Southsea

Following on from Panurus wonderful pics of Southsea and Brading, this was the Southsea at the end of her life. God! It makes me so mad that it all went horribly wrong for this wonderful little ferry. Shanklin was always unlucky, Brading was worn out but Southsea was lost due to idiocy! Brasspatch and Avon Trust I'm looking at you!!

I was a member of the MV Southsea Society waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay back.

Yes I was too. Bar one or two members, the society was out of its depth and was full of in house squabbles. I recall going to a meeting at Old Portsmouth following the ship's arrival at Portsmouth in 2003 and even then they could not decide on what was going to happen. A few arguments, a stroppy walk out by a dissatisfied member made me think back then it was going to fall to bits. The society was very much in favour of saving the ship but no one (bar one or two) wanted responsibility for it.

The Avon Group really did find stealing the ship rather an easy proposition. Apparently when they smuggled the Southsea out of Portsmouth they did not even notify QHM resulting in a few raised eye brows and a stern ticking off.