''Havengore'' is a former hydrographic survey launch, originally launched in 1956 for service with the

Port of London Authority The Port of London Authority (PLA) is a self-funding public trust established on 31 March 1909 in accordance with the Port of London Act 1908 to govern the Port of London. Its responsibility extends over the Tideway of the River Thames and its ...

(PLA). After her withdrawal from service and sale in 1995, she was re-registered as a passenger vessel for up to 40 passengers. Based on the

River Thames The River Thames ( ), known alternatively in parts as the The Isis, River Isis, is a river that flows through southern England including London. At , it is the longest river entirely in England and the Longest rivers of the United Kingdom, s ...

, ''Havengore'' has also served as a ceremonial vessel. She is best known for carrying the body of

Sir Winston Churchill Sir Winston Leonard Spencer Churchill (30 November 1874 – 24 January 1965) was a British statesman, military officer, and writer who was Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1940 to 1945 (Winston Churchill in the Second World War, ...

as part of his

state funeral A state funeral is a public funeral ceremony, observing the strict rules of protocol, held to honour people of national significance. State funerals usually include much pomp and ceremony as well as religious overtones and distinctive elements o ...

in 1965. ''Havengore'' was named after

Havengore Island Havengore Island is a low-lying, marshy island in the civil parish of Foulness, in the Rochford district, in the county of Essex, England. It is bounded by New England Creek to the north, Havengore Creek to the south west, the Middleway to the no ...

, a low-lying marshy island off the coast of

Essex Essex ( ) is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in the East of England, and one of the home counties. It is bordered by Cambridgeshire and Suffolk to the north, the North Sea to the east, Kent across the Thames Estuary to the ...

. The derivation of the word Havengore is Old English, 'haefen' meaning an anchorage and 'gor' meaning muddy. The adjoining Havengore Creek marked the northern end of the PLA's jurisdiction prior to 1964, when it was extended to include the whole of the

Thames Estuary The Thames Estuary is where the River Thames meets the waters of the North Sea, in the south-east of Great Britain. Limits An estuary can be defined according to different criteria (e.g. tidal, geographical, navigational or in terms of salinit ...

. By convention many

PLA Pla may refer to: People * Cecilio Plá (1860–1934), Spanish painter * Conrad Pla (born 1966), Canadian kickboxer and actor * Jim Pla (born 1992), French racing driver * Joan Baptista Pla (ca. 1720–1773), Spanish composer and oboist * Josefina ...

vessels are named after features of the River Thames.

History

Construction

''Havengore'' was commissioned by the

(PLA) in 1954 to replace its former

survey vessel A survey vessel is any type of ship or boat that is used for underwater surveys, usually to collect data for mapping or planning underwater construction or mineral extraction. It is a type of research vessel, and may be designed for the pu ...

the ''Shorne Meade''. Built by Tough Brothers of

Teddington Teddington is an affluent suburb of London in the London Borough of Richmond upon Thames. Historically an Civil parish#ancient parishes, ancient parish in the county of Middlesex and situated close to the border with Surrey, the district became ...

, she is of double diagonal construction in

teak Teak (''Tectona grandis'') is a tropical hardwood tree species in the family Lamiaceae. It is a large, deciduous tree that occurs in mixed hardwood forests. ''Tectona grandis'' has small, fragrant white flowers arranged in dense clusters (panic ...

over a framework of English oak. The National Physical Laboratory helped design and test her twin counter-rotating

propeller A propeller (often called a screw if on a ship or an airscrew if on an aircraft) is a device with a rotating hub and radiating blades that are set at a pitch to form a helical spiral which, when rotated, exerts linear thrust upon a working flu ...

s and underwater fittings, while Decca Radar oversaw trials of her survey systems. She was launched in 1956.

1956-1995: Port of London Authority

''Havengore'' entered service with the PLA on 4 February 1956. As the PLA's

hydrographic survey Hydrographic survey is the science of measurement and description of features which affect maritime navigation, marine construction, dredging, offshore wind farms, offshore oil exploration and drilling and related activities. Surveys may als ...

vessel, she was responsible for recording changes to the bed of the

and

. She was the first

in the UK to install a computer to record survey data, using

punched tape file:PaperTapes-5and8Hole.jpg, Five- and eight-hole wide punched paper tape file:Harwell-dekatron-witch-10.jpg, Paper tape reader on the Harwell computer with a small piece of five-hole tape connected in a circle – creating a physical program ...

