Mv Sir Claude Inglis - - this black and white photograph (by Beken of Cowes) is assumed to be taken in 1969 shortly after the vessel was launched at Groves and Guttridge Ltd on the Isle of Wight. This may perhaps be the proving trials for the owners, and for the National Physical Laboratory (Teddington) who assisted in the design of the vessel and tank tested the hull shape. This was when Hydraulics Research Station (HRS) or more correctly The Ministry of Technology on behalf of her Majesty (later the Department of the Environment) were owners and operators of the vessel. In 1982 HRS was privatised by Margaret Thatcher's Conservative government, then to be called Hydraulics Research Station Ltd, and later renamed HRWallingford Ltd. Vessel sold into private ownership in early 2006.
PHOTO: BEKEN