Canterbury

Any idea of date? I think by this time the Palm Court was long gone and she largely survived on the no-passport day trip trade.

Hi eddyw, I agree the Palm Court had long gone by the time I took this shot - in fact I doubt it was re-instated after WWII and I have no doubt you are right in your comment about her later use. However, from enquiries I made at the time I took the picture I understood that on that one occasion because of the problems with the railway line to Dover and Folkestone she took the Golden Arrow sailing as a special 'one off' out of Newhaven. Sadly I have been pretty hopeless at dating my photos and about the nearest I can come up with a date would be about 1958-ish. I put a query onto the 'ournewhaven' website in an effort to firm up the date and information but had no response unfortunately. Derek

When I get some spare time, I will look it up in the Museum, Derek, but why not ask over on the Dover Ferry Forums? In fact, the details may be on the Past and Present section of the associated Dover Ferrys photos site.

Another example of where Newhaven has a similar but smaller version (Worthing in this case) of a short sea routes vessel.

I checked with the records at Newhaven Museum this afternoon.

This event was on 5th or 6th September 1958. Severe storms on the evening of the 5th caused flooding and landslips, blocking railway lines in Kent, and several Dover/Folkestone ships were diverted to Newhaven. Given that this is a daytime photo, I suspect that this is the 6th September, but when I have some more time I will check the West Pier logbooks (assuming we have that period) to confirm.

Hi meechingman. Many thanks for looking up this information, confirming both the information I gleaned at the time of the incident and also now allowing me to date my photo accurately. Derek