You’ve been scuppered!
QUESTION Following the safe arrival of the Navy’s biggest warship into Portsmouth Harbour, didn’t a battleship once fail to make it through the entrance?
This was Britain’s last battleship hMs Vanguard. she was built towards the end of World War ii, but was too late to see active service and joined the fleet at a time aircraft carriers had become the capital ships of the Royal Navy.
she was given a prime role as a Royal Yacht and subsequently took the Royal Family on a tour in 1947. it was to be George Vi’s last overseas visit.
she was again scheduled to take part in a royal tour and was fitted out with royal apartments, but the failing health of the king, who died on February 6, 1952, meant the tour was cancelled.
in June 1953, she was the flagship for the Queen’s Coronation Review, the last time a battleship would act as such. she made her final appearance at Portsmouth Navy Days in August 1959. shortly afterwards it was announced that she would be scrapped.
in August 1960, she was attached to tugs ready to be towed out of Portsmouth harbour for the journey to the shipbreaking yard at Faslane.
As she approached the harbour entrance, things went wrong, and she broke free from the tugs and veered across the harbour, heading towards the Customs Watch house and The still & West pub.
The crew waved frantically at spectators standing by the pub, trying to indicate they should move away, but the crowd thought they were being friendly and waved back. hMs Vanguard came to rest a few metres away from shore, her bows embedded in the muddy seabed.
it took more than an hour for five tugs to free her and she was led out to spithead where two ocean-going tugs were waiting to take her to the shipbreakers on the Clyde.
My father served on hMs Vanguard from 1950 to 1952 and he always said she was his favourite ship.
Robert Taylor, Fareham, Hants.
QUESTION What became of Mota Fuel, water transformed into fuel using a ‘gasoline pill’?
MoTA Fuel was a petty fraud that has passed into urban legend as a conspiracy by the oil industry to prevent the world from having cheap fuel.
Guido Franch, a factory worker from illinois, claimed to have developed a chemical that turned water into fuel for motor vehicles. To bolster his claims, he created a fake German scientist by the name of Dr Alexander Kraft, who was supposed to have been the inventor of Mota (‘atom’ in reverse).
Franch took money from small investors who had read about his fuel pill in the papers. he said he had to keep the recipe for Mota secret, lest the oil industry sabotage him. When challenged to produce a sample, he supplied a small quantity of green food dye.
Franch was prosecuted for fraud in 1954, but convinced a jury that his fuel pill might work. other trials followed. he was eventually convicted in 1979.
he was not the only ‘inventor’ to suggest water could be turned into gasoline. several have made similar claims, but the idea of a ‘ magic pill’ or similar formulation to convert water to fuel is a physical impossibility due to the amount of carbon required to achieve it. As carbon is a non-renewable resource, it would quickly run out.
Bob Dillon, Edinburgh.
QUESTION What is known of Brenda Rawnsley, the educationalist who established a programme of lending artworks to schools?
FuRTheR to the earlier answer, in the eighties Brenda was branch manager at her local library in Clare, suffolk. she was always friendly and popular.
she never spoke of her previous work, so it came as a great surprise to learn of her military service and later artistic achievements.
Brenda was particularly good at helping children with their homework and projects — and now i know why! We never knew we were in the company of such a distinguished lady.
Ray Forster, Sudbury, Suffolk.