A fascinating encounter

In early May 1974 I was a passenger on the Winston Churchill, an inward bound 8,657 ton DFDS car ferry travelling from Esjberg in Denmark to Harwich. The last of the winter storms had just swept over East Anglia and out into the North Sea, leaving the shallow waters off Harwich a boiling maelstrom of confused waves. The Winston Churchill made light work of the ten-foot breakers. She was eleven miles outside the entrance to the River Stour, navigating her way through the offshore shoals and waiting for a pilot to arrive that would guide her through the entrance of the river and then to her berth in Harwich docks. British Maritime Law compels every ship entering or leaving port to engage a qualified local pilot to take over the navigation of the ship, unless it be the home port of the vessel concerned.

Vagabond’s skipper peered out through the drenched windscreen of his pilot boat in search
of the approaching car ferry. He had four pilots on board, one of whom was to be embarked
on the Winston Churchill and the others on grain carriers and tankers that were following
her later. Vagabond was a forty foot V-Class Nelson Pilot Boat, designed by John Askham (a
longstanding volunteer at the museum) and built in 1972 by TT Boat Designs of Bembridge.
She was probably the most seaworthy boat of her size afloat at that time. The skipper spotted the Winston Churchill three miles away and opened Vagabond’s throttles to reach her in good time. The twin Cummins diesel engines roared into life and the boat leapt forward under their combined power. Vagabond was doing just what she was designed for!
The Winston Churchill’s captain saw the pilot boat approaching on his radar. He called up
the skipper on the VHF radio to confirm that he wanted a pilot, and then gave his helmsman
the order to turn the ship so that she was broadside on to the waves. The massive bulk of
the hull then created a relatively calmer patch in the sea that would assist the pilot boat to
come alongside. As the two vessels approached each other the Winston Churchill slowed to
six knots, and a hatchway opened in her side about twenty feet above the waterline. Then a
rope ladder was lowered from the hatchway down to the level of the pilot boat’s deck.
The skipper manoeuvred his boat around the stern of the Winston Churchill and cautiously
steered for the foot of the rope ladder. He matched Vagabond’s speed to that of the car ferry and edged in towards the side of the ship that was now like a vertical wall of steel reaching up to the open hatchway.
Suddenly, an eight foot rogue wave broke into the calmer area of water created by the lee
of the ship. Vagabond’s skipper saw it coming and braced himself for the impact. Vagabond
dropped into the trough preceding the wave and then, with a sickening thud, was thrown
against the hard steel plates of the ship’s side by the breaking crest of the wave. Any lesser
boat would have been smashed to pieces by the impact, but Vagabond was built specifically
for these conditions and, as well as a reinforced hull, she had a six-inch rubber fender fixed
all around her gunwale.
In the ensuing lull, the skipper advised the pilot to move up to the foredeck of the pilot
boat. Assisted by a crew member and holding on tightly to the large handrails mounted on
the outside of the wheelhouse, he gingerly edged forward on the deck until within reach of
the pulpit mounted in the middle of the foredeck. Here he could brace his body against any
further impacts.
Once again, the skipper edged Vagabond nearer to the side of the ship until the pilot,
assisted by the crew member, could grasp the foot of the rope ladder and transfer his
weight onto the first rung. He immediately began to ascend to the open hatchway, the
ladder swinging from side to side as he climbed.

As soon as the pilot began his climb, Vagabond dropped back from her position alongside
the car ferry. Should the pilot have fallen, it would be safer for him to land in the water than
on the deck of the pilot boat or, worse, between the two vessels where he could be
crushed. Then, as the pilot reached the hatchway, the skipper swung Vagabond around and
opened the throttles wide. She responded immediately and shot away from the car ferry,
sending sheets of spray over the watching passengers as she smashed through the confused
seas.
Standing by the rail of the Winston Churchill, I watched with admiration the men involved in
this operation and the amazing pilot boat that facilitated the whole process. It was this
episode that inspired me to make a working scale model of Vagabond No. 40 pilot boat. It
would be fully operational and radio controlled.

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Building the model

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

1/4"thick plywood for the keel, the longitudinal piece that runs the full length of the boat and forms the shape of the bow, the bottom, and the stern. I then mounted the bulkheads vertically, but upside down, on a building board (a large plank of wood) in the exact positions they would occupy when the boat was complete.
Each bulkhead had a slot cut in it to accommodate the keel, which was then fixed in place in
the slots and glued to the bulkheads. The keel and bulkheads now formed a framework or
skeleton of the finished boat.

The outside skin or planking was formed using long strips of balsawood 3/8” wide and 1/8”
thick laid longitudinally side by side starting at the keel and working all around the girth of
the model to the deck level. Each strip was glued securely to its neighbour and to the
bulkheads underneath. When all the glue was set, I covered the entire hull with woven glass
fibre mat and brushed onto it a liquid polyester resin. Each side of the hull was treated
separately. The resin set very hard indeed and the hull was then an immensely tough shell,
far stronger than had it just been made of balsawood. When the resin was fully set, I rubbed
it down with abrasive paper, filled in any irregularities with car body filler, and fitted the
hardwood rubbing strips to the sides of the hull. I could then release the bulkheads from the
building board and turn the hull over. It was now beginning to look like a real boat!
Fitting of the propulsion system was next: propeller shafts, motor bearers, twin electric
motors, shaft couplings, battery boxes, two 7.2 volt nickel-cadmium batteries, electronic
speed controllers and a radio receiver were all installed and securely fastened to the inside
of the hull. It was then time to lay the deck, which was made of 1/16” plywood resting on
hardwood deck beams. A large cut-out was made in the deck where the wheelhouse and
cabin would be situated. I then found some side-on photographs of the full-size Vagabond,
scaled them to the right size, printed them out and cut out the shapes of the wheelhouse
and cabin sides from the photographs. These cut-outs were lightly stuck to 1/32” plywood,
and their outlines marked on the wood, together with the window openings. The paper cutouts
were removed and the outlines cut around. I repeated this process for the front and back of the superstructure so that I had a complete set of cabin and wheelhouse components. 

These were assembled over a suitable framework and roofed over with more
1/32” plywood. The whole assembly was shaped to fit tightly into the large cut-out in the
deck, and to be removable to enable access to the equipment inside the model.
It was then simply a case of making the mast and rigging, and the deck fittings. I painted the
model to match the full-size boat using Halfords automotive aerosol spray paints. The
various lettering was done using Letraset transfer numerals and letters. A suitable stand was
made, and a report sent to Rosemary Joy that Vagabond was ready for display in the
Museum!
I hope that my model of the Pilot Boat No.40 Vagabond gives as much pleasure and interest
to the museum’s visitors as it gave me to conceive and build her.
November 2024