Served on this small vessel for a summer season1968,a large fleet review was on at the time,royal yacht royal family.guest on us was Lltcmr kearns,famous for getting
HMS Amethyst out of the Yangtse river in 1949

More pictures available at: http://channelislandsshipping.je/page81.html
Scroll down a bit, as there are various ships on the page.

She belonged to my stepfather Mr Peter Emms for a few years, and was located in St Mawes for a while after she went aground, must have been in 1986 according to these records. I was quite young but I remember him spending a lot of time on her trying to fix her!

There is more information on the website channelislandshipping, with a relatively complete history:






LA DAME DE SERK




Operator Isle of Sark Sg. Co. Ltd.

Builder Klipffel & Zito, St.Malo, ship completed by Dubigeon, Brest. 1953

Tonnage 146gr 103net

Dimensions 99'8" 23'5" 7'II"

Propulsion Twin screw, oil engines each 460 HP 10.7 knots

Passengers 250










The vessel came to Guernsey in 1969 when the services to Sark were taken over by the Isle of Sark Shipping Co. Ltd., arriving at St. Sampsons from Torquay on September 9 as BATEAUU MORGAT for hull inspection prior to purchase. Inspection complete, the ship was purchased on September 22 being registered to Sark Shipowners Ltd. Papers for renaming vessel LA DAME DE SERK were in hand by October 14, but the name was not painted on the vessel until February 12 1970, and she entered service on March 2. She was not the ship for the route, and made her last sailing for the company on November 16 1974, but it not until June 13 1975 that the ship was sold to Mr. Bruce R. Parsons of Halifax, Nova Scotia. She left St. Sampsons two days later on June 15 bound for London.

The vessel was built in 1953 as MORGAT for S.A. Des Vapeurs & Transport Brestois, Brest. to operate the ferry service between Brest and Le Fret, and having been replaced in 1964, she was sold to C.W. Bristow at Torquay and renamed BATEAU MORGAT and operated there until purchased for use at Guernsey.

On reaching London in 1975 the vessel was laid up, and remained so until being sold on July 27 1982 to Miss J.S. Stewart, but a month later on September 1 she passed to Shaun M. Farmer, and then on June 9 1983 30, there was a bill of sale of 30 shares each to L.N. Farmer and E.H. Farmer. During this time the vessel was converted into a sailing ship but difficulties soon emerged, and in December 1984 the ship was arrested by Customs & Excise at Dover having entered the port for shelter after leaving Brighton. On July 25 1985 the ship was visited by staff from the Dover Yacht Co. Ltd. to

make her ready for a tow to Falmouth having been bought at auction by Mr. Peter Emms of Worcestershire. On February 13 1986 the ship went ashore at St. Mawes (across from Falmouth).

Little is heard of the vessel until early 1991 when she arrived in London. She had been sold to the Scandic Crown Hotel and placed in the dry dock in Nelson Dock at Rotherhithe on the Thames. She was completely refurbished and converted into a restaurant for use by the hotel., and was due to open in April that year. By 2000 the hotel had become the Holiday Inn and while still named LA DAME DE SERK is only used for special functions.

Web site Shipspotting.com suggests that the ship was broken up in situ in about 2010.

Hey Phil, thanks for the trip down memory lane when I spotted your photo of La Dame de Serk
I was the engineer on her from 69 to 71 until I transferred over to the Alderney Trader until 73. Sure had some good times on the old "rolling Dame" as she was so affectionately called by the locals.
She was the only vessel that Dame Sibyl Hathaway of Sark would travel to Guernsey on.

Thanks all for the extra bits of info.
Brgds
Phil

A couple to stir the memories:
https://www.flickr.com/photos/canalman/3761552167/
https://www.flickr.com/photos/canalman/3761556085

IMO Added
Regards
Ken

Hi Phil,
I've lived in Rotherhithe for a few years now and local lore makes me think it's the same ship; built in france in 52/53 and was retrofitted with masts sometime later. A google suggests that she ran aground in cornwall in the 80s but was re-floated.
When I moved here it was in a dry dock, not floating and it had closed as a restaurant. It disappeared around 2010 and I asked a member of the hotel staff and they said that it had rotted away and it had been broken up in situ. Horror! I wasn't 100% convinced by their explanation at the time, but there is a walk way over the dock and it would have made it pretty difficult to get the ship out.

Thanks for that bit of info Jon. Maybe one of our other Thames contributors might be able to help.
Brgds
Phil

Phil,
La Dame De Serk has spent several years out of the water on the slip at Nelson dock converted to a sailing rig and also as a restaurant in connection with the Hilton Hotel at Rotherhithe.
as of today 15th August 2011 she appears to have been moved it would be interesting to find out what has occured.
Jon

Phil,
I first saw this vessel at St. Katherines in February '79. I think she is 152 g.t., built 1953 as the Morgat. Renamed Bateau Morgat '64, La Dame de Serk '69 and owned by the Isle of Sark Shipping Co, Guernsey, presumably as a ferry. But she does look a little older?
I don't know what became of her but confusingly there is a floating restaurant in Docklands called La Dame de Serk, a replica of something 18th century apparently.