Preserved LCA?

[Danny]

Hi,
I thought you might be interested in seeing a photo of the remains of an LCA on the River Hamble, Hampshire. The photos were taken a few years ago so I imagine the LCA has deteriorated a bit since the photos were taken.

I can add a couple more if you want.

There was one other LCA on display in Normandy at the Utah Beach museum. Recent photos that I seen show an LCVP on the plinth it was displayed on. Not sure if the LCA was broken up or moved to another area.

There are a few LCA’s in use as houseboats over here, UK, but most seem to have had the armour removed at some time. At the end of WWII you could purchase surplus craft from the Admiralty for around £46 and they could also provide you with a plan on how to convert it into a home.

There is some more information about some surviving Landing Craft in the UK on the British Military Powerboat Trust website. http://bmpt.org.uk/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=311&PN=2

Regards

Danny

[Alex van de Wetering]

Danny, do you know if the LCA is still there in the river Hamble? I did a search for more pictures last week and stumbled upon a message stating that the local scrappy was asked to remove all wrecks from the Hamble river. It seems there were various wrecks littering the river, ranging from medieval vessels, to WO2 wrecks and more modern examples.

Do you happen to have any pictures of some of the LCA's converted to "houseboats"?. It would be interesting to see if they can still be recognized as such, as most of them would have had the wood replaced with steel by now.

Alex

[Danny]

Hello Alex,
As far as I know the LCA is still there. The photos were taken about ten years ago and I was told recently that the LCA had deteriorated a lot since the photos were taken.

They did start to clear the river up around 1994 when one of the last surviving LCI(s) was broken up. Would not have thought that there was to much left to clear these days. Southampton(?) university were running a survey of the river at one time. Not sure if they still are.

The LCA is not readily accessible as its in the middle of some pretty marshy ground. I made sure I visited it at low tide and still ended up in mud up to my knees at one stage.

Attached are a couple of photos of LCAs at Bembridge on the Isle of Wight. These were taken a couple of years ago. The armour was removed from most of the houseboats early on.

The armour seems to have survived on the LCAs that were just left to rot after the owners were finished with them.

There was an LCA sold on eBay recently. It was located in the Milton Keynes area. Another one that had been used as an houseboat.

Hope the above is of use to you. If you have any more questions I will try and answer them.

The forum at the BMPT has changed. The link to the LC thread there is at http://www.bmpt.co.uk/forum_posts.asp?TID=311&PN=1


All The Best

Danny




Milton Keynes houseboat sold on eBay


Location of LCA on River Hamble

[Alex van de Wetering]

Danny and others;...Here is another LCA converted into houseboat for sale on Ebay:

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/Static-Housebo...3A1%7C294%3A50

Anyone interested in a full houseboat interior, some timber and windows? I'll keep the hull

Alex

[Jordan Baker]

i wonder if it would make it accros the Atlantic???

[Alex van de Wetering]

The boat sold for 2000 pounds. You wonder if the buyer was interested in the houseboat, or if he was after the LCA remains. Probably the first option.

Alex

[Hanno Spoelstra]

The restoration of LCA 888 - see http://www.landingcraftrestoration.com/