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Name: Branksome

Certificate number: 2

Status:

Core Collection

Function:

Leisure Craft

Sub Functional Area:

Launch

Type:

Saloon Launch

Location:

Windermere, Cumbria, England

Current use:

Museum: operating

  • Length on the Waterline:

    13.10 metres (42.95 feet)

  • Length Overall:

    15.24 metres (49.96 feet)

  • Gross Tonnage:

    18.00

  • Draught:

    2.28 metres (7.48 feet)

  • Maximum Breadth:

    2.84 metres (9.31 feet)
Branksome - Branksome in dock

Web address

http://www.steamboat.co.uk/

Builder

History

This vessel was built in 1896 by George Brockbank of Bowness as the LILY and was a 50ft steam launch fitted with a Sissons compound steam engine for Mrs Howarth of Langdale Chase. The hull is carvel built of teak and the vessel is described as having a counter stern and a clipper bow with an aft saloon, 2 berths, WC, and a galley.

Her engine is the original, having been built in 1896 by W Sisson & Co. Gloucester and is numbered 502. The current boiler is modern and was built in 1971 by Hunslet Steam Co, Leeds. It is believed to have been built as an exact replica of the original.

LILY was intended to be the finest launch on the lake and has since been claimed to be one of the finest steam launches in the world. She remained the property of Mrs Howarth until 1919 and then passed to the Cowburn family who kept her until around 1958 – 1962 when she was sold to G.H. Pattinson, the Museum's founder.

She is elaborately fitted out - the walnut panelling, embossed velvet upholstery, carpet and leather seats are all original. The galley has a solid white marble wash hand basin with beer pump handle and her 1896 WC still works. The most popular fitting is a copper tea urn adjacent to the funnel which boils a gallon of water in ten seconds. The kettle is worked by boiler steam passing through coiled pipes in the urn. These kettles were common on Windermere boats during the Victorian period, as were silver tea services engraved with the boat's name or family crest, together with accompanying tablecloths and maid's lace aprons.

As the finest surviving steamboat on the lake, BRANKSOME had the honour of embarking HRH Prince Phillip for a trip down the lake during his visit in 1966, and HRH The Prince of Wales after the opening of the Museum on 18 May 1977.

Source; Windermere Steamboat Museum and Motorboat Collection, December 2008

These brief histories are compiled from details supplied by vessel owners and enthusiasts and from various reference works. National Historic Ships would be grateful for any corrections of facts or additional information for inclusion. Please contact ron.ellis@nationalhistoricships.org.uk

Subsequent developments

December 2008: BRANKSOME has been taken out the water and her engine and boiler removed. A recent survey has revealed that a substantial number of her teak planks and frames have been replaced with iroko in the last thirty years or so and that experiments were made with an oil firing in the 1960s. A Light Steam Power Freeheat Burner No. 4 was fitted c.1962 and a Swinney Burner was fitted in 1965. The new Hunslet boiler was constructed in 1970 and has only burned solid fuel. Source; George Hogg, Advisory Committee, December 2008.

Previous names

Bibliography