Henry Wrigley on Harbours
Within two weeks of coming to Cowes, I was asked by my Harbour Authority, “Harbour Master, would you advise this Port Authority as to whether or not to allow hovercraft access in a Commercial Service?”
What did I know about hovercraft?
Well, it just so happened, the number one Test Pilot at British Hovercraft Corporation, when I was doing my Navy training I had to do some flying at Ford Airfield one of the principal persons at that Airfield happened to be a person whose in charge of the training of hovercraft and all that sort of thing, so, telephone call, quick reintroduction, a nice cup of coffee and I spent two days in and out of this Harbour on Hovercraft, learning all the different problems associated with it but the one thing I did realise that directly and indirectly, over two and a quarter thousand people were employed in the hovercraft industry.
Now, you don’t say no to a thing like that without trying very hard to make it work. We tried hard, we made it work.
It did produce quite a few problems, but then of course the hovercraft industry grew and grew, the big ones disappeared into Dover, the SRN4, the smaller ones the Military were interested, other Authorities, especially overseas with flat areas which were flooded and all the rest of it. Wonderful, to think it all started here in Cowes and things like that.
Tracy: Yes, so you were saying there were a few problems. What would the problems have been with the hovercrafts?
Henry Yes, (laughs), well, if you like, the close proximity of a hovercraft to smaller blocks of vessels, number one factor. To try and maintain a service for them, they wanted a guaranteed access in and out of the Harbour. Sometimes that may not have been possible ‘cos it can conflict with a Ferry movement. You’re getting the picture now are you? And so on.
All this had to be sorted, tried, slowed down, hurried up and all the rest of it. They tried … the first service was Cowes to Southampton and then they tried Cowes to Portsmouth.
Hovertravel developed then after that from Ryde to Southsea, successful, because of course they were clear of the small yachts and they had a free run. That made a lot of sense.
Yes, there were problems, but you know, things evolve and then taken over by … you see the hovercraft in the passenger service, someone will contradict me I expect, it was taken over by the development of superb catamaran vessels.
They’re building them now at East Cowes. Wonderful vessels.