I think - judging from the Southend Motor Navigation Co.'s TSMV "New Prince of Wales", [from which the Myalls copied the Southend Britannia], - that the displacement was close to 145GRT.
AFAIK, the Big brit as she was known, - NEVER "ran a ferry service" across the Thames Estuary into the Medway.
She was purely an excursion vessel, and her regular work during any Southend Holiday Season between the Wars - would have been taking holiday-makers on short sea-trips [ usually around an hour] - out into the Estuary to view the anchored and passing commercial and naval Shipping [ the Thames was still extremely busy during those 20 years]
Special trips were made to such Events as the J-Class races, the Fleet Reviews, and to visit "open-to-the-public" major RN warships such as the Battlecruiser Repulse", andchored down below the Pier in sea reach, - and very-special annual daytrips to the Navy days at Sheerness and Chatham Dockyards.
There was never, between the wars, a "ferry service" from the Southend-on-Sea Foreshore ACROSS to Sheerness.
Though the GSNCo may have operated such ferry services from the Piehead between the Wars, the Southend excursion-vessel Owners did not do so. "There wasn't enough traffic to make the capital investment in a suitable vessel worthwhile", - is the way my Father described it.
Confusion may have arisen in the minds of some who were not there at the time, in that the Foreshore-based Southend motor navigation Co. did - for a while in the late 1920's and for a while during the 1930's - , run a round-trip ferry service ALONG the foreshore, from the Pier upriver as far as the Crowstone at Chalkwell, and back eastwards down to Shoeburyness, with their 2 open launches, - the San Toy 1 and San Toy 2.
You are writing for future generations, so I assume you will not mind my correction.
Julian Wilson.
Details update
I think - judging from the Southend Motor Navigation Co.'s TSMV "New Prince of Wales", [from which the Myalls copied the Southend Britannia], - that the displacement was close to 145GRT.
AFAIK, the Big brit as she was known, - NEVER "ran a ferry service" across the Thames Estuary into the Medway.
She was purely an excursion vessel, and her regular work during any Southend Holiday Season between the Wars - would have been taking holiday-makers on short sea-trips [ usually around an hour] - out into the Estuary to view the anchored and passing commercial and naval Shipping [ the Thames was still extremely busy during those 20 years]
Special trips were made to such Events as the J-Class races, the Fleet Reviews, and to visit "open-to-the-public" major RN warships such as the Battlecruiser Repulse", andchored down below the Pier in sea reach, - and very-special annual daytrips to the Navy days at Sheerness and Chatham Dockyards.
There was never, between the wars, a "ferry service" from the Southend-on-Sea Foreshore ACROSS to Sheerness.
Though the GSNCo may have operated such ferry services from the Piehead between the Wars, the Southend excursion-vessel Owners did not do so. "There wasn't enough traffic to make the capital investment in a suitable vessel worthwhile", - is the way my Father described it.
Confusion may have arisen in the minds of some who were not there at the time, in that the Foreshore-based Southend motor navigation Co. did - for a while in the late 1920's and for a while during the 1930's - , run a round-trip ferry service ALONG the foreshore, from the Pier upriver as far as the Crowstone at Chalkwell, and back eastwards down to Shoeburyness, with their 2 open launches, - the San Toy 1 and San Toy 2.
You are writing for future generations, so I assume you will not mind my correction.
Julian Wilson.