Inspired by Alan's rail-sea-combo photograph for this week's Sepia Saturday I've found something related to both train travel and sea crossings. The vintage postcard below is of the British Railways ship, the S.S.Worthing. It operated on the Newhaven-Dieppe crossing. Before becoming the property of British Railways it was operated by Southern Railways. Even earlier than that it was used as a troop carrier during the war. In 1955 the ship was sold to Greece and renamed as the Phryni (which apparently refers to an ancient people of eastern Central Asia).
I think the postcard actually makes it look almost like a model ship on a boating lake in a park somewhere, but I guess we should assume this is the Channel.
I think the postcard actually makes it look almost like a model ship on a boating lake in a park somewhere, but I guess we should assume this is the Channel.
Vintage postcard of the S.S.Worthing
As usual, 100's more vintage postcards on my web site
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I wish the Channel had been as smooth as that in the late 50s when I was on it in transit 'home' to the Royal Signals Depot at Chester. But it wasn't a British Railways ship either.
ReplyDeleteIt's probably the angle of the photo on that card that makes the ship look rather small like a model.
ReplyDeleteShe's beautiful :-)
ReplyDeleteIt's curious when I read the story of a British ship, it always ends with the ship beng sold to a foreign country :-O
She’s actually a rather smart ship isn’t she, proudly bearing through the waves? She certainly looks better than the model boats my three year-old grandchildren were playing with this week on holidy ...their batteries ran out very quickly and they flipped over (the boats, not the twins!).
ReplyDeleteI've never heard of Railways owning ships. Makes sense though.
ReplyDeleteI think I see some tiny people on that fast moving ship so I think it's a real one.
ReplyDeleteI think that's my idea of the archetypal post-war ocean liner. I'm guessing my father emigrated to southern Africa on something the same style, although perhaps a little bigger, in 1952.
ReplyDeleteIndeed that is a model ship and I mean that in more than just one way. That's the type of ship, the size, that made sailing wonderful.
ReplyDeleteThat is the kind of ferry I can just about remember from my youth. Substantial things, you felt as if you had gone somewhere.
ReplyDeleteDid the shipping company send a photographer up in a plane to take just the one photo? Easier to imagine a model boat in the bath. But then how did they make the waves?
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