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MV Humphrey Gilbert

single-screw passenger vessel

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General referenceInterpretive dossier study · Crown Archives visual atlas
Record originEnglish Wikipedia
Text licenseCC BY-SA 4.0
Source revisionSep 20, 2026
Entity authorityQ6719615 ↗
Source-derived summary

The MV Edgcumbe Belle is a single screw passenger vessel, operating from Plymouth, Devon, UK to Cremyll for Plymouth Boat Trips.

History

The Dartmouth–Kingswear Passenger Ferry is primarily used to link the town of Dartmouth with the railway station on the other side of the River Dart at Kingswear. It has long been operated by the railway companies, who maintained a 'station' at the Dartmouth side of the river, with no tracks; instead, passengers boarded the ferry to Kingswear, and thence the train towards Paignton.

In 1954 British Railways, the then-operator of the ferry, decided that their present vessel, the SS Mew, was too expensive to operate, and decided to replace her with a smaller and cheaper motor vessel.

They chartered first the MV Lady Elizabeth and then the MV Western Belle from the Millbrook Steamboat & Trading Co Ltd of Plymouth. The former vessel was unsuitable for the route; however, the latter appears to have been quite successful, although there were complaints about the use of a Plymouth vessel, when suitable vessels were available from Dartmouth, so the MV Western Belle was replaced by the River Dart Steamboat Co Ltd's MV Seymour Castle.

In 1956, British Rail finally ordered two motor vessels of their own from Blackmore & Sons of Bideford, North Devon. They were named MV Adrian Gilbert and MV Humphrey Gilbert, after two famous local explorers from Greenway House. In 1972 British Railways closed the railway from Goodrington to Kingswear. The ferry route, and vessels, passed into local authority ownership, first Dartmouth Borough Council, then South Hams District Council.

Editorial summary

This brief starts where responsible research should: with the source description of “MV Humphrey Gilbert” as single-screw passenger vessel. Everything that follows is an evidence route, not borrowed authority.

Editorial reviewA practical starting point whose main value is the path it opens into stronger specialist and primary sources. The current lead gives the account dated anchors—1954, 1956, 1972—that can be checked directly. The selected authority fields contribute no independent date. The account is most persuasive where Humphrey, Gilbert and single-screw can be independently traced.
Editorial analysis

Why this record matters

The subject matters to the general reference register because the source frames it as single-screw passenger vessel. Its deeper value depends on whether names, dates, institutions and citations support that framing.

Evidence profile

The citation trail is more important than the brevity of the summary: it shows where individual claims can be examined in context. The source revision retrieved here is dated Sep 20, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q6719615. None of the 0 selected statements returned an explicit reference. The first chronological checks are 1954, 1956 and 1972.

Critical limits

The absence of detail may reflect summary conventions rather than a lack of surviving documentation. The source lead contains qualifying language; that uncertainty should survive quotation, summary and reuse. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.

How to read it

Use the entry as an orientation point, then follow its citations and revision history. Names, dates and institutional relationships should be checked against the original record.

Best used for
  • Subject orientation
  • Search vocabulary
  • Locating named sources
Verify next

The closest primary source, responsible institution and strongest cited specialist reference.

Three-step research path

  1. Establish the record: confirm the title “MV Humphrey Gilbert”, its source revision and the description used here.
  2. Expand the search: follow MV Humphrey Gilbert primary sources, MV Humphrey Gilbert archive and Humphrey research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
  3. Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.

Questions for further research

  1. Which source most directly establishes the central claim about “MV Humphrey Gilbert”?
  2. Which cited source is closest to the event, object or claim?
  3. What terminology or title could unlock a more precise catalogue search?
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Source & attribution

This entry incorporates text from “MV Humphrey Gilbert” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.