Humber flotilla sails into history books as thousands watch

It was calm enough for ducks as 44 boats of all sizes and shapes mustered for a mile-long flotilla aiming to recreate one held for Queen Victoria’s Diamond Jubilee in 1897.

A yellow Sea King helicopter from RAF Leconfield sent ripples of excitement through crowds four or five deep along the Hessle foreshore, as it swooped and hovered over the estuary, dropping orange flares.

The boats slowly moved off, forming out into a quavering line as they passed under the Humber Bridge, before doubling back on the route an hour later.

It may have been a fraction of the size of the Thames Royal Jubilee Diamond river pageant, but it was a magnificent sight.

ABP’s Humber Charter took the lead, followed by the Archer-class P2000-type patrol and training vessel HMS Explorer, with Lieutenant Dafydd Bryden in charge, and four boys representing local schools on board.

These were Lawrence Lowish, representing South Ferriby and Trinity House School; Alex Cutts, Hessle and Hessle High School; Steven Alliss, Barton upon Humber and Baysgarth High School; and Stephen Johnson, North Ferriby and Hymers College.

They were followed by the yacht Ierne, a piece of sailing history, which has been restored in Yorkshire. Built on the River Clyde in 1914, the Ierne used a revolutionary sail design that caused controversy when she left the rest of the competition at sea, clinching Olympic gold at the 1920 Antwerp Olympics for the Norwegians. Much of her subsequent history is a mystery, although it is said her sister yacht was used by one of Mussolini’s officers to sail to North Africa after Italy’s defeat in the Second World War.

Kellingley, a former tug used for transporting coal from the Yorkshire collieries and running a shuttle between the mines and coal-fired power stations was also in the line-up, along with Sobriety, a Humber keel built in 1910 at Beverley and used for residential trips.

Also in the sailpast was Vulcan, built in 1865 at Maryhill, Lanark, when Queen Victoria had been on the throne for 28 years. Vulcan was a working boat for 130 years and is believed to be older than any of the boats which took part in the Thames river pageant.

The main body made up of sailing and pleasure craft from clubs and private individuals from around the Humber was followed by five tugs spraying their deck guns.

Coun Brian Jefferies said: “This has been the culmination of three days of events and it had put Hessle on the map.

“Hessle tends to be left out a bit, but it has an awful lot of history, they used to build ships on the foreshore.”

Beacons were lit in four areas of the foreshore and the towers of the Humber Bridge were illuminated when the fleet departed, coinciding with the lighting of thousands of others.

The Pageantmaster, the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee Beacons Bruno Peek said the flotilla, the only one taking place outside London, was a “brilliant” idea.

The thousands gathered on the Humber last night would agree.