flywheel dates

[headdownarseup]

It's also the same paperwork that Jeremy has used in his data sheets.
No apology necessary Chas.
Just trying to keep things as real as possible within the realms of what can be (if you like) "re-discovered" by what precious little remains.

Without the likes of you "older guys" that have done some of the donkey work before, the likes of me (a relative youngster by comparison says me who's approaching 50 ) would be lost without you. I'm just trying to fill in some of the blanks that i'm sure will exist somewhere along the line.

By the way, if getting Chas P's book to the publishers is a concern if it makes things any easier my little sister is a book editor. She owes me a few favours by now, so i'll ask the question if you like.
I'm sure there must be literally hundreds of us around the world eagerly awaiting the arrival of Charles's book. Me included
Anything i can do to speed the process up just ask. No bother.

Jon

[charlesp]

Getting CharlesP's book to the publisher isn't an issue, but thank you for the kind offer.

I've done nothing on it for several years, apart from pondering on the replacement of numerous illustrations, as many were taken on 35mm film (remember that?) and professionally scanned.

As it stands it comprises a (brief) illustrated history of British Seagull starting from a Bristol garage in Marston times, and ending with the death of Mr Way-Hope. It was never intended to be a workshop manual, nor an ultra-detailed forensic examination of every model ( like Morgan and Shacklady's heroic volume on the Spitfire). As far as it went I was happy with it save for two things. One was the illustrations, because scanned film is vastly outclassed by modern digital imaging and because better examples have become known to me.

Then other thing was a huge gap in the middle, which I had not - and still have not - managed to fill. That's the bit between 1941 and 1946, where we simply don't have much to work with. Pre-war Marstons have an absolute wealth of advertising material - there are brochures extant for every year, sailing magazine reviews, a Government departmental report, correspondence, reminders, commercial record, and of course a growing list of survivors (which as a percentage of total production is impressive). After the war the models are similarly public, and it's not difficult to find surviving motors in their hundreds. A glance at Jeremy's work with the F-FV-VF-LS family demonstrates that there is a lot of information to be gleaned from the things themselves and their manuals and spares booklets.

But the wartime production is more important than any of these other motors. It's the reason that British Seagull even stayed in existence into the late forties. And we know so little about it. Yes we have a bunch of engines, and we have spares books from ten years later, and we have a couple of versions of the "user manual" from which we can glean something. We know what Pinniger and Way-Hope were doing early in the war (from family and friend interviews), and from the same source we know which campaign was being planned when the first batch was ordered. But we don't who made the bits or how the system of material supply worked. We don't know why some had copper magneto covers or why so many are stamped SDP when they really should be just SD. We don't know if any were ever supplied to the Navy (well I do know but I can't prove it!) and we don't know what the tanks looked like when they were new, or were they ever supplied with normal transom brackets or what sort of plug caps they may have been issued with. All that sort of stuffWe don't know nearly as much as I would like. It would be a bit like the Dambusters but lacking Lancasters and Barnes Wallis.

When they weed out records in the depository at Kew they probably retain anything pertaining to "Churchill" or "Spitfire" or "Montgomery" but consign stuff about little outboard motors to the furnace...

[headdownarseup]

Hmm interesting.
You may have heard me mention once or twice before that i have a couple of contacts within the MOD. To date nothing much has been forthcoming but i shan't give up just yet in case they manage to dig up something a bit hush hush and not for general circulation (if you get my meaning)

I ventured for a while with various museums around the country. A very helpful young lady at the IWM knew exactly the kind of information i was seeking. Her grandfather used to use a seagull not long after the wars end and kept various photos of her grandad with the boat and seagull as a keepsake. Unfortunately this proved to be somewhat of a waste of time after nearly 6 weeks of her searching through the archives for me.

Anyway, i keep doing what i can from this end. Never give up coz you never know what's around the next corner.

Jon

[charlesp]

Yes, Charles (the other one) and myself tried various museums.

And I had high hopes of the military, too, but nothing came of my enquiries. I really hoped that living next to a Royal Marines base might have borne fruit, and of course being a Poole resident I have been disappointed that no centenarian has knocked on my door with first hand knowledge.

I know of nothing "Hush Hush" as you call it- at least nothing that's "Hush Hush" nowadays.

But as you say, you never know what's round the corner.