Landing craft in use as River cruise. LCT? LCG? LCS?

[Hanno Spoelstra]

Originally Posted by Alex van de Wetering

After a search on the interwebs I found "Sir Winston" is indeed a former WW2 boat....built in 1944/45 by Furguson in Glasgow for the Royal Navy. It was converted to a river cruise post war and also stretched later on.

Current description can be found here: https://www.best-biketours.com/en/cr...on?language=en

It is used for tours "by bike and boat", so guests can take their bike on board for a very peaceful discovery of The Netherlands - how much more Dutch can it get?!?

H.

The MS Sir Winston is a mid-sized river cruise ship that can carry a maximum of 68 passengers.

built in 1945
length: 67 m (220 ft), width: 7 m (23 ft), load draft: 1,60 m (5,3 ft)
crew 10 men/women
sails under a Dutch flag
2 decks, the main and the promenade deck

_data_pic_Holland_suedholland_RS_sir-winston_sirwinstonfahrraeder_jpg.1412719200.800x600x75.thum.jpg

[tankbarrell]

The mountings were made by Baker Perkins.

The 17/25 Pdr Mounting
A.I Baker recalled - "Early in 1943 we were asked if we would collaborate with the Armament Design Department and the Director of Naval Ordnance in getting out drawings for a heavily armoured turret which was known as the 17/25 Pdr Mounting. This was designed for mounting on a special landing craft and in effect was like a very large floating tank, its purpose being to blast out pillboxes in amphibious operations. This job was extremely urgent and we agreed to help. In August the drawings were finished and we were given an order to produce a number of mountings. We were to push two Pilot Models ahead and in December 1943 we produced our pilots. Certain small troubles were experienced with these but they were quickly overcome and we went into full production in April 1944".

Jim Deboo recalls one of the "certain small troubles" noted above. Apparently, the baseplate for this mounting required many hours of machining - with a labourer constantly in attendance to take away the swarf. When complete, because of the urgency, the Navy insisted that they would fit the mounting but forgot to fit a very important cam, with the result that, when traversing through 360 degrees, it shot its own bridge away!

Production ceased at the end of the war when a total of 78 had been completed.

I wonder if time has confused the 17/25 pdr Pheasant with the Naval mounting or if it was referred to as such to act as a cover!

The story here. http://www.westwoodworks.net/HowItWa...ksInWW2/08.htm

[Danny]

Hi,
The 17pdr or the 25pdr could be fitted into the turret of the LCG(M).

The LCG(M) Mk 1 were to be a mix of craft carrying either the 17pdr or 25pdr and the LCG(M) Mk 2 were to carry the 25pdr.

Photo FL 5990 on the IWM website shows LCG(M) 103 with the 25pdr fitted. https://www.iwm.org.uk/collections/i...ject/205120518

Regards

Danny

[Alex van de Wetering]

Thanks everyone for the enthusiastic replies, confirmation and additional info.

I saw "Sir Winston" again two weeks ago; as Hanno pointed it out, the ship does regular bike tours in the area and a colleague of mine also recognized the ship and informed me that it's regularly moored in Amsterdam, near the ferry to the Central Station.

Next question: which one of the 56 LCG(M)'s completed was it?

Maybe, if you were allowed to inspect the inside of the ship, one could find the original registration somewhere(?)

Found this whilst researching 17 pdr manufacture.

Terrific picture, Adrian!

Danny, good to see you on the forum again!

Alex

[Alex van de Wetering]

Some more info on the post-war history of "Sir Winston":

Mutatiedatum 1945
Naam LMNG ?
Eigenaar Royal Navy in Glasgow

Mutatiedatum 1962
Naam VICTORIA REGIA
Eigenaar W.F. Feenstra & K. Feenstra in Rotterdam

Mutatiedatum 1968
Naam VICTORIA REGIA
Eigenaar W.F. Feenstra in Rotterdam

Mutatiedatum 1981
Naam VICTORIA REGIA
Eigenaar O. Slokkers Scheepvaartbedrijf BV in Zwijndrecht

Mutatiedatum 1982
Naam VICTORIA REGIA
Eigenaar Victoria Regia Vof in Zwijndrecht

Mutatiedatum 1985
Naam VICTORIA REGIA
Eigenaar A.G. Brant in Alphen a/d Rijn

Mutatiedatum 1993
Naam VICTORIA REGIA
Eigenaar J.C. v/d Engel in 's-Gravendeel

Mutatiedatum 1994
Naam VICTORIA REGIA
Eigenaar Bonaventura BV in 's-Gravendeel

Mutatiedatum 2008
Naam SIR WINSTON
Eigenaar Goldberg Ventures BV in Lunteren

The ship was converted to river cruise, and presumably also stretched later on, by "Wijtro BV" in Rotterdam-IJsselmonde.

source: https://www.binnenvaart.eu/rijksvaar...5873-lmng.html

[maple_leaf_eh]

The last photo album now makes me want to take a bike and hike tour on the Sir Winston! Let's hope the food is worth the seasickness.