Name ST 1502

ST 1502 was built in Hythe by the British Power Boat Co Ltd in 1942. She saw wartime service in various part of the UK and was armed and fitted out for Air Sea Rescue duties. She came out of RAF service in the mid 1950s and went into private hands to be converted to a pleasure craft. ST 1502 continued to give fine service in this capacity but eventually fell into disrepair and was taken on by the British Military Powerboat Trust in the late 1990s to be restored to her former glory. This task was given to a party of ex-RAF sailors from the Air Sea Rescue & Marine Craft Sections Club, (Hants & Dorset Branch). The project began with the complete strip down of ST 1502 to bare bones. From there, the vessel was rebuilt. ST 1502 was originally built of wood, designed on the hard chine principle with single diagonal mahogany side planking and double diagonal bottom planking, also of mahogany, on frames. The superstructure was fabricated from wood and extended aft from the wheelhouse to the cockpit. The superstructure roof was of Flexopy, covered with canvas and supported by mahogany beams. She was powered by twin Perkins S6M diesels, Meadows gearboxes and direct drive to Nickel Aluminium propellers. Later craft of this kind had a fuel capacity of 130 gallons, a range of 150 miles and could attain a maximum speed of 23 knots, with a continuous cruising speed of 20 knots. By November 2008, ST 1502 had been waterborne for three years and was operational in the Southampton area. In 2009, she was transferred to the Portsmouth Historic Dockyard open to view by the public.