# HMS Evadne



## paullad1984 (Jun 6, 2008)

anyone know where i can find a picture of HMS Evadne, a converted motor yacht formally owned by sir richard fairey and given to the admiralty in WW2, based in Bermuda.
Reading "Yankee RN" which features Evadne and curious as to how she looked?


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## poseidon9 (Aug 13, 2010)

I think the Evadne has been later renamed Marala. Marala is still active nowadays.


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## clevewyn (May 16, 2010)

A not very good pic here which claims to be her.

 Evadne


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## A.D.FROST (Sep 1, 2008)

*HMY Evadne*



paullad1984 said:


> anyone know where i can find a picture of HMS Evadne, a converted motor yacht formally owned by sir richard fairey and given to the admiralty in WW2, based in Bermuda.
> Reading "Yankee RN" which features Evadne and curious as to how she looked?



View attachment 27361
from SB June 1970(K)


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## poseidon9 (Aug 13, 2010)

Does anyone know, if Evadne had any sisterships or "near" sisterships ?


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## chadburn (Jun 2, 2008)

She has had a few name's in her life "Marala" ex "Gaviota 1V" ex "Zapala" ex "Evadne" ex "388", built C&N Southampton in 1931. When she was built she was fitted with two 8cy M.A.N's 750B.H.P. Diesel's.


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## Bradl3y (May 1, 2012)

Hi,

My Uncle served on HMS Evadne during WW2 and I have a crew photo- if that's of any interest.


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## paullad1984 (Jun 6, 2008)

Yes that would be thanks, she looks quite a ship, hope to bump into her one day


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## Bradl3y (May 1, 2012)

*HMS Evadne Crew Photo circa 1944*

My Uncle AB Seaman George Bradley JX 278520 volunteered for service with the Royal Naval Patrol Service in 1941. Between May 1944 and February 1945 he served as an ASDIC operator on HMS Evadne while serving at Gibraltar shore base HMS Cormorant II (Royal Naval Air Station).

I will try and post the crew photo we have in our family archives. My Uncle is seated on front row bench 4th from left holding the ship mascot (a small monkey!).

I believe the Captain was H N Taylor (who wrote a book titled 'Captains Tale' ISBN 0861380312


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## Bradl3y (May 1, 2012)

*HMS Evadne now - Venice*

Hi,

Here is a photo I came across of what the ship looks like now and which is based in Venice.


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## Adler (Feb 10, 2013)

*HMS Evadne Anti/Submarine Yacht*

Good day to everyone.

Herein is a Letter from the Owner to Ship builder / Naval Architect on 1937.


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## ianxmas (Feb 28, 2013)

If you want a good look at Evadne as she was ten years ago, get out the DVD of the film 'The Cat's Meow'. The whole film takes place on board Evadne (M/Y Marala as she now is) playing the part of Randolph Hearst's yacht.


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## Gej (Jan 19, 2014)

My dad served on Evadne early in 1940, does anyone by any chance have any crew photographs from around this time?
Thanks in anticipation.


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## AndyAngel (Dec 1, 2015)

My dad also served on Evadne during her time at Bermuda during the war. If anybody has any crew pictures that would be much appreciated?


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## Sigard (Sep 9, 2018)

My Dad also served on this ship, he is the guy sitting next to your uncle, to his right, he was in the engine room, he did used to tell me that he sailed around the world, never fired a gun and never see a German! Now I know he did it in a posh motor yacht. How could I get to see this ship?


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## Sigard (Sep 9, 2018)

*Crew*



Bradl3y said:


> My Uncle AB Seaman George Bradley JX 278520 volunteered for service with the Royal Naval Patrol Service in 1941. Between May 1944 and February 1945 he served as an ASDIC operator on HMS Evadne while serving at Gibraltar shore base HMS Cormorant II (Royal Naval Air Station).
> 
> I will try and post the crew photo we have in our family archives. My Uncle is seated on front row bench 4th from left holding the ship mascot (a small monkey!).
> 
> I believe the Captain was H N Taylor (who wrote a book titled 'Captains Tale' ISBN 0861380312


My Dad also served on this ship he is sitting next to your uncle on his right. I'm guessing the small monkey is a Barbary ape from Gibraltar, I remember him talking about it.


