Local people and holiday visitors to the area interested in seeing for themselves what progress is being made on the building of a £250,000 replica of Drake’s famous vessel Golden Hinde at an Appledore yard will in future have to pay for the privilege.

Drake’s 100ft long vessel is now nearing the halfway stage of construction at Messrs J Hinks and Son’s yard where the Hudson Bay Company’s replica of the Nonsuch was built a few years ago.
It was planned to take the vessel to various ports along the South Coast before mooring her for three months in the Pool of London prior to retracing Drake’s voyage across the Atlantic.
The Golden Hinde is due to be launched about March next year.
The full Gazette article is dated 23 June 1972