From the Rolls-Royce experimental archive: a quarter of a million communications from Rolls-Royce, 1906 to 1960's. Documents from the Sir Henry Royce Memorial Foundation (SHRMF).
First-person witness statement detailing a boat capsizing incident.
| Identifier | ExFiles\Box 174\5\ img102 | |
| Date | 13th June 1930 guessed | |
| Normally when the boat is at speed I was fully employed in attending to the greasers, the temperature control cock and the like, but had occasional opportunities of glancing ahead. I was actually looking ahead when I suddenly felt a dull thud which seemed to be on the port side. Up to that moment everything had continued to function perfectly. Immediately after I felt the thud the boat listed slightly to port and then the bows dipped and the boat checked. Then there was a slight turn to starboard, then the bows lifted and finally the hull rolled to starboard. When the boat was slightly more than half over I was spilled out. I shot out head first but twisted round before I struck the water. I felt a blow on the side whilst under the water. I came to the surface very quickly. I turned round in the water two or three times, saw a black figure with no movement of arms going backward almost vertically with head and shoulders out of the water. I had my back to the boat and just saw one disturbance of the water and saw no further object. I then turned round in the water and made for Miss England II. The boat was then inverted with the bows pointing slightly towards the Westmorland shore and the stern towards the Lancashire shore, diagonally across her course. I tried to keep my feet up, then came across what I took to be one of the hatches. I got over this and lay across it and went down. I let go, came up, saw cushions on my right and realised I could make neither the boat nor the cushions. I saw a dark boat coming up inshore and a light boat from towards the centre of the lake. I looked to the on-coming boats and judged from the spray they were fast. I was exhausted when I was pulled out by Mr. Robert Cole who was in Major Pattinson's boat. I was responsible for making a personal inspection of the gear box, gear box cooling system, the steering system and the outside of the hull and step before and after every trial run. On every occasion I found everything to be in perfect order. | ||