A Sopwith Bat Boat over Cowes harbour, 1913 [Westland Aerospace Ltd - C5608] [enlarge]

Lloyd's Register first lists vessel No.144471 in 1921. Her name is Pampa III and the owner is T.W. Simpson*. This vessel changed name many times before finally becoming Glala in 1936. Under the heading 'builder' the entry reads:

"A.R. Luke & Sons, Hamble, 1915 /
completed Camper & Nicholsons, Gosport, 1920".

Over the years this entry in Lloyd's Register has caused a lot of confusion. Who actually built her? Was she launched in 1915 or 1920? What happened between these dates?

No records before 1921 have been found. The Luke family have said that A.R. Luke's records were destroyed in a fire. Camper & Nicholsons' archivist has said that the vessel never had a yard number, indicating that she was not designed or built by them.

But we can deduce a few things from this. Although the register says "...completed, Camper & Nicholsons, 1920", if the work had been significant she would have had a yard number. The work in 1920 must have been limited to fitting out, or perhaps re-engining. So she must have been substantially complete in 1915.

There is another clue. A sister vessel called Mayfair had been launched two years earlier in 1913. This vessel was commissioned by the Norwegian sportsman Hannibal Fegth and, although it was requisitioned by the Royal Navy during the 1914-18 war, it was definitely not built as anything other than a yacht. Glala was essentially a larger version of Mayfair. This, and the limited work done in 1920, suggests that Glala was built as a yacht and was not converted from anything else.

Detail from the photo above. Glala's sister, Mayfair. [enlarge]

No images of Glala have been found from before 1930 but there is an intriguing photograph of a Sopwith Bat-Boat undergoing trials over Cowes harbour in 1913. The big boat on the right is almost certainly Mayfair. Pictures of Mayfair give us a good idea of Glala's early appearance - a flush deck, no wheelhouse and no funnel.

So some light can be shed on Glala's origins, but questions remain unanswered - T.W. Simpson owned her in 1921 and possibly earlier, but was not necessarily the first owner. Pampa III is probably, but not necessarily, the name she was launched with. She could have been requisitioned by the Navy, but without a definite name she is hard to trace.

* T.W. Simpson has not been identified yet, but it is likely that he was the entrepreneur Thomas William Simpson who lived in Poole, Dorset and had made a fortune out of the manufacture of margarine.