Hythe
HYTHE: Civil seaplane/flying boat maintenance base with slipways (also known as HYTHE-SHORE)
Operated by: Imperial Airways from 1937, later BOAC.
Manufacturing: Initially: 1918 - May, Harden & May – later acquired by Supermarine in 1925
Location: In/near Hythe on the W bank of Southampton Water
Period of operation: 1918 to 1950 (Continuous operation?)
A MIKE CHARLTON GALLERY
Note: These three fabulous pictures from postcards were kindly sent by Mike Charlton who has an amazing collection. See, www.aviationpostcard.co.uk
First picture: I think it is interesting to note that Imperial Airways still retained the 'Supermarine' lettering above their hangar right into the mid to late 1930s. Three Short S.23 'C' Class Empire flying boats can be seen.
Ceres was G-AETX and registered to Imperial Airways from the 1st March 1937 until the 22nd August 1940, when it was transferred to BOAC (British Overseas Airways Corporation). It served with them until the 1st of December 1942.
Castor was G-ADUW and registered to Imperial Airways from the 7th October 1935 and also until the 22nd August 1940, when it was transferred to BOAC. However, G-ADUW appears to have survived WW2 until the 22nd of August 1947, after which it was broken up.
What appears also interesting, looking at the registration records, is that the base for G-AETX was given as Southampton and Portsmouth. For G-ADUW Rochester throughout. As far as I am aware, no Imperial Airways services were conducted from either Portsmouth or Rochester - so why was this information provided?
Second picture. Up until seeing this picture, I had assumed, (see below), that the arrival of the Pan American Boeing 314 flying-boat in March 1939 was the first visit by a commercially operated American flying-boat to the UK. I was wrong. As this picture clearly shows and a bit of research reveals, the Pan American Sikorsky S-42B Clipper III arrived at Southampton via Foynes in Ireland on the 8th July 1937. Completing the first two-way flight across the Atlantic.
This example, NC16736, served with 'Pan-Am' from 1937 until 1943. Re-named 'Bermuda Clipper' it was lost on a flight to Brazil.
Third picture: The 26-seater Short S.23 Empire Carpentaria G-AFBJ was registered on the 26th August 1937. I cannot find out if Imperial operated it before it was registered in Australia in November 1937 as VH-ABA. It was then restored to the British register on the 31st January 1938 before going back to Australia in June 1938 - presumably as VH-ABA?
It was once again restored to the British register on the 13th July 1942, going to BOAC who based it at Durban in South Africa. Finally it was scrapped here in 1947.
NOTES: In his book Spitfire's Forgotten Designer Mike Roussel tells us; "Some of the Felixstowe flying boat hulls were constructed at the May, Harden & May sheds on Shore Road, Hythe, Hampshire, which had been built by the Admiralty for flying boat construction in the First World War. May, Harden & May was a subsidiary of AIRCO (the Aircraft Manufacturing Co) based in Hendon." This appears to indicate that these sheds were in use before 1918
After the manufacturing phase it seems that Imperial Airways and later BOAC used this site only for flying boat maintenance. The hangars still exist and on a visit a few years ago I discovered they were engaged in the manufacture (and presumably repair and maintenance?) of hovercraft. In 2015, when reading Mike Roussel's book, Spitfire's Forgotten Designer, he confirms that the HYTHE site was used by Imperial Airways only for repair and maintenance. In those days the terminal was the MARINE AIRPORT situated in WOOLSTON.
Notes: The first picture from The John Stroud Collection shows new mooring and berthing stations. So presumably after WW2? The second picture is by the author and was taken in June 2010.
Note: I might well be mistaken, but I think this picture of a photograph taken in the Science Museum, London, shows the Short S30 Empire flying boat G-AFCV 'Caribou' taking-off along Southampton Water. The background certainly seems to fit.
G-AFCV was registered to Imperial Airways from the 15th of November 1937 until the 9th September 1940.
THE HEIGHT OF LUXURY
Although often today regarded as being the zenith of airline luxury travel, (flying in an Imperial Airways ‘Empire’ class flying boat), which it was in so many ways, flying to Australia for example was strictly for the very rich or those top government officials and similar people whose fares were paid for them. For example a one-way ticket London to Brisbane cost £160 although a 20% discount applied if a return fare was booked when making the initial ticket purchase. Trying to equate what £160 would equal today is virtually impossible of course but some very interesting parallels exist. For example, if you use just the RPI, (Retail Price Index), a figure of about £7000 for a one-way ticket is about right. However, if you compare average wages an astonishing, (in my opinion), £25,000 becomes the equivalent amount paid. I think these figures do graphically illustrate what the advances in aviation mean to most people. For example in 1970 a wage of £28 for a highly competent company directors secretary was paid and by 1976 the ‘high-season’ return economy fare to Sydney or Melbourne was still well over £1000. In 2004 a similar fare could be had for just £545
HYTHE was used as a terminal, although I have found records saying passengers were usually being taken by bus to HYTHE to board the aircraft, having checked in, cleared Customs and Immigration etc, at one of the Southampton dock terminals.
