RAF workshops
The R.A.F. continued to use these workshops for Air Sea Rescue craft until 1978 when they were superceded by helicopters. In 1932 T.E.Shaw arrived here from Plymouth as part of the crew of an ST 357 classification sea plane tender. T.E.Shaw was the name taken by Lawrence of Arabia in order not to be recognised. His job was to train the crews of the armoured target boats of RAF 1104 Marine Craft Unit and he drove the first boat until the crews were properly trained to take over.
Target boats were 38 feet long and consisted of two speed boats threequarters covered in armour plate, lined with expanded rubber to make them unsinkable. His first stay in the town was for six weeks when he lodged at the Bay View Hotel, Esplanade, where he slept with a dagger on a chair by the bed.
He returned in 1933 for a short time and also from November 1934 until February 1935, and, if you turn with your back to the sea, you will see the tower room where he stayed at the Ozone Hotel at the junction of Windsor Crescent and West Street, now the Royal Yorkshire Yacht Club.