DESSERT:
The Return of HM Coast Guard Cutter Vigilant Sea History recently received a letter from David Hewer, a Senior Investigation Officer in HM Customs and Excise who remembers fondly his early service as Radio Officer of Her Majesty ' s Revenue Cutter Vigilant. The Vigilant of his acquaintance was launched in 1969, the tenth in a line of HM Customs Cutters to bear the name . It was with some amazement and a great deal of ex citement that he found the seventh Vigilant, the last HM Revenue Cutter to carry sail and the sole surviving vessel from the 1911 Spithead Review, living out the remainder of her long life as a houseboat in Shoreham , on England's south coast. My wife and I discovered Vigilant on a weekend trip to Brighton in December 1988. Having received the usual invitation to attend an annual Reserve Forces Mess Dinner we got down to Brighton on a very wet and windy Saturday morning. We obviously could not go for our customary pleasant stroll so decided to go for a drive instead. A recent letter from a Brighton real estate agent had led us to believe that the 1902 Vigilant' s h u11 still existed in the Port of Shoreham as part of what they called "a houseboat" and a quick phone call to the elderly owner, Mrs. Nancy Kelly, elicited an invitation to tea. Protestations of "on ly wanting to know where the vessel was" were met by Nancy with a stonewall refusal to take no for an answer, so to tea we went, expecting to see "the hou seboat." You can imagine our amazement when Vigilant turned out to look very much as she does in Graham Smith's excellent book Kings' Cutters and not, as we had imagined, just a hull with a house built on top. A guided tour from Nancy , which included the two Commissioner' s Cabins and a plate glass door engraved with King ' s Crown and Portcullis convinced me that the vessel was so amazingly intact that something ought to be done to preserve her, although I did not know at that stage that she was indeed the last Revenue Cutter to carry sail, or the sole survivor from the 1911 Spithead Review.
A.Jl-k-~-~
SAIL THE MAINE COAST
The Classic Windjammer V acarion
SCHOONER MARY DAY Good F=~~fa~~~ Wild Islands , Snug Harbors Seals , Eagles, Whales, Puffins Capt. Sieve & Chris Cobb Box 79BA, Camden , ME 04843 800-992-221 8 . (20 7) 236-27.50
SEA HISTORY 65, SPRING 1993
I am afraid that I rather spoilt the rest of my wife 's weekend, and certainly the dinner that evening, because I kept on about the vessel and the need to do something about preserving her. The rest would take too long to relate, but suffice it to say that with the help of Wing Cdr. Kenneth Lucas, then Director of the Maritime Trust, and latterly one of our own Trustees, we managed to set up the Vigilant Trust and set about raising funds to purchase and restore Vigilant. There have been many alarms and excursions along the way. We ' re still not out of the wood yet, but we did manage to purchase Vigilant on the 14th of April , 1992. Since last summer, volunteers have
been chipping away at her hull and we hope to have her ready to dry-dock in Shoreham by April 1993. .t Mr. Hewer notes that f ollowing American independence, HM Customs and Excise handed over a number ofR evenue Cutters to the newly formed US Customs Service. One of those cutters was called Vigilant, and to this day the US Coast Guard maintains a cutter of the same name. Ultimately, the Vigilant Trust wants to make Vigilant a symbol of international cooperation. Readers interested in becoming a "Friend" ofthe Vigilant(ata cost of ÂŁ12 a year) may contact David Hewer, The Vigilant Trust, Custom House, Lower Thames Street, London EC3R 6EE, UK.
AL right, HM Coast Guard Cutt er Vigilant is an im-
pressive sight at Newcast/eon-Tyne in 1904 . Sh e is pictured again below in l 992, remarkably well-preserved at Lady Bee Marina in Shoreham, where she became a houseboat 30 years ago. Vigilant retains her original la yo ut and much of her Edwardian decor, datingfrom the period 1902 to 1920 when she was based at Gravesend and responsible f or control and clearance of vessels boundfor the Port ofLondon.
l ;;;iiE""~,._-.-...:.
SCRIMSHAW Museum-quality engravings on fossil ivories by nationally recognized scrimshander
Robert Weiss 914-337-4426
LIGHTHOUSE SCULPTURE Highly detai led replicas, accurately scaled at I :48 scale. Operating lamp. Signed & no. ltd. edition. Now releasing Port Sani lac, Lake Huron, I 7' $350 Large SASE for more information.
the LIGHTHOUSE WORKS 6036 Fallen Leaf Lane, Toledo, OH 436 15
47