Did you understand that 2 world record-breaking speedboats – Miss England II and Bluebird K3 – had been constructed by Saunders Roe in East Cowes?
Both had been designed by legendary naval architect Fred Cooper, who was born in Newport. Cooper additionally designed 2 additional record-breaking speedboats – Miss England I and Bluebird K4 – however each had been constructed on the mainland.
Fred Cooper was a gifted designer, who has by no means been given the popularity that he deserved. Despite his many achievements, there isn’t any {photograph} of him on-line and no Wikipedia entry to his identify. He was born in 1898, the son of a monumental mason. His 2 brothers entered his father’s business, whereas he entered a very completely different line of commerce, coaching to grow to be a naval architect.
Fred first labored for Hubert Scott-Paine, who based the British powerboat firm in Hythe and the Supermarine Aviation Company, which went on to provide the Spitfire fighter airplane.
In the early Nineteen Twenties, Fred grew to become chief draughtsman for S E Saunders on the Cornubia Boatyard in East Cowes. Whilst there, he was answerable for the design of the powerboat Newg for millionaire heiress Marion ‘Joe’ Carstairs – on the time dubbed ‘the fastest woman on water’.
However, Fred Cooper most popular his independence to build his personal designs, turning into a self-employed naval architect. In 1928, he designed Miss England,# in an try to take the distinguished Harmsworth speedboat racing trophy from the Americans. Although this speedboat was outclassed by its American opponents in racing, it set the document for a single-engined boat of 91 mph.
Cooper then went on to design Miss England II, constructed by Saunders-Roe in East Cowes. This was pushed by Sir Henry Segrave to a brand new world document of 98.76 mph over 2 runs on Lake Windermere in Cumbria on thirteenth June 1930.
However, tragedy struck on the third run when the boat hit a floating department and capsized at pace. Chief engineer Victor Halliwell was killed. Mechanic Michael ‘Jack’ Willcocks survived with a damaged arm. Segrave was rescued unconscious because the boat sank, then regained consciousness for a second and requested in regards to the destiny of his crew. Shortly after being informed that he had damaged the document, he died from lung accidents.
Following Segrave’s loss of life, Miss England II was salvaged and repaired. Kaye Don was chosen as the driving force for additional document makes an attempt. In 1931, Don examined the boat on Lough Neagh, close to Belfast, Northern Ireland, the place it established the official document at over 100mph. A month later, on Lake Garda, Italy, Don raised it to 110mph after which raised it once more, by an additional 1mph the next 12 months.
Although Fred Cooper was mentioned to have been badly affected by the loss of life of Segrave and misplaced a lot of his enthusiasm for additional high-speed boat designs, he was commissioned to create additional record-breaking seacraft for the legendary Sir Malcolm Campbell.
In 1935, Sir Malcolm had damaged the 300mph land pace document with Blue Bird. He then switched his consideration to the water pace document – at the moment dominated by the American, Gar Wood.
Fred was commissioned to design a small hydroplane powered by the identical Rolls Royce R engine utilized in Blue Bird. The contract for the development of Blue Bird K3 was awarded to Saunders Roe in East Cowes, the place an additional well-known Isle of Wight engineer – Fred Goatley – was answerable for its development.
On 1st September 1937, on Lake Maggiore close to Locarno, in Switzerland, Blue Bird K3 set a brand new world document of 126.32mph. The following day it improved the document to 129.5mph. Breaking the design pace of 130mph took one other 12 months. On seventeenth August 1938, at Lake Hallwyl in Switzerland, a brand new document of 130.91 mph was set.
In its day, Blue Bird K3 was mentioned to have been “essentially the most superior sort of its craft on the planet’.
Malcolm Campbell was not absolutely happy, and an additional hydroplane – Blue Bird K4 – was commissioned. On nineteenth August 1939, K4 broke the water pace document with a time of 141.7mph. Fred Cooper was answerable for its preliminary design.
Fred Cooper died in January 1972 on the age of 73. He is buried at Carisbrooke Cemetery.
