SRN4 Hovercraft Princess Margaret Departing Dover Summer 2000 - Highlights From Escape From Thanet
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- Опубліковано 10 чер 2012
- Enhanced and edited footage from a home movie I shot in 2000 titled "Escape From Thanet". In this sequence, James Hall and myself (along with James` Ex) have arrived at Dover to watch some ferries. We were lucky enough to catch the SRN4's Princess Anne and Margaret during the afternoon. Here we see GH2006 Princess Margaret preparing to depart and leaving the pad for Calais. Several months after this was shot Hoverspeed pulled the N4`s from service in favor of the 'cats. GRRRRRRRRRRRR. The Princess Anne Footage will follow soon. Editing is underway on Escape From Thanet 5 (trailer elsewhere on here), but is slow going lol. This footage has been audio and visually enhanced from original 8mm camcorder footage and converted ifrom 4:3 nto 16:9 aspect image. If only I had a camcorder 10 or 15 years earlier - or a camera for that matter!!!! The English channel is no longer quite as vibrant now these two queens of the sea have been retired! They were transferred to The Hovercraft Museum in Lee-on-Solent after being pulled from duty. Truly an end of an era...... Hope you enjoy........
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I used to travel back and forth across the Channel regularly on these wonderful craft; at one point daily. Latterly, I got to know the crew so well that I used to be invited up into the pretty small cockpit, and would spend the crossing chatting to the pilots. An amazing way to travel, and a splendid view.
I also, accidentally, wound up on the last ever scheduled crossing: I'd arrived at Calais shortly before the due departure as normal, and as I drove straight up the ramp, I was surprised to see crowds outside, and the cabin packed. We set off, and part way across, the Captain came on the tannoy to make an excellent and very emotional speech about this being the last ever flight, etc. (which I hadn't realised until then). I then also realised that most of the passengers were Press - no doubt appreciating the glasses of champagne being handed out to us all. When we arrived at Dover, it was amazing. Every bit of the harbour wall was packed with spectators and well-wishers, with cameras all over the place. As I was one of the last off, I had time to pop up to the cockpit and say goodbye properly to the crew, as well as to the engineers who'd appeared.
They were truly beautiful craft, and a good 15 minutes quicker than the Eurotunnel, despite what everybody says - I've done crossings on both when they left as soon as I was on board. The crews were extremely friendly, thoroughly professional, and did wonders keeping some pretty aged craft running on a wish and a prayer. What a great shame that nobody has produced replacements yet.
I love your story. I have never been close to any craft like this in my life, and I was just gasping with awe watching this video.
Amazing monsters, and a sad ending.
Fastest crossing even today. Loved the hovercraft...look glad I rode them.
These crafts were awesome to see running, I'm from Dover (still live here) as a kid I used to go fishing off the admiralty pier and watch these dock in and out for hours, they were soo impressive to see running, when they come in from France they'd make a right scene no mucking about straight in and up to the hoverport like thunder out of a cloud of mist and a roar that went right through ya, memories and nostalgia, bless these gorgeous beasts where ever they might be
Could you hear them all the time from your house? How did it compare to a plane?
TrueFilter
You didn’t ask me but, I’m going to guess that is louder. Biggest air driving propellers you see, not to mention to the engines aren’t small.
A couple of them are at the Hovercraft museum in Lee On Solent. x
This one is actually at a hovercraft museum in Lee-on-the-Solent about 10 minutes from Dover you could go see it
No way these are real
I worked by the Hovercraft Museum where they were both stored and had to watch while they ripped Margaret apart for scrap.It was heartbreaking to watch
After the Chunnel opened up, they should have reconfigured the ferry-routes of the SR-N4s to another destiny, preferably a longer route!
Rode on the Princess Margaret when we visited England in August 1979...I was 13. Pretty cool experience!
My old school was in Ramsgate, not too far from the old hoverport between ramsgate and sandwich. I was a young lad when the the hoverport was decommissioned and all that's left is just bits of the concrete apron going into the sea. I 've never seen one of these in real life, but it was awesome to see it just inflate the main cushion so fast and then drift backwards. Thank you for posting it
A great way to cross the Channel, sadly missed! The only hovercraft service I know of now is between Ryde and Southsea.
I was lucky enough to have witnessed one of these beasts rising up and heading out when I was about 15. It was one of the most amazing sights to behold.
I remember waiting for a ferry next to one in Dover when I was about 5 years old. It was terrifying to me as it was so loud and weird but my parents found it hilarious.
I sailed on it many times in the 80’s. By chance I also happened to get one of the last ever sailings. Noisy, uncomfortable but amazing.
I was fortunate enough to watch this live and ride them as well. No recording could ever capture the sheer visceral vibration of the event!
