Merry Christmas & Happy New Year!
Christmas Deliveries: If you placed an order on or before midday on Wednesday 18th December for Christmas delivery it was despatched before the Royal Mail or Parcel Force deadline and therefore should be received in time for Christmas. Orders placed after midday on Wednesday 18th December will be delivered in the New Year.
Please Note: Our offices and factory are now closed until Thursday 2nd January when we will be pleased to deal with any queries that have arisen during the holiday period.
During the holiday our Gift Cards may still be ordered for any last minute orders and will be sent automatically by email direct to your recipient - see here: Gift Cards
Ss Channel Queen
A Memory of Salcombe.
This vessel was built by Messrs Craggs of Middlesbrough - launched 13th July 1895. 185 ft long - Gross tonnage 386 tons with full electric lighting. She ran a regular service across the Channel calling at Guernsey, Jersey and St Brieuc and was a well know tourist vessel in and around the Devon and Cornwall coast. The company traded and ran the ship from Sutton Pool Plymouth. The Channel Queen was chartered by local business men for a voyage to Spithead for Queen Victoria's Diamond Jubillee Review of the Fleet in 26th June 1897. Less than a year later she was shipwrecked in fog on 1st Feb 1898 with my great grandfather as captain (Capt E J Collings born St Peter Port Guernsey 1844 - died Plymouth 1923). The wreck occured on the north coast of Guernsey and a memorial to those 21 who perished is in the churchyard of St Sampson's church on Guernsey. Many of those who perished were Breton onion sellers returning from selling thier produce in Cornwall. The Chief Engineer (Alfred Scawn - freehold grave renovated 2006) and commercial traveller Frank Cowell (common grave unmarked) were drowned, their bodies taken by ship to Weymouth and then by train to Plymouth and were buried in Ford Park Cemetery Plymouth.
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