The first person to fly a plane off seawater was Oliver Schwann, a very keen hockey player and one of the ‘founding fathers’ of the Royal Navy Hockey Association. He was also responsible for setting up The United Services Hockey Club which most people in hockey know of, rather confusingly, as US Portsmouth which has nothing to do with the Americans.
Promoted Commander at the age of 31, on 31 December 1909 he was successively Commanding Officer of Her Majesty’s ships HMS Niger and HMS Hermione. It was during this period that his rapidly increasing interest in aviation came to fruition. He bought his own aeroplane, an Avro Type D landplane for £700, a great deal of money in those days. He fitted floats to it and was successful in being the first British person ever to take off from salt water. This he achieved in Cavendish Dock, Barrow-in-Furness on 18 November 1911, which happened to be his 33rd birthday. Bitten by the flying bug he then qualified as a pilot six months later on 16 April 1912 at Larkhill on Salisbury Plain (Royal Aero Club Certificate no. 203).
Oliver Schwann enjoyed an amazing Service life that took in the Royal Navy, the Royal Naval Air Service and finally the Royal Air Force to make up a service career that spanned 53 years.
Oliver Schwann taxiing in his Avro Type D, Barrow-in-Furness, 18 November 1911.
Image reproduced courtesy of the National Museum of the Royal Navy.
