Flying Boats on the Thames
The image I linked to of the Sandringham at Tower Bridge dates it to April rather than my referenced date of August '82 - that fits in rather better with my memory which is of going up there during the Easter holidays shortly before going back to school for my final term...
Gnome de PPRuNe
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Weird. Wish I still had all my logs... Mind you, I did see the other Sandringham at Calshot which I think was around Easter '81 - brother lived at Bursledon and took me to see it during a visit - before it moved to Solent Sky. Both were there for a while. I think I may have seen one or other during an earlier visit as I recall a very distant view of large flying object with a red fin over the Solent, probably summer '77 or '78.
Ken Emmott (ex-BOAC and BA) flew it out to the USA with Kermit Weeks.
Here is Ken Emmott:-
https://www.gettyimages.fr/detail/vi...3%A9/804570410
And here is Kermit Weeks:-
Here is Ken Emmott:-
https://www.gettyimages.fr/detail/vi...3%A9/804570410
And here is Kermit Weeks:-
Just to round it off,all `my` photos are dated 6 Aug 1982,and logged in my logbook too......
Thks for the info re ANZ/"TE". I'm obviously well out of date (NO surprises there)!
While I realise that my OP was off topic (nothing to do with the R. Thames) doesn't anyone else remember seeing flying boats on the R. Medway at Rochester in the late 1940s/early 1950s? For some reason "that" picture is clearly stuck in my mind.
While I realise that my OP was off topic (nothing to do with the R. Thames) doesn't anyone else remember seeing flying boats on the R. Medway at Rochester in the late 1940s/early 1950s? For some reason "that" picture is clearly stuck in my mind.
Yes AES, we too always looked out for the Shorts flying boats on the Medway as we passed on the train from Victoria to Gillingham when visiting relatives in the 50's. I think I was only lucky to see them on a couple of occasions though
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I know it's the Swale, rather than the Medway, but don't forget the ill-fated 'Golden Hind' (G-AFCI), the last of the pre-war G-class flying boats, that lingered on at Harty Ferry until 1954 when a gale drove her onto a concrete causeway, ripping out her bottom and causing her to sink, after which the scrapman's torch sealed her fate. However prior to that she had spent more than five years, between 1947 and 1953, at anchor on the Medway at Rochester awaiting a saviour. Had she survived ..... but this is such stuff as dreams are made on!
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Keeping the nostalgia going - having crossed the Thames from Essex into Kent via the Tilbury Ferry, I clearly remember seeing flying boats moored on the Medway as we crossed the girder bridge in Rochester while en-route to relatives in Canterbury during the 1950's.
By the way - doesn't one pass Rochester Castle AFTER crossing the bridge ?
Keep safe
Goldilocks
By the way - doesn't one pass Rochester Castle AFTER crossing the bridge ?
Keep safe
Goldilocks
Thanks for the inputs folks. So I'm not just dreaming in my old age then thank you - although now you come to mention it Goldilocksk it certainly IS possible that one comes to the Castle AFTER the old bridge - I'm not really sure any more (perhaps it's the Cathedral you see just before the bridge??). Anyway it's "megayonks" since I've been around that part of the world, apart from on the M2 on the way to Dover, (and as per my OP, that doesn't count) ;-)
