During the recent holidays Durban’s fleet of pleasure boat ferries has been busy with holidaymakers taking cruises around Durban Bay.

The boats provide the ideal opportunity to see Durban Harbour from the waterside, including the Bayhead area with its mangrove forest – a small relic of the vast swamplands that used to dominate the southern end of Durban Bay.

Throughout the year the pleasure boats carry schoolchildren, many of them from inland schools for whom this may be their first visit to the coast and to a working harbour. Who knows how many future navy admirals, captains, port managers and engineers are among the children being exposed to a whole new experience.

Of all the types of pleasure craft used on the bay, there is one that stands out because of its history and heritage. This is the 70-year old Allen Gardiner, a unique boat that is also a floating restaurant, offering brunch, lunch, dinner and champagne sunset cruises and which is now in its 10th year of operation.

The Allen Gardiner is a former air force crash boat dating from World War II days. It was one of 19 boats built in Miami, in the US, as wooden air-sea rescue launches introduced and operated by the SA Air Force. At that time South Africa operated a Joint Air Training Scheme involving the SAAF and Royal Air Force, with South Africa provided 24 airfields and other infrastructure and the RAF the aircraft for pilot training away from the theatre of war.

Among that “other infrastructure” was a fleet of 20 crash boats that were stationed around the coast to be on hand when aircraft crashed into the sea. These crash boats, or Miami boats, were also used to search for survivors of U-boat attacks off the coast.

The prototype was given the number R0. It was built in Britain and was powered by a Rolls-Royce Merlin engine.

The 19 American-built boats each had four petrol-driven 500hp Kermath engines and a speed capability of 42 knots.

Built to slightly different specifications than the prototype, the Miamis were 63 feet long. For lightness and strength the hulls were built of closely spaced slender stringers rather than solid frames, and the hull sides and bottom were double skinned, diagonal cedar on the inside and a carvel mahogany exterior.

The vessels have hard chines – virtually flat-bottomed with almost 90 degrees between the bottom and sides of the hull. The draught is therefore less than four feet (1.2m), but they had the capability to plane (similar to a ski-boat) with just the stern in the water. Indeed, only two engines could be started in port since once all four were started they would plane at idle speed.

The first order was numbered R1 to R8 and they were delivered to Cape Town in mid-1941. At the end of 1941 a further 11 were ordered from Miami, giving a total of 20 boats (R0, then R1 to R8 and then R9 to R20). There was no R13!

Four of the crash boats operated from Durban.

The boat that now operates as the Allen Gardiner (43 gross tons register) is thought to be the only surviving crash boat still on the water. It is a truly historic wooden vessel, a real part of South Africa’s maritime heritage.

To celebrate the birthday of this historic boat, the Allen Gardiner was given a complete refit and refurbishment and is now looking more splendid than ever. During the winter of 2011 the Allen Gardiner was closed down for six months for a R1 million refit. It was lifted out of the water at the SA Navy dockyard at Salisbury Island and given an almost total rebuild. Boatbuilders skilled at working with wooden craft are extremely scarce, and three craftsmen were flown from Cape Town to Durban and accommodated here for four months.

Most of the hull planking above the water line and the decks themselves were stripped. Some of the stringers were replaced, others strengthened. All the metal fasteners were replaced. The watertight bulkheads were all removed and the Allen Gardiner became a bare skeleton in the dockyard. New watertight bulkheads were manufactured and installed, and new planking and decking fitted.

In addition to the rebuild, the galley was refurbished, as was the deck seating and the dining saloon. So not only does the boat look stunning from the outside, the interior is also first-rate.

The Allen Gardiner is now in better condition than when it was originally built 70 years ago, and a significant piece of South Africa’s maritime heritage has been preserved.