A MOST EXTRAORDINARY FLIGHT
During 1938 a most extraordinary flight took place, ending here. Captain Donald Bennett accompanied by Radio Officer Costa, flew the Mercury on the 21st July, launching whilst airborne from the ‘mother ship’ Maia over Foynes in Ireland, to Montreal – some 2.930 miles in 22 hours 20 minutes. It carried a consignment of airmail and newsreels. They then flew to Port Washington, New York before returning to HYTHE via Newfoundland, the Azores and Lisbon.
ANOTHER MAJOR EVENT
On the 30th March 1939 the Pan American Boeing 314 flying boat ‘Yankee Clipper’ arrived at SOUTHAMPTON via the Azores, Lisbon and Marseilles. Presumably being ‘handled’ at HYTHE or did it go to Berth 108? The bigger picture is described by Graham Smith in his book Taking to the Skies; “….Imperial were conducting air refuelling trials with four Empire flying boats and it was clear that they would not be ready by 1st June – the agreed starting date for the new service. By mid-June Pan-Am felt that they could not wait any longer and on the 26th Yankee Clipper left New York carrying nineteen VIPs and mail and arrived at SOUTHAMPTON two days later – some 1,970 miles at an average speed of 144mph.”
SOME INTERESTING HISTORY
When re-reading Capt Archie Jacksons autobiography, Can Anyone See Bermuda in May 2013 I noticed a comment he made after being seconded from the RAF to BOAC to fly their flying boats. “We were based at Hythe, across the water from Southampton and put up in the Westcliff Hall Hotel…” This was in 1942. “The Empire boats based at Southampton were employed on the route to Lagos in Nigeria with stops at Foynes on the Shannon river, Lisbon on the river Tagus, Bathurst and Freetown.”
This raises a few questions and issues. Without too much doubt the government of the Republic of Ireland, although ostensibly neutral in WW2, is often accused of being biased towards helping Nazi Germany, but, on the other hand they were also quite prepared to assist the Allied war effort by allowing aircraft to land at Shannon, both at the airport and on the river. Lisbon in Portugal was also in a neutral country and very happy to accommodate civil aircraft from all the countries involved in the conflict .
WHAT DO YOU MAKE OF THIS?
The flights from Foynes to Lisbon were always conducted at night due to the risk of attack by German aircraft over the Bay of Biscay. Now then, what do you make of this account by Capt Archie Jackson? “During my wartime service with BOAC I met the actor Leslie Howard in the British Club in Lisbon. He had been sent to Portugal on a goodwill mission, his face being known to millions of filmgoers. The following day the airliner in which he was returning to Britain was intercepted by an enemy aircraft over the Bay of Biscay and shot down. On two previous occasions this aircraft had been attacked, (My note: An ex KLM DC-3), by the Germans, yet it departed from Lisbon in the morning for a daylight flight to England.” This incident does of course mirror in some aspects the flight on which the then hugely famous American band-leader Glenn Miller disappeared over the English Channel.
There is now 'a school of thought' which is asking to what extent the British establishment, (both within government and the military forces), during WW2, was riddled with Nazi sympathisers? So many obviously flawed policies and strategies, let alone apparently "deliberate assissinations" such as these certainly beg the question as to what was really going on?
ANOTHER MEMORY FROM CAPTAIN ARCHIE JACKSON
I do hope you will find the following of interest: “By October 1943 when I had completed eighteen months with BOAC, the Germans had been driven out of North Africa and in Italy Mussolini had been deposed. The airline resumed flights through the Mediterrean to Egypt and points further east. My last flight was on the sole remaining Catalina which we handed over to the Australian Airline Quantas (sic) in Ceylon. The other Catalina had been destroyed when it hit a submerged object during a landing in Poole harbour.”
I cannot recall any mention of BOAC operating the PBY-5 Catalina.
“Four of the RAF pilots who had been seconded at the same time as myself had been killed in accidents. “Clare” caught fire off Dakar at night: there were no survivors. “Goldern Horn” caught fire on a test flight after an engine change on the Tagus and all but one of the crew were drowned. A flying boat struck the slopes of Mount Brandon in southern Ireland on its way to Foynes. Another crashed in North Africa, a propeller breaking free and slicing into the fuselage.”
AN UNFAIR JUDGEMENT?
By todays standards the sad truth is of course that the ‘classic’ Empire ‘C’ Class flying boat built by Shorts had virtually no development time allowed before entering service. This simply wasn't an aspect even envisaged in those days. Then flying three years later with BOAC as stripped out hulks during WW2, surely the 'C' Class hardly stood a chance of safe operation. Without any doubt it was an all-time ‘classic’ design, but quite heavily marred by several serious accidents during its quite short career of about six to seven years?
Paul Sheehan
This comment was written on: 2018-07-18 06:42:52Qantas obtained 5 Catalinas from the UK Government to operate NON STOP flights during the war between Koggala Lake Ceylon and Perth Western Australia to keep the air routes open between Aust. and the UK. They were delivered by BOAC crews to Ceylon and then all the services were operated by Qantas Crews. The registrations of the 5 Catalinas were G-AGFL G-AGFM G-AGID G-AGIE and G-AGKS. At the end of the war, 4 were scuttled near Rottnest Island near Perth and the last one in the sea outside the Sydney Harbour Heads.
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