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## Spunyarn46 (Aug 7, 2017)

HMS Evadne berthed on the North Mole, Gibraltar. Photo dated as 30th July 1945.


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## Sigard (Sep 9, 2018)

*See ship*



Spunyarn46 said:


> HMS Evadne berthed on the North Mole, Gibraltar. Photo dated as 30th July 1945.
> View attachment 187927


Thanks the picture, I meant how can I get to see this ship now? I'd like to make it a 2019 mission, but how can I find out where it will be.


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## Barrie Youde (May 29, 2006)

#10 

A good-looking, classic motor-yacht, spoiled only by that dreadful-looking boat (?) on her top-deck.


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## whimbrel (Nov 22, 2006)

*Evadne-as-was*

Here she is in Malta, Grand Harbour 2013


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## Johnnielson (Mar 18, 2019)

If anyone is still interested.
https://www.facebook.com/Yacht-Marala-1519247674781525/


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## Stephen J. Card (Nov 5, 2006)

Some of this re HMS EVADNE at Bermuda.....

I don't think I have ever seen a photo of EVADNE at Bermuda. I'll check with the Bda Museum, Dr Harris. He did the story seen here for the Royal Gazette. 


'LHO'



Committees come and some have the fortitude to go, while others linger on when their avowed purpose has lost its meaning, but the existence of which provides some strange succour to the members of the panels. 
One such Bermuda committee that did the right thing, not only at its beginning, but in bringing itself to a close was the “Ladies’ Hospitality Organization”, the “LHO”, a group that created the Naval Recreation Rooms in the Bermudiana Hotel after the start of World War Two in the late summer of 1939. 

Even more commendable, as many often neglect their own history, the committee of some of Bermuda’s indomitable women of the day produced the “Secretary’s Final Report” on the LHO’s six years of volunteer work for the men of the lower decks of His Majesty’s Ships and other vessels of war visiting the island.

The Report ends with notes of thanks to the Furness Withy Line and the Bermudiana Hotel Company “for their splendid contribution to a Bermuda war effort in allowing the use of the premises” of the Hotel for the entertainment rooms for naval ratings. The Secretary went on to write: “To all those who, though not mentioned by name here, gave life and substance to one integral part of the forces which combated evil throughout the world and brought this War to a victorious conclusion” and, “Finally to those without whose toil, suffering and deaths no account such as this could ever have had reason to be written at all.”

Of late some photographs have been donated to the National Museum by one John B. Chivers, the son of one of the younger volunteers of the LHO, his mother and lady of Smith’s Parish, Blanche (Dimpy) Ingham, the daughter of Willie and Bessie Ingham of that district and a girl of 19 at the start of the War. 

Along with her older sister, later Ruth Redfern, she made sandwiches, checked hats and did other necessary administration matters and then came from behind the counter to dance, where one evening she met her future husband, stationed at Bermuda with the Royal Canadian Navy. 

Beach parties were also organised, as well as visits to houses of Bermuda families, for one of the main reasons for establishing the LHO was to give the lower ranks on the ships a bit of a sense of home life and to provide entertainment and interests for those who had little money to sit at the main bars of the Bermudiana or other hotels and clubs.

The idea of a centre for recreation started with a group including Mrs J.R. Bridge, Mrs Alice Britton and Mrs Ruth Fountain and they soon contacted one Mrs Edmund Gibbons, whose husband apparently began the considerable family fortune by buying up for sale large quantities of army boots from the First World War, but a mere 20-odd years previous. Various venues were used in the early months of the War, but on March 31, 1940, the doors were opened at the final home of the LHO in an annex of the Bermudian Hotel. 


Other “formidables” joined the group, included Lady Kennedy Purvis, the Admiral’s wife at Bermuda, and other goods and greats, including a Mrs Blee. For a period, Mrs Gibbons served as Chairman, but then like many committees, differences arose and “it was perhaps inevitable that the L.H.O. should go through a period of ‘politics’ and during this experience the Executive Committee took no step without the opinion of someone well versed in the rights and privileges of associations and their committees”. 

