The 1950s were the time of Teddy boys and Brylcreem, rock 'n' roll, Sunday Night at the London Palladium and - as far as Southampton was concerned - the colourful couple Sir Bernard and Lady Docker.

Back in those days people were fascinated by the flamboyant Dockers, and they were never far from the headlines.

One of their most famous possessions was the luxurious Southampton-built yacht Shemara, which became a familiar sight in the docks.

There are many local people who still remember the Dockers and in a few weeks' time ex-crew members of the sumptuous yacht are due to meet up again in Southampton for a reunion.

Today the rich surroundings of Shemara, now berthed alongside an industrial estate at Lowestoft, have faded.

The elegant white-hulled vessel was recalled last week during the ceremonies surrounding the launching of the final Royal Navy vessel at the soon to be closed Woolston shipyard of Vosper Thornycroft.

Shemara was built and launched at Woolston by the company's predecessor, John I Thorny-croft, in April 1938 and during the Second World War she was converted for use as an anti-submarine training vessel.

After peace returned Sir Bernard, who made his fortune as a director of Anglo-Argentine Tramways, Midland Bank and Thomas Cook and Sons - although he was probably best known as chairman of Daimler - went back on board.

A historical archive remembering the 1950s says: "The desire for release from austerity and dim duty was nowhere more evident than in the public's fascination with the publicity-seeking Sir Bernard and Lady Docker.

"Sir Bernard married Norah Collins, a one-time dancer at the Cafe de Paris, and throughout the 50s the graceless gaudy pair entertained the nation with a succession of fancy cars, mink coats, champagne receptions and the magnificent Shemara, an 860-ton yacht with a crew of 35.

"It was conspicuous consumption on a massive scale. While people shook their heads in disbelief, they were somehow grateful for the chance to wonder at a glamour and unabashed extravagance they had long been denied.

"Lady Docker was the real showstopper; Sir Bernard was the complaisant supplier of her far from petty cash.''

In 1954 a few eyebrows were raised when 45 Yorkshire miners were invited to Southampton for a cocktail party on Shemara. "We had a riotous day,'' said Lady Docker at the time.

In March 1959 the couple, who lived on a country estate at Stockbridge, again made the news when a briefcase containing jewellery worth £150,000 was stolen from the boot of their Rolls Royce in Southampton.

Later the briefcase was discovered in the River Itchen but the jewellery was never recovered.

Throughout the 1960s the couple continued to be featured in newspaper stories as they came and went from Southampton, voyaging to far flung corners of the world on Shemara.

In 1965 Shemara was put up for sale for £600,000, an enormous sum in those days, and three years later, after a great deal of legal wrangling, the vessel finally passed to the ownership of property dealer Harry Hyams for £290,000.

In the following years Shemara remained in and around Southampton; for 14 of them the yacht was moored at Northam.

Sir Bernard died in 1978, aged 81, while Lady Docker survived him until 1983 when she was found dead in a London hotel at the age of 78.