Builders: Cammell Laird Birkenhead 1932
Propulsion type: Paddle triple expansion
Owners: General Steam Navigation Co. Ltd.
Service dates: 1932 - 1953
Tonnage: Net 794 Gross 1539
Comments:
This terrific picture comes from a Kodakchrome slide from 1948 taken by Angus Kindley and is shown here by kind permission of his son, Angus. It shows Royal Eagle on a fine breezy day coming into Southend Pier, on a return trip from Margate.
Superbly fitted out, Royal Eagle was the General Steam's flagship which sailed on the London, Southend, Margate & Ramsgate service. She was requisitioned for war service as an anti aircraft vessel in the River Thames and made three trips to Dunkirk, saving 2657 men, coming under fire forty three times. After the war, she resumed sailings to Margate in 1946. In 1950 she ran between London and Clacton, but was later laid up and was scrapped in 1953. Between 1932 and 1938 she was reputed to have carried over 3,000,000 passengers.
My father remembered her master, Captain William G Branthwaite, as a great stickler for things being done the correct (Navy?) way. When approaching a pier, the ships's name pennant was flown from the foremast and the General Steam house flag from the main mast. The two flags were rolled up, hoisted and at a special signal from the Captain were broken simultaneously. Try as he might, my father was never successful in seeing them both unfurl! The breaking of the flags was a signal to the pier that the ship was ready to berth. On Southend Pier the house flag was raised, giving permission for the ship to berth and to indicate at which part of the pier she was expected. This was especially necessary when more than one steamer, even two steamers of the same company, were waiting to berth at the same time.
For reminiscences from 1948 by John Nicholls of his time with the crew of Royal Eagle, please click here.
For a record of a trip from Southend to Ramsgate in 1934 please click here.