AUTOCARRIER

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aukepalmhof
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Joined: Thu Apr 02, 2009 1:28 am

AUTOCARRIER

Post by aukepalmhof » Fri Aug 20, 2010 9:41 pm

In the margin of this m.s. you can find the AUTOCARRIER a ferry with the first batch of Alderney islanders returning to there island after the war.

Built under yard No. 912 on the yard of D & W Henderson Co.Ltd. at Glasgow for the Southern Railway Company.
05 February 1931 launched under the name AUTOCARRIER.
Tonnage 822 gross, 329 net, dim. 220.3 x 35.6 x 14.1ft.
Powered by two 4 cyl. triple expansion steam engines manufactured by builder, 154 nhp. Twin screws.
Registered at London, callsign GMFV.
26 March 1931 completed.

Special built for the transportation of privately owned motorcars between Dover and Calais.
She had special loading cranes to load and discharge the cars, of which she could load about 35, and limited accommodation for the drivers and passengers of the cars.
When war broke out she was the only British passenger-carrying vessel crossing the Strait of Dover, the British Government for war duties requisitioned all the other ferries in Sept. 1939.
She was mostly during that time used for transporting cargo.

She was taken on military service on 19 May 1940, and between 20 May and 23 she was at Calais three times.
Sailed again on 2 June at 18.38 hours from Dover and arrived Dunkirk, she berthed but there were not any troops seen, so she returned to Dover without any troops. Sailed again on 3 June at 18.15 and arrived at Dunkirk the same day at 22.36.
Embarked 715 French troops within two hours, and safely landed them the next day at 10.37 at Dover.
She was then released from military service and resumed commercial service between Southampton and the Channel Islands. Arrived for the first time in Southampton on 6 June.
She made one return crossing on 14 June from Jersey to St Malo, her return voyage was the last British connection with that port for 5½ year.
Sailed from Jersey on 20 June and arrived at Southampton 21 June with on board evacuees from the island.
Her last arrival at Southampton from the Channel Islands was on 28 June from Jersey, thereafter laid up.

She was taken up again on 19 May 1941 for service as a Welfare Ship at Scapa Flow anchorage. Was fitted out at Southampton, and sailed on 6 July from that port bound for Scapa Flow, where she arrived on the 17 July.
In use during the rest of the war as a Welfare Ship for officers and men of non-commissioned Fleet Auxiliaries, and became a popular ship with a bar, cinema, shops and showers.
After the war in Europe in 1945 she returned to London for a reconditioning in Victoria Dock.
Sailed from Southampton for the first time on 10 Dec 1945, with a return crossing to Jersey, her next voyage was a special one with on board 110 Alderney islanders, which returned home after a 5-year evacuation period at the U.K during the war. She arrived at Alderney on 15 Dec. 1945.

Later again used for the Dover to Calais ferry service.
1954 Broken up at Ghent, where she arrived 07 August 1954.

Alderney 1995 £1 sg?, scott90, in margin.

Source. Railway and other Steamers by Duckworth & Langmuir. B.E.F. Ships before, at and after Dunkirk and Short Sea: Long War both books by John de S. Winter.
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D. v. Nieuwenhuijzen
Posts: 871
Joined: Fri Sep 24, 2010 7:46 pm

Re: AUTOCARRIER

Post by D. v. Nieuwenhuijzen » Sun Nov 29, 2015 7:15 pm

06-08-'54 left Dover for the last time, towed by the tug TURMOIL, scrapped by Van Heyghen Freres, Ghent.
Alderney 2015, miniature sheet £3,- StG.?
Attachments
autocarrier 1.jpg
autocarrier 2.jpg
AUTOCARRIER_912.jpg
pic_autocarrier_b.jpg

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