; replacement

Unix workstation A workstation is a special computer designed for technical or computational science, scientific applications. Intended primarily to be used by a single user, they are commonly connected to a local area network and run multi-user operating syste ...

s were installed in 1989. After becoming the longest-serving PLA vessel, she performed her last hydrographic work in 1995, when she was withdrawn from service and sold.

1995-2024: Private ownership

After changing hands in 1995, ''Havengore'' was restored and refitted at the

Chatham Historic Dockyard The Historic Dockyard Chatham is a maritime museum on part of the site of the former Royal Navy Dockyard, royal/naval dockyard at Chatham, Medway, Chatham in Kent, South East England. Chatham Dockyard covered 400 acres (1.6 km2) and was o ...

. Subsequently, she was used by the Havengore Education and Leadership Mission (HELM) to provide excursions for underprivileged children on the

River Medway The River Medway is a river in South East England. It rises in the High Weald AONB, High Weald, West Sussex and flows through Tonbridge, Maidstone and the Medway conurbation in Kent, before emptying into the Thames Estuary near Sheerness, a to ...

. Changing hands again in 2006, three further phases of restoration - including the reuse of parts from a

0-4-0 Under the Whyte notation for the classification of steam locomotives, represents one of the simplest possible types, that with two axles and four coupled wheels, all of which are driven. The wheels on the earliest four-coupled locomotives were ...

diesel locomotive A diesel locomotive is a type of railway locomotive in which the prime mover (locomotive), power source is a diesel engine. Several types of diesel locomotives have been developed, differing mainly in the means by which mechanical power is con ...

- have ensured that she remains fully operational in compliance with MCA regulations, while respecting her historic fabric. ''Havengore'' participated in the river

pageant Pageant(s) or The Pageant(s) may refer to: Events * Procession or ceremony in elaborate costume * Beauty pageant, or beauty contest * List of pageants of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints * Medieval pageant, a narrative medieval pro ...

held to mark the 200th anniversary of the

Battle of Trafalgar The Battle of Trafalgar was a naval engagement that took place on 21 October 1805 between the Royal Navy and a combined fleet of the French Navy, French and Spanish Navy, Spanish navies during the War of the Third Coalition. As part of Na ...

and has taken part in services marking

Armistice Day Armistice Day, later known as Remembrance Day in the Commonwealth of Nations, Commonwealth and Veterans Day in the United States, is commemorated every year on 11 November to mark Armistice of 11 November 1918, the armistice signed between th ...

and

Armed Forces Day An Armed Forces Day, alongside its Military branch, branch-specific variants often referred to as Army or Soldier's Day, Navy or Sailor's Day, and Air Force or Aviator's Day, is a holiday dedicated to honoring the Military, armed forces, o ...

. Moored at

St Katharine Docks St Katharine Docks is a former dock in the St Katherine and Wapping ward of the London Borough of Tower Hamlets. It lies in the East End of London, East End on the north bank of the River Thames, immediately downstream of the Tower of London an ...

, ''Havengore'' currently undertakes a mixed programme of public service and charitable events and is also available for corporate hospitality purposes.

Churchill funeral

On 30 January 1965 ''Havengore'' carried

on his last journey by water along the River Thames from Tower Pier to Festival Pier during his

. On her journey along the Thames, ''Havengore'' was saluted by a

flypast ''FlyPast'' is an aircraft magazine, published monthly, edited by Tom Allett, Steve Beebee and Jamie Ewan. History and profile The magazine started as a bi-monthly edition in May/June 1981 and its first editor was the late Mike Twite. It is ow ...

of 16

English Electric Lightning The English Electric Lightning is a British fighter aircraft that served as an interceptor during the 1960s, the 1970s and into the late 1980s. It is capable of a top speed above Mach 2. The Lightning was designed, developed, and manufactured ...

fighter jets, and dock cranes were bowed as she passed. This event was broadcast live to an estimated worldwide audience of 350 million viewers, one in ten of the then

world population In demographics of the world, world demographics, the world population is the total number of humans currently alive. It was estimated by the United Nations to have exceeded eight billion in mid-November 2022. It took around 300,000 years of h ...

