大象传媒

Work to build a base on the main island at Portmellon on St Mary鈥檚 started in January 1917, but the site was found to be too exposed for the fragile aeroplanes An alternative was found at Tresco next to New Grimsby鈥檚 beach as it was a little more sheltered.

大象传媒 Cornwall has been given permission to use a fascinating voice recording of Canadian pilot Frederick 鈥楬olly鈥� Prime who put his memories on record as part of an oral history project in 1978:

鈥淚 asked to be sent to some islands off the West coast where they were getting started. It was a delightful place to live the weather was semi-tropical and all the fields were planted with flowers which were sold to Covent Garden in London. And also it had the best commanding officer that a person could wish for.鈥�

The new arrivals including airmen, mechanics and a number of women support workers settled into island life mixing with the locals with the naval crews even attending church on a Sunday. The islanders had skills and manpower helping to screen some of the temporary accommodation Bell Tents from the wind in the same way because they protected their daffodil crops. After starting out as a tented camp the base later got wooden huts.

Eventually there was one principal aircraft hangar, a number of wooden huts, a big workshop and of course a slipway to bring the Flying Boats and Seaplanes up and down. The base was right on the sand so the flying boats could be beached rather than taking them up the slipway.

The aircraft were large, twin engine flying boats 鈥� an aeroplane with a hull providing buoyancy. There were some single engine aeroplanes too.

Aviation enthusiast Pete London鈥檚 excited to hear pilot Frederick Holly鈥檚 first-hand account of his time as a pioneer of the skies piloting Tresco鈥檚 Flying Boats:

鈥淗e鈥檚 great to listen to he comes across as a very modest unassuming man but what lies behind some of his stories we have today in the form of very simple uncluttered reports that have survived in documentary form but what he does is bring these reports to life with a really truly human experience.鈥� (Pete London)

Frederick Prime鈥檚 granddaughter, Holly Smith, who now lives in London, and the rest of Fred鈥檚 descendants are hugely proud of their pioneering grandfather:

鈥淭hey would say things in the flight manual like don鈥檛 leave your plane (and this would be a land plane obviously and not a sea plane obviously) in a cow pasture because the cows probably will come and lick the glue off the canvas on the wings and you wouldn鈥檛 be able to fly out. So there were perils that we just hadn鈥檛 imagined鈥� (Holly Smith)

One hundred years on there is still some evidence of the temporary sea plane base:

鈥淭he old site has been built on since and is now a pleasant holiday place, but part of the old slipway survives but it鈥檚 been re-skimmed with concrete. There is also a row of holiday cottages which were once the ammunitions store and various concrete bases which supported wooden huts for the men and the officers.鈥� (Pete London)

So some 21st Century visitors to Tresco might find themselves on a section of slipway or at the appropriately named 鈥楩lying Boat Club鈥�, restaurant overlooking the waters where Curtiss Type aircraft bounced out towards the Atlantic to patrol for German submarines in 1917, and help ensure Britain supplies wouldn鈥檛 be cut off.

Location: RNAS Tresco, New Grimsby, (now the Flying Boat Club), Scilly TR24 0QQ
Image of RNAS Tresco, courtesy of Pete London, who also presents the story

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