THOUSANDS of residents flocked to Southend Pier to see a replica of a 17th century Spanish warship last year and councillors across the political spectrum have now backed calls for a submarine to be moored on the seafront.

The 200ft tall El Galeon was moored next to Southend Pier for two weeks last summer and proved a huge hit. Residents climbed aboard to explore the ship as it took up temporary residency at the head of the pier.

The success sparked calls for a warship to be permanently placed at the pier, including from Ron Woodley who announced his ambition to see a warship similar to HMS Belfast in London to be moored next to Southend Pier when he was deputy leader in 2020.

Now, councillors in Southend have backed calls to try and attract Russian submarine Black Widow to become a permanent attraction at the Prince of Wales jetty behind Adventure Island.

Tony Cox, leader of the council, has agreed to look into the potential.

He said: “We will look at it, absolutely. We’ll look into the feasibility of it. It does actually look good. Even if it could be moored either permanently or displayed for visitors we would never turn down any of those suggestions.

“We’ve had a rich and proud history of mooring ships and vessels on the pier for people to come and visit and if we can make it happen we’ll see what we can do.”

Ron Woodley, Independent councillor for Thorpe Ward, has suggested in the past a warship could be moored off the pier as a tourist attraction.

He said: “I would support it. I was thinking about a destroyer or something like that but a submarine would be good, as long as we can get access and people can go comfortably inside it without having to climb down too many obstacles.

“We do need to make sure there are attractions to the pier and people would come to the area and take that benefit. It gives people an opportunity of having an experience that the wouldn’t have got otherwise.”

Matt Dent, Labour councillor for Kursaal Ward, added: “We saw last summer with El Galeon what a success and how popular that was. I’m a big supporter of having more temporary attraction at the end of the pier and something like that would be perfect.”