AS THE attendant at the boating lake on Southampton’s Sports centre called time on another ship’s voyage around the lake, his announcement was met with whoops of laughter.
The occupants of this particular vessel were hurried away by their redfaced parents and it was these scenes that led to the renaming of the paddle boats on the Sports Centre Lake 75 years ago this month.
Why was this? In early April 1939 the paddle boats, which were all named after Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, became the subject of several complaints from upset parents. No one objected to the names of Snow White and six of the dwarfs but the seventh was less popular.
When attendants called out: “Come in, Dopey!” the trouble started. A number of complaints to the Corporation were received from mums and dads who thought the boatmen were referring to their children personally rather than the boat they were sailing in.
It was decided to give the paddleboats the names of famous liners. This would not only appease the parents but the names of the ships would be more in keeping with the port.
Within days the names of Snow White and her companions vanished to be replaced with Queen Mary, Queen Elizabeth, Alcantara, Aquitania, Empress of Britain, Isle of Sark, Solent Queen and Balmoral.
Much of the renaming would have most probably been carried out at the Corporation’s maintenance department in Shirley where for many years the paddle boats were crafted and then maintained by the council’s very own “Admiral of the Fleet” Percy Soffe.
Hidden away in the building works section of the depot, Percy would spend about 43 hours making one of the smaller paddle boats that could fit three to four people. The larger boats, which could take up to six shipmates, would take him up to 60 hours to build.
Percy, who was 62 at the time and living in Imperial Avenue, Southampton, said: “We began to build them when we could not find anybody to make them for us as the old ones wore out. We just had to copy them from the old boats”.
Made out of marine plywood and softwood, the boats were powered by turning two handles that were connected to a set of paddles, and the fleet of boats became a familiar fixture of the Sports Centre during the 50s, 60s and 70s as they splashed backwards and forwards across the boating lake.
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