Previous names
- 1926 - 1950 Silver Queen
- 1950 - 2011 Fermain V
Details
Construction
Dimensions
History
SILVER QUEEN, now re-named FERMAIN V, was built by Horn Bros in Southampton in 1926 as a harbour launch. With a 2ft draught she was never designed to cross the channel, yet in 1940, she was towed across to Dunkirk because she was ideal for ferrying soldiers from La Panne beach to the larger destroyers and transports which brought them back to England. Boats of her kind were considered expendable once their task had been fulfilled and no-one expected her to come back unscathed. In fact, she was reported to have sunk, but was later refloated. She then found her way, via Sheerness where she was owned briefly by a Commander Carter, to Guernsey in the Channel Islands. This may have been when she was re-equipped with a Ford 6 cylinder diesel, as she almost certainly had a petrol engine during the Second World War. Her next owner was C B Ferguson and when he died, her left her to his son Percy. He operated her on a daily run, carrying 65 passsengers, on a ferry service which had been started in 1928 between St Peter Port and Fermain Bay. This is a favourite holiday beach, difficult to get at by any other means. Her 2ft draught, which was her so benefical at Dunkirk, again made her ideal for this ferry service.
Sources
Chilton, Brian and Taylor, Keith, Boat Services to the smaller channel islands
Brann, Christian, The Little Ships of Dunkirk: 1940-1990, Collectors Books Ltd, 1989
Hamer, Geoffrey, Trip Out 1995/6 - A Guide to the Passenger Boat Services of the British Isles, G P Hamer, 1995
Classic Boat: The Little Ships Prepare to Revisit Dunkirk, May 2015
Classic Boat: St George's Crossing, August 2000
de S Winser, John, BEF ships
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