. Archive newsreel footage is available via the

BBC The British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) is a British public service broadcaster headquartered at Broadcasting House in London, England. Originally established in 1922 as the British Broadcasting Company, it evolved into its current sta ...

website. ''Havengore'' carries a

commemorative plaque A commemorative plaque, or simply plaque, or in other places referred to as a historical marker, historic marker, or historic plaque, is a plate of metal, ceramic, stone, wood, or other material, bearing text or an image in relief, or both, ...

presented by the International Churchill Society inscribed with the words of the BBC broadcaster that day,

Richard Dimbleby Frederick Richard Dimbleby (25 May 1913 – 22 December 1965) was an English journalist and broadcaster who became the BBC's first war correspondent and then its leading TV news commentator. As host of the long-running current affairs pro ...

: 'And so ''Havengore'' sails into history ... not even the ''

Golden Hind ''Golden Hind'' was a galleon captained by Francis Drake in his circumnavigation of the world between 1577 and 1580. She was originally known as ''Pelican,'' but Drake renamed her mid-voyage in 1578, in honour of his patron, Sir Christopher Ha ...

'' had borne so great a man'.

Queen Elizabeth

''Havengore'' participated in the river pageant held to mark the Queen's

Silver Jubilee Silver Jubilee marks a 25th anniversary. The anniversary celebrations can be of a wedding anniversary, the 25th year of a monarch's reign or anything that has completed or is entering a 25-year mark. Royal Silver Jubilees since 1750 Note: This ...

in 1977. On 17 May 2012 it was announced that the ''Havengore'' had been selected to carry members of the Royal Family as part of Queen Elizabeth II's Diamond Jubilee celebrations in a flotilla of over a thousand vessels during the Thames pageant on 3 June 2012. Members of the Royal Family who embarked on the ''Havengore'' for the Thames pageant were The Duke of York,

Princess Beatrice Princess Beatrice, Mrs Edoardo Mapelli Mozzi (Beatrice Elizabeth Mary; born 8 August 1988) is a member of the British royal family. She is the elder daughter of Prince Andrew, Duke of York, and Sarah, Duchess of York. She is a niece of King Ch ...

Princess Eugenie Princess Eugenie, Mrs Jack Brooksbank ( ; Eugenie Victoria Helena; born 23 March 1990) is a member of the British royal family. She is the younger daughter of Prince Andrew, Duke of York, and Sarah, Duchess of York. She is a niece of King Cha ...

, The Earl and Countess of Wessex, The Duke and

Duchess of Gloucester Duchess of Gloucester is the principal Courtesy titles in the United Kingdom, courtesy title used by the wife of the Duke of Gloucester. There have been five titles referring to Gloucester since the 14th century. The current duchess is Birgitt ...

, and

Prince A prince is a male ruler (ranked below a king, grand prince, and grand duke) or a male member of a monarch's or former monarch's family. ''Prince'' is also a title of nobility (often highest), often hereditary, in some European states. The ...

and

Princess Michael of Kent Princess Michael of Kent (born Baroness Marie-Christine Anna Agnes Hedwig Ida von Reibnitz, 15 January 1945) is a member of the British royal family. She is married to Prince Michael of Kent, who is a grandson of George V, King George V. Prince ...

. The craft also participated in observances on the Thames marking Queen Elizabeth's surpassing of

Queen Victoria Victoria (Alexandrina Victoria; 24 May 1819 – 22 January 1901) was Queen of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland from 20 June 1837 until Death and state funeral of Queen Victoria, her death in January 1901. Her reign of 63 year ...

as the longest-reigning British monarch on 9 September 2015.

References

External links

Official ''Havengore'' River Thames Boat Charters Site''Havengore'' entry in the National Register of Historic Vessels
{{DEFAULTSORT:Havengore Hydrography Research vessels of the United Kingdom 1956 ships Ships and vessels on the National Register of Historic Vessels