Got to ride that baby once before they retired. What an awesome machine. Noisy, fast, bumpy, exciting! Why do they kill off everything that is that.
Anton Spilhaus the channel tunnel killed it, that and a lack of spare parts, oh and it didnt make any money. But yes why did ‘they’ kill it.
it simply used way too much fuel - a but like using an old hoover to clean your house - it will cost you almost a fiver ...where as a state-of-the-art machine will do the same work for only 40p ...and a lot more quick and quiet...
Anton Spilhaus 3 things, competition from the channel tunnel which was a quicker journey, and was more efficient running on electricity rather than 4 thirsty 1950s era jet engines, the over 30 year old craft were complex to maintain, having more in common with an airliner than a ferry and parts were running out and the end of duty free sales on board in 1999 really dented profits.
I wish I did
@@ANTHONYBOOTHhovercraft was quicker than the tunnel
I travel via hovercraft regularly to visit my sister on the Isle of Wight. Southsea to Ryde in ten minutes. It’s a thrilling experience every time! The flights can be a bit bumpy sometimes, but that just adds to the excitement. 😊
Great video. I had many great holidays on the continent as a kid and we always went by Hovercraft. Thanks for posting, great memories.
Fantastic video I love these old beasts and they are enormous
That was awesome!! Thank u for the upload....👍
I inadverdently get a deep felt smiling face, when I see this video. We once made a family vacation visiting Great Britain. On the way to GB we took the Sea-Cat from Ostende to Dover and on the way back we boarded the Hovercraft from Dover to Calais. Both parts were impressive in their own ways. (unfortunately the Sea--Cat's engine-exhaust fumes were unpleasantly scratching our noses at the stern of this catamaran, but i always want to see how a boat or ship glides through the water). The Hovercraft ride was a little bit choppy, but very FASCINATING (... as science officer Spock in spaceship NCC 1701 would comment it! ). I hope some day GB will operate new King-Size, (flexible?) Hovercrafts again! The sound when those 4 large propellers throttled up in Dover at the start of the ride is unforgetable.
Lucky enough to have flown to France and back on one of these. Rough and lumpy outbound, smooth as millpond coming home. Thanks for the memories, thanks for posting the video. Cheers.
I loved it. Missing it. This is something the next Generation will Never get to Ride
Had a few rides on one of these as a kid and have never forgotten that initial rising up. Great experience.
You've preserved, nicely, a great piece of industrial age machinery. Pretty amazing sea craft...
Great video. I was 15, when I was hovering for the very first time from Dover to Calais. Sadly to say it was the first and last time. Later I used to travel to UK always by plane, it was and still is the cheapest and fastest way to reach the UK.
Remember being lucky enough to travel on one on a crossing as a kid, remember it being quite exciting if not a little on the rough side, thanks for the upload
Even today these things are futuristic, yet they are retired. Mind boggling.
Lovely sight. And a great belch at 5mins 30. x
I was there in 2000, as a tourist from Italy, and I was wearing rollerblades... I was amazed by the extremely loud noise that this thing was doing and I was hanging to the gate of the harbor (you can see it in the last minute), and I can remember it was almost unbearable the thrust it had.... Since I was on my rollerblades I had to stay tight to the gate not to roll away... Unforgettable memory of my childhood!
This was surprisingly cool! I haven't seen anything like this before. Cheers.
There is still a hovercraft service to the Isle of Wight!
5:34 :D :D great !!!
Great Film man, remind me of myself and the lads on our spotting days out, Should of made the effort to see one of these
This was definitely way before it's time, such a shame, that must have been a sight to behold, RIP Princess Margaret
As an apprentice working at Saunders Roe in the 60's we were often chased across the grass by a working model of SRN4 being operated by technicians. At that time they were building SRN6's a much smaller craft. When we were not in the apprentice training centre we were used in the main factory to put Loctite on the hundreds of bolts that held all the rubber sections of the skirt together. Great days, such a shame most have now gone.
What a machine! What a video.
Happy days, I used to travel Hoverlloyd from Pegwell Bay.
Fascinating machines and a great way to travel
Great to have this footage of the cross channel hovercraft - and the acrobatic seagull as a nice contrast!
She was scrapped a couple of years ago. Today, only her sister: princess Anne survives.
So fast 💨 awesome 👏
Love the sinister belch at 5:34😂
Me and my family ended up riding on a Hovercraft between Dover and Calais back at Easter 2000. We were meant to go on the Sea Cat to Ostende but the ferries were all being diverted to Calais due to bad weather.
Remember the Hovercraft crossing being extremely bumpy and really unpleasent. By some miracle me and my family all avoided being ill but most of the other passengers weren't so lucky.
It would have been nice to have experienced it in smoother conditions.
