User:Rodney Pell/sandbox

'Sheemaun' - a 25 ton 1930's Twin engined Gentleman's Motor Yacht. L 13.7 m, B 3.2 m D 1.4 m.Design Number 561 by G L Watson & Co Ltd. Built by James Noble of Fraserburgh for Banker Ernest Richards. Launched 1935.

Subject of editorial article in Yachting World & Motor Boating Journal September 20th 1935. Reported in The MotorBoat October 4th 1935 and 17th September 1937. Attended at the 1938 Pavillon d'Or International Motor Yacht Rally at Vlissingen, together with Capt. Charles Lightoller's 'Sundowner'. Article by H. C. Bell 'On the Continent With "Sheemaun"' published in The Motor Boat and Yachting March 10th 1939.

Listed in Admiralty Red Book 28th July 1940 as one of the Minor War Vessels in Home Waters'. Requisitioned by the Royal Navy on 28th August 1940 under the Emergency Powers (Defence) Act. 1939. Ref T.W.5074/41/S.P.C.2 thereafter serving as HMY Sheemaun, a Thames Estuary Auxiliary Patrol Service Boat armed with two Hotchkiss machine guns. (Ministry of Defence Records Portsmouth).

Decommissioned 6th November 1945 and served with Department of Sea Transport until sold out of service in 1947. Various short-term owners until -

1950 - 1959 when owned by Mr. Vernon Haydon manager of the Branksome Tower Hotel, Bournemouth. Sheemaun conveyed wealthy guests on trips around Poole Harbour and Studland Bay. Attended at the 1953 June 15th Queen's Coronation and Spithead Fleet Review. Several voyages made to Jersey. 1959 purchased by Capt. Ingram Ord Capper and based in Suffolk. 1965 purchased by Mr Thomas Burton, former Lancaster Bomber Captain. Voyaged extensively and was or a while berthed for at Calp in Mediterranean Spain.

April 1967 purchased by Rear Admiral G.T.S. Gray CB. DSC and cruised extensively including to the Baltic Sea. 1973 listed as a yacht of the Royal Yacht Squadron. 1981 purchased by Lt. Cmdr, Ian Pearson Principle Officer of Pangbourne Nautical College, serving as Cadet Training Ship and cruising extensively on the South Coast, to the Channel Islands and Paris.

January 1987 purchased by the current owner Dr Rodney Pell and extensively restored. Re-rigged as a gaff ketch. 20th March 2003 Certified by Sir Julian Oswald GCB Admiral of The Fleet, as a vessel 'meriting inclusion in the National Register of Historic Vessels of the United Kingdom.'   Certificate No 1939. Appointed the 2010 Flagship of the United Kingdom Historic Fleet. June 2012 attended by invitation at the Queen's Diamond Jubilee Grand Thames Pageant.

'Sheemaun' is non-commercial and attends by invitation at various Maritime Commemorative and Historic Festivals in the UK, France and Belgium.