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General => Armed Forces => World War Two => Topic started by: BradMajors on Sunday 11 March 18 19:51 GMT (UK)
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My grandfather was a British naval officer and after the end of WW2 he purchased a British navy warship. I am trying to find the name of the ship and the record of the sale. He later sold the warship to a movie studio.
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Have a look at this link ' Disposal Services Authority'.
https://www.gov.uk/government/groups/disposal-services-authority
It is a British Government site dealing with the disposal of amongst other things Naval and Marine equipment. It may have records that go back to WW2 era or they may be able to give you a clue as to likely areas of research.
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The Disposal Services Authority did not exist 70 years old.
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What sort of size warship?
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What sort of size warship?
I was wondering the same thing. I had a vision of BradMajors' grandfather arriving at his local yacht club in a heavy cruiser!
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"The Crown Agents" was a government department that commissioned and bought and sold goods and services for over a century before some of it was privatised in the 1990s.
At one point in my life I used to see adverts for items being sold or auctioned by the "War Office" (later the MoD) but cannot now recall whether I saw the adverts in a trade magazine or a Sunday newspaper.
Maybe this current Crown Agency has knowledge of how to access earlier records:-
http://www.crownagents.com/about-us/who-we-are
http://www.crownagents.com/about-us/our-history
"Crown Agents had been buying and delivering ships for several years, but in 1923 it received a particularly important commission - that of restoring the ship that had taken Scott and Shackleton on their first joint Antarctic expedition. After working as a cargo vessel, she had been laid up for several years.
On behalf of Britain's scientific Royal Society and the Colonial Office, Crown Agents bought the ship and had it refitted as an arctic research ship. Its new career was launched in 1925 with a voyage to the southern oceans to chart the migration patterns of whales."
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Using the search term "Surplus" on the national achive Discovery website, There were 1,676 results; some of which are for the sale of aircraft, many are for the sale of stores, silver, gold, etc..
I only glanced at the first 100 or so results when I came across this:-
Reference: T 236/1682
Description:
Disposal of surplus United States aircraft and ships in the United Kingdom outside the Washington agreement
Date: 1946
Held by: The National Archives, Kew
Former reference in its original department: OF 110/55/20A
I don't know current references, but once upon a time the reference "WO" was for the War Office and it could be that there's mention of the sale of British Admiralty ships in those records.
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Good evening,
I suppose it comes down to how liberal you are with the term "warship". Would an ex naval officer be able to afford a frigate or a battleship, even at the end of the war. But he may be able to afford one of the many patrol boats, MTBs etc that were sold off.
Used to be quite a few at Shoreham used as houseboats.
John915
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This reminds me of a Nicholas Montserrat book I read when I was younger, 'The ship that died of shame'.