However, things moved along and names such as Parker, Harnett, Butterfield, Appleby, Gosling, Harvey, Talbot and Christiansen appeared on the rolls and the LHO performed its good works, a number in association with the Sailors’ Home, a long established home from home for mariners alighting on these shores.

Afternoon and evening groups were organised to prepare food for the visitors and a library, canteen and a Sunday Evening Sing Song not exactly the cup of tea you might like, but “how right they were to institute this sort of an evening has been proved by its great success. 

All sorts of men like to sing all sorts of songs.” The song books compiled by the ladies including “the large one which Mrs A.B. Smith gave to the LHO were so popular that they are now scattered all over the world!”


Song and dance aside, the Report mentions some of the ships on the Bermuda Station and persons associated with them. On leaving Bermuda, HMS Penzance was on its way home to Britain when it was torpedoed by the German submarine U-37 on August 24,1940. 

One of the survivors, Lieutenant John W. Draisey, RNVR, returned to Bermuda as Flag Lieutenant under Admiral Sir Charles Kennedy Purvis. What the Report did not report was that Draisey was picked up by the merchant vessel Blairmore, only to be dumped into the sea again the very same night when the Blairmore itself went to the bottom by another torpedo from Kapitan Victor Oehrn of the U-37!

Another vessel was HMS Evadne, an armed yacht, for that she was as the pre-war pleasure palace of Sir Charles Richard Fairey, MBE, FRAeS, the famous British aircraft designer and founder of the Fairey Aviation Company. 

Custom built in 1931 at the Camper & Nicholsons Shipyard (“The history of Camper and Nicholsons is the history of yachting”: John Nicholson), the Evadne was seen in Bermuda waters before the war, and “it is the owner’s hope to have her restored by next year [1947] to her former status of a pleasure yacht and, as Sir Richard Fairey has a house in Bermuda, it is possible we may once again see her familiar outline in these waters”. Obviously well built, as well as custom, now after several name changes, the Marala, ex-Evadne, is yet sailing in her 80th year, looking as splendid as in the days of Sir Richard.


No doubt many in the LHO would have been pleased at the 1948 presentation to Sir Richard of the US Medal of Freedom (with Silver Palm) for his assistance of with the development of American aircraft when he was Director General of the British Air Commission at Washington, DC during the War. The award was made to Sir Richard at Kindley Field, Bermuda, by the then-Commanding Officer, Colonel Thomas D. Ferguson. 

Established by President Harry Truman to honour those who assisted the United States during the War, a 1946 recipient of the Medal of Honour was later another Bermuda resident, Sir William Samuel Stephenson, CC, MC, DFC, the great spymaster, as in”A Man called Intrepid”, said to be the model for James Bond character of fiction.


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## Maunsel (Oct 18, 2011)

Photo of Evadne


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## Maunsel (Oct 18, 2011)

Evadne as Gaviota


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## Maunsel (Oct 18, 2011)

Possibly Evadne early


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## AndyAngel (Dec 1, 2015)

MV Marala is now undergoing a refurb at Falmouth: https://yachtmarala.com/?fbclid=IwAR2EdytLGU1Y7b23pQvhtbBQhnNkeFt5rS04T68VyB9cJalcXfUw6C2R1OM


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## Leslie Brandon (Sep 22, 2021)

Bradl3y said:


> *HMS Evadne Crew Photo circa 1944*
> 
> My Uncle AB Seaman George Bradley JX 278520 volunteered for service with the Royal Naval Patrol Service in 1941. Between May 1944 and February 1945 he served as an ASDIC operator on HMS Evadne while serving at Gibraltar shore base HMS Cormorant II (Royal Naval Air Station).
> 
> ...


Very nice to see the photo again, i am afraid you are wrong however, the chap holding the monkey is Joseph Brandon my father, he brought the monkey home before offering it a home in the local zoo. The book you refer to was "A Captain's Tale" another book called "Yankee R.N" is also a good read.


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## Leslie Brandon (Sep 22, 2021)

Sigard said:


> *See ship*
> 
> 
> 
> Thanks the picture, I meant how can I get to see this ship now? I'd like to make it a 2019 mission, but how can I find out where it will be.


The ship at this time (22nd September 2021) is in dry dock in Falmouth under going extensive refit for its new owner. It is hopeful she will sail sometime in the spring of next year.


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