More Research Of One Of The Houseboats In The Photo.

A Memory of Bursledon.

With reference to the Polish Motor Torpedo Boat houseboat in the photo ('Hippocampus/S-8/HMTB 427'), I have done some more research using the local Electoral Registers (held in Winchester and Gosport) and found out the following:

The first owner of S-8 in June 1949, was Mr. Alan Aitcheson who bought the boat from the Admiralty after WW2 and the boat was in fact simply called, 'S-8', the boat's wartime Polish number. The boat is listed in the Electoral Register with Alan Aitcheson's name until 1955 then disappears for some reason from the Register until February 1961 when the boat re-appears as being moored across the river, 'above' Bursledon Bridge at the Hamble River Boatyard, Bridge Road, Sarisbury. The owners then being Leslie and Marjorie Fletcher and the name having been changed to 'Sea Horse' ('Hippocampus' being the Latin name for Sea Horse - the reason I knew the boat as 'Hippocampus' was that we found a life ring with that name on it in the wheelhouse when we bought her in 1974 from Belsize Boatyard on the River Itchen for £475.). She remained in the Fletcher's ownership until the 1969/70 Electoral Register when John and Gillian Fletcher are also listed as living on board. There the entries in the Register ended and the boat was finally moved to the River Itchen in late 1974 when we bought her. If anyone knows either of the owners named above from 1949 to 1974, I would be very grateful for any information as well as any information/stories about the boat on the River Hamble.

I eventually 'found' the ex-C/O of S-8 living in Ipswich...it took me about 10 years but sadly, since meeting up with him, he has since died aged 90 (in July 2013). His name was Sub. Lieut. Krzysztof MISZEWSKI and after WW2 became a pig farmer in Suffolk, returning to Poland for a brief time to manage a farm there, after trying farming in Sierra Leone working for the British Colonial Service, 1950-55. A very amiable fellow with an amazing story to tell.

As of September 2019, 'S-8s' sistership (of the six originally built), Polish MTB S-7 is still afloat as a houseboat in Shoreham, Sussex, called 'Thanet' - quite remarkable, as they were built/launched in 1944 at the J. Samuel White Shipyard in Cowes, I.O.W. and destined to be 'expendable'. One of the other Polish MTBs, MTB S-10 was (one of three ex-RN MTBs) used in the 1954 film 'The Ship That Died of Shame' made at Ealing Studios. The original story being written by Nicholas Monsarrat, who also wrote 'The Cruel Sea'.

Tim Deacon (owner of S-8 from 1974-79 on the River Itchen at Priory Boat Yard, Pettinger Gardens, St. Denys, Southampton).