PS Sandown (1934)

PS Sandown was a passenger vessel built for the Southern Railway in 1934 and later served with distinction in the Royal Navy during the Second World War.[1]

Sandown (left) at Portsmouth Harbour on 15 July 1965
History
Name: PS Sandown
Operator:
Port of registry:
Builder: William Denny and Brothers, Dumbarton
Cost: £39,850
Yard number: 1272
Launched: 1 May 1934
Out of service: 16 July 1966
Fate: Scrapped
General characteristics
Tonnage: 684 gross register tons (GRT)
Length: 216 feet (66 m)
Beam: 29.1 feet (8.9 m)
Draught: 7 feet (2.1 m)
Speed: 14.5 knots
Capacity: 900 passengers

History

The ship was built by William Denny and Brothers in Dumbarton and launched on 1 May 1934[2] by Mrs E.J. Missenden, wife of the manager for the Southern Railway Company Docks at Southampton.[3] Costing £39,850, she was one of two ships placed by the railway company, the other being Ryde.[4] She was deployed on the Portsmouth to Ryde ferry service.

HMS Sandown in service as an anti-aircraft ship in December 1942.

At the outbreak of the Second World War, she was requisitioned by the Admiralty and converted to a minesweeper with the pennant number J.20, initially serving with the 10th Flotilla in the English Channel as the senior officer's vessel. On 27 May 1940, Sandown led the flotilla to the Dunkirk evacuation, returning with them on the following day and then operating independently. On 1 June, she rescued 250 men from a grounded drifter. The total number of men rescued by Sandown during the operation was 1,861. In 1942, she was reequipped as an anti-aircraft ship, later supporting the Normandy landings and the Battle of the Scheldt. She was returned to her owners in 1945.[5]

She was acquired by British Railways in 1948. On 30 June 1954, she went to the rescue of her sister ship Ryde which had mechanical difficulties. The Sandown managed to secure a tow line and tow her to Portsmouth Harbour. [6]

She was scrapped in 1966.

References
  1. Duckworth, Christian Leslie Dyce; Langmuir, Graham Easton (1968). Railway and other Steamers. Prescot, Lancashire: T. Stephenson and Sons.
  2. "Shipbuilder and State of Industry". Dundee Courier. Scotland. 2 May 1934. Retrieved 14 November 2015 – via British Newspaper Archive.
  3. The World's Carriers and Carrying Trades' Review: Volume XXX 1933-34. London: Carriers Publishing Company. 1934. p. 368.
  4. Young, Andrew; Jennings, Toby (6 October 2017). "Without a Paddle". Steam Railway. Peterborough: Bauer Cosumer Media (472): 72–76. ISSN 0143-7232.
  5. Plummer, Russell (1995). Paddle Steamers at War 1939-1945. Peterborough, England: GMS Enterprises. pp. 10 & 39. ISBN 1-870384-39-3.
  6. "Steamer in Difficulty". Portsmouth Evening News. England. 30 June 1954. Retrieved 14 November 2015 – via British Newspaper Archive.
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