Registration number 523
Status New Registration
a12admin
Vincent - starboard bow
Vincent - port bow
Vincent - starboard side
Vincent - engine room
Vincent - interior
Vincent's stern view, taken prior to her delivery to Cardiff in 1967.
Vincent - starboard side. Her first movement to a new berth within Cardiff docks following her conversion and prior to her sea trials in 1969.

Previous names

  • FBC64
  • 1943 ML1300

Details

Function Fighting Vessel
Subfunction Harbour Defence Launch
Location Carrickfergus
Archive reason More information required
Current use Private use
Available to hire No
Available for excursions No

Construction

Builder Blackmore, M W & Sons Ltd, Bideford
Built in 1942
Hull material Wood
Rig None
Number of decks 1
Propulsion Motor
Number of engines 1
Boiler type None
Boilermaker None

Dimensions

Breadth: Beam
16.00 feet (4.88m)
Depth
5.25 feet (1.60m)
Length: Overall
71.60 feet (21.84m)
Tonnage: Gross
46.00

History

VINCENT was built as ML 1300 by M. W. Blackmore & Sons Ltd, Bideford, and completed on 20 January 1943. Her war service included protection of the Weymouth anchorage during the build up to the Normandy invasion. After the war, she continued in service as the fast despatch boat FDB 64. In June 1948, she was transferred to HM Customs & Excise and renamed VINCENT. In 1969, she was sold to John Hudson of Cardiff and had a new aluminium deckhouse added. She was refitted and operated out of Cardiff and Brixham, before being sold to the Lomer Seamanship & Navigation Centre in 1976 for use as their training flagship in the Solent area.

Source: Paul Brown, Historic Ships The Survivors (Amberley, 2010), updated Mar 2011.

Key dates

  • 1942

    Built as ML 1300 by M.W. Blackmore & Sons Ltd, Bideford
  • 1945

     After the war she continued in service as fast despatch boat FDB 64
  • 1948

    Transferred to HM Customs & Excise and renamed VINCENT
  • 1967

    Sold to John Hudson of Cardiff and new aluminium deckhouse added
  • 1969

    Sea trials carried out following conversion 
  • 1976

    Sold to Lomer Seamanship & Navigation Centre for use as training flagship in Solent 
  • 1990

    Bought by Justin Palmer from yard in Itchen River at Southampton
  • 1996

    Sold to new owner
  • 2003

    Transferred to Carrickfergus near Belfast
  • 2015

    Found as wreck on beach in Dumdrum inner bay, Northern Ireland

Sources

World Ship Society British Armed Forces Small Craft Historical Society, Survivors Register, 1998
Warship World: MEDUSA - the last HDML, pp22-23, Spring 1986   

Own this vessel?

If you are the owner of this vessel and would like to provide more details or updated information, please contact info@nationalhistoricships.org.uk