As our purchase and conversion of the WWII Tank Landing Craft LCT 7074   better known as: *The Clubship Landfall* had proved to be so successful  we decided that the next thing to do was to find a suitable site then buy another vessel.

In early 1972 we contacted the Manchester Ship Canal Company, and were delighted to be offered a berth for a suitable vessel in the Pomona Dock at Salford. A tacit acknowledgement was received from the Manchester Licensing Magistrates, that a drinking license would be issued if we complied with all the necessary rules and regulations. The police were also contacted and we elicited an encouraging response.

Our naval architect Ken Osborne found a suitable vessel. She was named The Westward Ho!

She was laid up down in Hayle not far from St. Ives Cornwall. Colin and I travelled down with Ken Osborne to inspect the vessel, and we liked what we saw and purchased the vessel a few weeks later.

I stayed aboard the ship with a skeleton crew for three months preparing her for sea, then we towed her up north with an Irish tug called the Dunheron. Two days later we sailed her up the River Mersey and up the Manchester Ship Canal where she underwent a 12-month re-fit for her new role as a floating restaurant.

                                              THE DEHAVILLAND COMET
A year later she was open and to celebrate we bought a DeHavilland Comet jet aircraft from the Royal Air Force and were present on board when it was flown to Manchester Airport.

                                     Click here for an account of the flight

The aircraft was towed to Pomona Dock where she was fitted out as a small overflow restaurant with a small dance floor and stationed on the quayside adjacent to the mother vessel.

                                         Click to  see: Dehavilland Comet



                        THE HISTORY OF THE NORTH WESTWARD HO!

Builders

John I Thorneycroft & Co Ltd, Southampton 1938

Propulsion type: Twin Voith-Schneider propellers, driven by English Electric Co diesel engines

Original Owner: Southampton, Isle of Wight and South of England Royal Mail Steam Packet Co Ltd (Red Funnel) , Townsend Car Ferries Ltd (P & A Campbell Ltd), Compass Catering Ltd

Service dates: 1938 - 1985

Tonnage: Net 390 Gross 630

Comments:

Launched on July 14th, 1938 by J I Thornycroft & Co at Woolston, Southampton Engines : Diesel. Originally fitted with 2 x Voith-Schneider propellors, changed during World War II to conventional screw Dimensions : 191.6 ft x 30.2 ft

630 Gross Registered Tonnes

Built to run on the Southampton-Cowes ferry and fitted with a car deck underneath the forward promenade deck Highly manoevrable due to the two stern Voith-Schneider propellors.

She was not requisitioned for war service and initially continued on her regular ferry run. Converted to twin screw during the war due to lack of spares from Germany. Withdrawn in September 1965 and went immediately to the Bristol Channel to sail for P & A Campbell Renamed Westward Ho. Withdrawn from the Campbell fleet in September 1971, being laid up at Barry and later in Cornwall.

Similar in appearance to her fleetmate, Balmoral, Vecta was fitted with Voith-Schneider propellors, which gave her exceptional manoevrability. With these she was able to move sideways and also was able to turn in her own length. She carried cars from Southampton to Cowes, but also undertook tender work to the liners in Southampton Water. She went to go to Dunkirk for the evacuation of the British Expeditionary Force in 1939, although mechanical problems made her turn back. Not surprisingly, due to the War, the difficulty of obtaining spares from Germany curtailed her activities and after the war she was fitted with more conventional propellors.

She continued in Red Funnel service until September 1965, when she was bought by Townsend Car Ferries Ltd for operation by P & A Campbell, in the Bristol Channel, in whose colours she is seen here. She was overhauled, fitted with a Campbells cowl on her funnel and re named Westward Ho. In 1969 she was joined by Balmoral, her former Red Funnel fleetmate and the two operated Campbells services for two years, until Westward Ho was laid up with engine problems.

A year later in November 1972 she was sold to Jud Evans and Colin Peers of Compass Catering Ltd  of Liverpool and towed to Manchester as a floating restaurant and nightclub where she was berthed in Pomona Dock Salford and renamed North Westward Ho!


Thirteen years later in 1985 the Liverpool based catering company sold the vessel , and she was taken to Bromborough Dock on the Wirral in advance of being towed to Millwall Docks and later on the River Medway.

In the same year she was towed to the Thames for various uses around the Docklands area of London. She was eventually broken up in Cornwall in 1996.

                            More about The North Westward Ho soon.