th Dec 2015, 15:41

The very same picture appears on a Flight International 'Rogercard No1', captioned thus: Supermarine Southampton after a storm, Porthdinllaen, early Thirties. The pub photo itself has 25 Feb, 1932 (or 33), scrawled at the bottom right corner.

http://i1095.photobucket.com/albums/i473/fournierrf5/RogerCard%201%20SS.jpg

...1933 is the correct year . . . and I've now found further detail regarding this 'Welsh Coast Thrill'! Still can't locate picture as originally published and rather than being 'beached', this one has clearly sunk but no reference yet found to that!!

http://i1095.photobucket.com/albums/i473/fournierrf5/1933Storm22.jpg (http://s1095.photobucket.com/user/fournierrf5/media/1933Storm22.jpg.html)

http://i1095.photobucket.com/albums/i473/fournierrf5/1933Storm.jpg (http://s1095.photobucket.com/user/fournierrf5/media/1933Storm.jpg.html)

and these few lines below are from the Western Morning Press of 27 Feb, 1933
Leading Aircraftman Joll, son of Mr and Mrs W. Joll of Downgate, Stoke Climsland [Cornwall] was the engineer in one of the Royal Air Force flying boats which made a forced landing at Porthdinnleyn, Caernarvon Bay, during the storm on Friday [24 Feb 1933]. The craft were damaged, and it was found necessary to beach them to prevent the craft being swept out to sea. Leading Aircraftman Joll and the other members of the crew escaped injury.

Flight magazine's (15 March, 1980) Roger Bacon column uses the same pic - with 'Mr Curtis' drawn on under the word 'Sorree' - to mollify a correspondent who objected, thus:

Rogercards: graffiti or wit?
. . . I see that my simple request to
end the scribbling of captions on
photographs on the Straight and Level
page has been ignored.
It is difficult to believe, but I suppose
some tiny minds find that the
scrawling of graffiti on historic pictures
is hilariously funny. I do not.
The photograph of A. V. Roe's triplane
crash (Straight and Level,
December 8, page 1957) was ruined
and, since I went up in Hanno
(Straight and Level, December 15,
page 2017), I am not amused by the
footling caption "We're going to miss
you around here, Captain" that defaces
it; I should never buy a so-called
"Rogercard."
19 Manor Road A. H. CURTIS
Potters Bar
Herts

I expect the Portdinllaen Lifeboat archive could tell us more . . . was it from 201 RAF Squadron or was the 'training squadron' a separate entity? . . .
There is also a Photographic Ref No mentioned on the National Archives website for those who can investigate further. Presumably the squadron operational records may be there as well!! Anyone able to have a look?

-242* X/CHS.1279/11/33 Wrecked seaplane at Porthdinllaen.