I remember going on the Princess Margaret many times for the infamous booze cruise. Amazing ride, but you could hear these things way before you could see it!
Such a loss when it went!
Hard to imagine that they were introduced over 50 year's ago. Way ahead of their time.
5:33 lol
My (US) family and I toured England in '97 then crossed over to the Continent. The Eurostar was faster, of course, but you don't see anything crossing the channel that way so we decided to do the hovercraft going over to Calais and the Eurostar coming back a couple of weeks later. I'm glad we did it that way and experienced both. We still have a video of our hovercraft crossing laying around here somewhere. The funny thing was, the passenger compartment of the hovercraft was nearly full on our crossing but we were the only non motor vehicle-borne passengers on the craft who upon arrival in Calais did not turn right around and get in line to return to Dover. We asked why people crossed the channel just to immediately turn around and go back and we were told, "Duty free alcohol".
THM SGR : That were folks on a so called „Booze Cruze“
And indeed it was the abolition of duty free that finally killed this hovercraft route. You can see why!
@TheRenaissanceman65 Duty free alcohol was actually allowed to and from the EU right up to 1999 even though we had been in the EEC for nearly 30 years. But true, wine prices were much lower on the Continent and it was worth bringing back as much duty paid wine as you could carry. I benefited from both methods in the 80s and 90s, though travelling by air; duty paid wine from supermarkets, duty free liqueurs or spirits at the airport. Duty free chewed up lots of space in plane overhead lockers and was a fire and fall hazard, so it was no bad thing when it went, but it was the death knell of the SRN-4.
@TheRenaissanceman65 Ironically, the latest Govt guidelines state we will get duty free back from Jan 2021, due to Brexit! I think the retention of duty free to/from the EU for so many years was because so many airports lobbied hard for it as it was a big part of their profits - the markup was huge. I think it was eventually abolished as part of the Maastricht agreement.
@TheRenaissanceman65 Try looking it up - the original end date was 1 January 1993, but the duty-free industry was granted an extra six and a half years to adjust. It finally ceased on 30 June 1999. It was indeed agreed in 1991 that it was an anomaly in the single market, but as I said, retail lobbies can be powerful.
During August, 1968, British Rail commenced a cross-Channel service using the SRN4---a one hundred and sixty-five ton hovership suitable for all-the-year round services over open coastal water routes such as the English Channel, and capable of journeys up to one hundred nautical miles over waves as high as eight to twelve feet.
What a shame, they were never converted to Diesel. If so, they could have continued to remain in competitive service, for many more years.
I can still remember my girlfriend and I, travelling to Calais and back on the Cross Channel Hovercraft service, quick and loud! But I still preferred the more leisurely ferry service! Now the shuttle is my travel choice quick and convenient and the dog can sit with us!!
Class video. LOL at the belch.........!
I miss it so much
It is coming up to 20 years, since these great machines were retired from service. What a
shame they were never converted to Diesel. If so they would have remained competitive, for several more years.
As a kid in the 1970s I wanted to travel on one. Just never had a reason and the only time I went to France it was on an airliner.
Now I never will get that chance.
Remember a holiday in 1999 at St Marys at cliff a few miles from Dover could that magic noise half way across the channel,Took a trip across on her on the day of the eclipse.
I did so many £1 French flyer trips in the early 1990s ..used to love these then the channel tunnel killed them off ..sadly missed
Not the tunnel but the end of the Duty Free killed it off.
@@georgebarnes8163 I think it was probably a combination of the two george ..
Bloody HELL... I remember THAT!!! :)
this video got the sound right. We could hear it in the hotel in Dover, too.
Please bring them back!!
I cried years ago and I am crying now at the power - the build up and the majestic way it leaves the ground to the sea. What a silly billy I am...
Does anyone else get emotional?
wow, it's huge!
Amazing
I wish I could have ridden it
I used to do trips on the Princess Margaret and the Princess Anne.You see, we paid £5 for the return trip and you could get 200 ciggies and a litre bottle of spirits for £10 EACH WAY. 99% of her passengers were doing this and it was Hoverspeeds bread and butter.By Gum, those were the days. I am 70 now but I remember them well.
5:34 turboBurp hovercraft 😂😂😂😂
The Princess Margaret, Mountbatten Class… the Brits sure know how to make exciting things sound dreary.
Loud things they were!
BEAST! Sadly almost everything in this film is gone now, even my goatee!
Will the exception is there any others than the Isle of White?
where ever in dover you where ( buckland,maxton,whitfield)ect. you would hear her and her sister fire up then roar as they exited the breakwater and went full throttle,lucky enough to have flown in them a few times and the funny looking french one which was in service for a few years SN500 i think it was 3 engines at the back and 3 times as high
yes i heard the burp...lol
IT'S ALWAYS AMAZING, WATCH THE HOVERCRAFT'S DEPARTURE FROM DOVER!!!!!!!!!
