The wooden craft of Hout Bay continues

Left click this picture for a larger view.

This is a picture I took while in Portsmouths Naval Dockyard,it was stuck away in a bit of a dark corner,hence the low picture quality.Its a model of the Ton class mine sweeper,in this case its all made from wood,in the actual full size build,the frames you can see were all made from alloy I beams,thats a lot of metal!


HMS Glasserton.

How about this one,we had our very own Mine Sweeper in the harbour at one time,when the SA Navy put the Pretoria up for sale,Charles Bates bought it for personal use and kept it moored on a quay in the harbour.

The design is called the Ton class,named such as each boat built was named after a town in Britain which had a name ending with Ton,such as Castleton or Skipton,etc,many were built from around 1957.I have first hand knowledge of the design and used to supply the SA Navy with the correct quality of African Mahogany (khaya),it had to be kiln dry and with lengths to six meters,this replicated what the British Navy had originaly specified.

The boats were made from an alloy I beam frame,spaced about 16 inches apart,then planked with layers of mahogany,both one inch and two inch thick,so the final thickness of the hull was three inches (75mm)the boat was a bit of a battery as all planks were bolted to the alloy frames with galvanised steel bolts! They were supposed to last the second world war only,so I expect this was allowed for,now fifty years on they are still to be seen.

Then and now,some history:

SAS Pretoria, P1556, M1144 (ex HMS Dunkerton; ex HMS Golden Firefly) - museum ship in Hout Bay,now to be found in Cape Towns V&A Waterfront and renamed Madiba.