THE first step in a journey which will see a slice of River Thames history disappear from UK shores, was taken at the weekend.

Almost on the stroke of midnight and under generator-powered lights, Erith Yacht Club’s last water-borne clubhouse slipped away from shoreline.

It had been planned to move the Folgefonn, a former Norwegian roll-on roll-off car ferry at high tide at midday on Sunday.

But high winds conspired with a tangle of old mooring ropes and chains to make sure the ferry stayed stuck fast to the foreshore.

A large number of club members joined club commodore and River Thames pilot John Freestone at the club, off Manor Road, Erith, on Sunday, to help in the operation.

The club is well into a £3.2m Olympic legacy project to expand its activities into the community, which includes a new shore-based clubhouse.

But the Folgefonn stood in the way of progress, as part of the new clubhouse’s facilities include a floating pontoon where the ferry was moored.

So it had to go.

The ferry, which may have been the first roll-on, roll-off car ferry in the world, is to go back to Norway where she was built.

There, she will be restored and become a floating exhibit in a naval museum.

The first attempt to pull the Folgefonn backwards away from the shore failed, so the tug which was trying to tow the boat from the riverbank, moved to the bow of the ship, to attempt to tow it forwards.

As the high tide began to ebb, the ferry still failed to move.

When the riverbed was exposed it became apparent the ferry’s rudder was caught in mooring ropes and chains, which had to be removed.

More volunteers returned for the next high tide just before midnight and this time, with the wind having dropped,they successfully pulled the ferry away from the shore.

At 2.30am the Folgefonn, built in 1938, was finally anchored out in the river, still within the yacht club moorings, which will keep her out of the way of commercial river traffic.

She will stay moored there until late spring or early summer, when the Norwegians will arrive with a “piggyback” vessel.

Folgefonn will then be floated into the vessell and carried back to Norway.

There were sighs of relief at the yacht club that the ferry survived its move in one piece.

Although its hull below the waterline is still quite solid, the metal is fragile at the waterline, which was why it was decided the ferry was too frail to risk it making the journey back to Norway on its own.

The club has had a floating clubhouse since it first moved to Anchor Bay in 1929 and Folgefonn was the last of the line, arriving in 1982.

Sara Taylor from the club said: “It was very sad to see it go.

“We were relieved to see it come away in one piece.

“Things are going to be very different now.”