The Isle of Wight played a very significant role in the development of the hydrofoil in the 20th century.
On 24th July 1968, The Times ‘Hovercraft & Hydrofoils special’ included the following statement:
“The hovercraft and modern hydrofoil are both largely British inventions. Christopher Cockerell invented the first….while the submerged foil was originated by Christopher Hook.”
Article continues below this advertisement
Amazingly, the research and testing for both inventions – the hovercraft and the hydrofoil – were carried out on the Medina and in the Solent.
Most Islanders of a certain age have travelled on a hydrofoil. They ran from 1969 until 1999 on the Red Funnel route from Cowes to Southampton. These high-speed passenger ferries were built in Italy rather than on the Island.
However, long before the hydrofoil service to Southampton began, some of the world’s first hydrofoils were designed, tested and built at the Saunders Roe and J.S White yards at the mouth of the Medina, with further proto-hydrofoils tested by John Thornycroft at Bembridge.
The story of the hydrofoil on the Isle of Wight began before the end of the 19th century. Between 1899 and 1901, John Thornycroft worked on a series of models with a stepped hull and single bow foil in the test tank at his home
In 1909, his company built the full-scale, 22ft-long boat, Miranda III. Driven by a 60hp engine, it rode on a bowfoil and flat stern. The subsequent Miranda IV was credited with a speed of 35 knots (40mph).
A further early attempt at a hydrofoil was constructed at Sam Saunders’ Folly Works on the east bank of the Medina. It was designed by Frenchman Roger Ravaud and built from Saunders’ revolutionary Consuta. The strange-looking craft was described by various observers as an ‘aeroscaphe’, ‘motoscaphe’, ‘aero motor boat’, ‘hydro-aeroplane’, ‘sea flier’, ‘aero-hydroplane’, and an ‘aeroquat’.
Launched in January 1911, it was an early attempt at a hydrofoil powered by an airscrew. The intention was to install a 100 hp Gnome engine, with which Ravaud hoped to generate a speed of around 60 mph. However, the performance of this new-fangled craft failed to meet expectations.
Over 20 years later, J Samuel White of Cowes joined the quest to construct a workable hydrofoil. On 13th June 1935, the company registered a patent for a hydrofoil with 3 foil struts, building a prototype under the project name Hush-hush. The experimental craft, driven by a 130hp engine, achieved speeds of 33knots (38mph).
In 1939, White’s completed a full scale craft Motor Torpedo Boat (MTB) 101, which was capable of rapid acceleration and speeds of up to 42knots (48mph), The hydrofoil was purchased by the Admiralty for a cost of £51,000 (£2,800,000 in today’s values) but was vulnerable to foil damage and lost altogether when 1 of the foils sheered off.
The MTB prototype led to the development of Bras d’Or, an experimental hydrofoil ordered by the Royal Canadian Navy (RCN) from Saunders Roe in 1953. It was designed on the Isle of Wight and partly trialled in the Solent. However, the boat was assembled in Beaumaris, Ynys Mon, and launched there in 1957. Its foils were manufactured in East Cowes.
The Bras d’Or achieved a top speed of 50knots (57.5mph). It was renamed Baddeck in 1962 and decommissioned in 1973. It is currently housed at the Canada Science & Technology Museum in Ottawa.
The Bras D’Or built by Saunders Roe was the prototype for a 2nd RCN Bras d’Or hydrofoil, built in Canada, which – during sea trials in 1969 – achieved a speed of 63knots (72mph), – the fastest warship in the world at that time.
The man credited with the invention of the submerged hydrofoil – used in later 20th century hydrofoils – is Christopher Hook, who settled in Cowes.
Hook had escaped from Vichy France with his French wife in 1942. On escaping Nazi occupied Europe, he headed to the nearest British naval base with the hope of interesting the Admiralty in his idea for hydrofoils that would assist in a seaborne invasion of France.
Christopher Hook demonstrating his hydrofin at Cowes below.
Unable to get funding from the British Government for his ideas, Hook took his idea of “a buglike boat that rides the waves” – the hydrofin – to the United States.
Hook’s Hydrofin used a pair of jockey arms protruding forward from the craft. with horizontal swept-wing submerged foils behind. The Hydrofin was exhibited in the New York Boat Show in 1948, which gained the interest of United States government officials. The Miami Shipbuilding Company then built a small prototype Hydrofin landing craft, following which a larger version was completed in 1957.
The 2nd larger vessel was given the name Halobates after the marine insect that skims the surface of the oceans.
Have you ever travelled on a hydrofoil? Let us know in the comments…
