Builders: John I Thorneycroft & Co Ltd, Southampton 1938
Propulsion type: Twin Voith-Schneider propellers, driven by English Electric Co diesel engines
Owner: Southampton, Isle of Wight and South of England Royal Mail Steam Packet Co Ltd (Red Funnel) , Townsend Car Ferries Ltd (P & A Campbell Ltd), Compass Caterers Ltd
Service dates: 1938 - 1985
Tonnage: Net 390 Gross 630
Comments:
Similar in appearance to her fleetmate, Balmoral, Vecta was fitted with Voith-Schneider propellors, which gave her exceptional manoevrability. With these she was able to move sideways and also was able to turn in her own length. She carried cars from Southampton to Cowes, but also undertook tender work to the liners in Southampton Water. She went to go to Dunkirk for the evacuation of the British Expeditionary Force in 1939, although mechanical problems made her turn back. Not surprisingly, due to the War, the difficulty of obtaining spares from Germany curtailed her activities and after the war she was fitted with more conventional propellors.
She continued in Red Funnel service until September 1965, when she was bought by Townsend Car Ferries Ltd for operation by P & A Campbell, in the Bristol Channel, in whose colours she is seen here. She was overhauled, fitted with a Campbells cowl on her funnel and re named Westward Ho. In 1969 she was joined by Balmoral, her former Red Funnel fleetmate and the two operated Campbells services for two years, until Westward Ho was laid up with engine problems. A year later she was sold for static use as a pub and nightclub in Manchester and in 1985 she was towed to the Thames for various uses around the Docklands area of London. She was eventually broken up in Cornwall in 1996.