5:32 best part of the video - added sound effects :)
Nothing like the "gulls of Dover" or is that the "gals of Dover"? Either way their both British birds, aren't they? (had to sneak one in for my love's, "The Hill's Angels"! - LOLOL, LOLO, LOLOL !
Has the one at the museum still got its engines fitted?
👍👍👍👍👍
Many years ago I travelled both ways across the Channel aboard one of these Hovercraft. It was terribly noisy and uncomfortable, everybody was sick !
No such problem nowadays with the Shuttle...
Talking out of your hat my friend, the ride was extremely smooth and the noise was no greater than that of a contemporary turboprop aeroplane.
@@@gregtaylor6146
May be it was because when I did this channel crossing the sea was rather rough, and for the noise I could compare with several travels between Paris and London aboard a Vickers Viscount...
@@78Dipar They did run them in pretty rough conditions at times, sometimes even when the ferries had stopped sailing. So you probably got a particularly bad trip.
@@iankemp1131
There was some waves but it wasn't a tempest ! It would have been less unconfortable with a perfectly calm sea, but noise and vibration would have been still there.
A hovercrat is more sensible to waves than a ferry because it's smaller and go faster.
I had the same problem when travelling between St Malo and Jersey and back abord an hydrofoil.
i'm sure it was hoverlloyd, when i went on it in 1980
super
Looks like that was the Norwegian Dream docked at the port.
What i like to call "The concorde of the seas"
1:02 looks like someone I used to work with, James
5:33 Barney,?? is that you? 😀
everything good gets retired ( concorde and this beast ,QE2 and so on )
ABSDEFRD you expect everything to last forever? Something better comes along and makes things obsolete, that’s how things work.
They looked great, seemed like a lot of fun (James Bond and all) but I know the big draw back.....they were REALLY, REALLY, NOISY...eh,? What's that you say? - LOLOL, LOLOL, LOLOL !
What ever happened to these beautiful machines. It sounds like a Lancaster bomber on takeoff
5:34 😄
I always felt sick as a dog travelling on these.
She did require a lot of pumping to get her going.
Why does British ingenuity have a legacy of falling flat on its face?
I think we are bad at managing stuff... It usually seems things fall over because of costs.
Becuase our shite government TAXES everything to the edge of survival. There's a fine line.
They were expensive on fuel, expensive for tickets, you didn't see ANYTHING out of the windows (apart from the spray), but BOY did you feel you were travelling in the future! Miss them, but the Chunnel is more efficient and about as fast.
Shane Vlaardingerbroek. Because it was far too expensive to run. I have used it many times but it could be very uncomfortable in rough weather.
the chunnel was the death of hovercraft
Portsmouth to the Isle of Wight not as big but just as good
5:43 "More tea vicar?"
Who is this girl @1:14? She's so beautiful. I miss these hovercrafts. I just traveled with one of them in the mid 90s from Belgium (Oostende) to Ramsgate. Such a beautiful time. Greetings from Germany
Although the hovercraft did visit ostend I didn't think there were any services from there?
Probably James` Ex according to the title ;)
@@lfewell2161 Indeed, the service to Ostend was a hydrofoil from Ramsgate, not a hovercraft.
Was it the Channel Tunnel that brought the days of the hovers to an end?
No,running costs and part availability
@@porno6361 wrong my friend, end of duty free sales.
Victor Morris true Victor,but they were expensive to run and parts were like unicorns to get hold of
SUMMER 2000!!! - THAT'S WHEN I FINALLY FUCKED OFF BACK TO CRETE!!! ...made a few passes back through that end but did not re-settle... - prefer GREECE!!! ...used to enjoy sitting watching the hovercraft from the viewing area - never did get to go on it because the jobsworths would not let me take my bicycle...
Was is scrapped or preserved ?
I’m only here for the Burp 🤣
Where are they today? All scraped or has one of them somewhere survived? P.S. i have one of them as a Scale Model in 1:720.
I believe one of them is in the Hovercraft Museum nr Portsmouth.
Did someone belch at 05.35?
At 5'33" the real engines sound.
They should mass produce them again
VGames 1 they never mass produced them, and who is going to pay for it? You?
GHOST 🦇🦇💯💯💯
they use 4 rolls royce jet engines
nice burp at 5:34
Why everything the British used to do was so .... Thunderbirds!? You´d say they built stuff just to inspire/copy Jerry Anderson, or give Airfix a cue to their next kit!
Was that the ex bird @5:34 💨
omG
Wonderful invention
But it was rather noisy
Who was James x?? 🤣
Jet Fuel petrol burn rate must have been massive.OMG
each prop used 1 ton per hour