Vincent Black Knight Vincent Black Knight The Vincent Black Knight is a British motorcycle made between 1954 and 1955 by Vincent Motorcycles. A year before the factory closed in 1955, Vincent produced the enclosed range of "Black Knight" and "Black Prince". Known as the 'Series D', the Black Knight was an upgraded Vincent Rapide which was fully enclosed to keep the rain and dirt from the rider. As well as allowing Vincent to reduce production costs, the enclosure actually improved performance by directing more air to the rear cylinder. Phil Vincent described it as a 'two-wheeled Bentley' and the enclosed Vincents got a
HMS Black Prince (81) the modernisation had to be cancelled, and "Black Prince" was placed in reserve until 1953. She returned to service after refitting with simplified secondary armament with a single quad pom pom in Q position and 8 x 1 Mk3 40mm electric Bofors guns. The ship was decommissioned again two years later, and returned to the Royal Navy in 1961. "Black Prince" did not re-enter service, and was towed from Auckland to the Osaka breakage yards for scrapping in 1962. "Black Prince" was a modified "Dido" design, sometimes called "Dido" Group 2, or the "Bellona" subgroup with only four 5.25-inch mounts