Registration number 219
Status Archived
a12admin

Details

Function Cargo Vessel
Subfunction Barge
Location Heybridge Basin
Vessel type Spritsail Barge
Archive reason More information required
Current use Private use
Available to hire No
Available for excursions No
Info required Yes

Construction

Builder Wills & Packham, Milton Creek, Sittingboune
Built in 1922
Hull material Wood
Rig Spritsail
Number of decks 1
Number of masts 2
Propulsion Sail
Number of engines 1
Primary engine type Diesel
Boiler type None
Boilermaker None

Dimensions

Breadth: Beam
20.00 feet (6.10m)
Depth
6.98 feet (2.13m)
Length: Overall
79.93 feet (24.38m)
Tonnage: Gross
200.00

History

Built in 1922 by Wills & Packham of Sittingbourne, PHOENICIAN is a Thames sailing barge with a hull constructed of pitch pine and oak, using a double skinned lapped plank method. Her current engine is a Gardner 6LXB diesel 180 HP.

She was the last wooden Thames sailing barge built, and was intended to win the Thames Barge Racing Competition, which she proved very successful at before World War 2. During the war she survived an aircraft crash landing on her and thereafter went to the Naze backwaters mooring barrage balloons. After the war she was rebuilt at government expense as a motor barge. Her owners included E A Horlock and R Sully and she traded until 1973 when she was sold out of trade to Albert Groom for chartering and community purposes, based at Ipswich.

Subsequently she moved to West India Docks and then to Pin Mill for restoration. In the 1980s, she was re-rigged to her original specification.

We are lacking information on this particular vessel. If you have any information on this vessel past or present, please contact us

Sources

Carr, Frank, Sailing Barges, 1971
Hugh Perks, Richard, Sprts'l: A Portrait of Sailing Barges and Sailormen, Conway Maritime Press, 1975
The Last Berth of the Sailorman, Society for Spritsail Barge Research, 1987
Wood, D G, Barges Sailing Today: Sailing Barge Information Pamplet No: 1, Society for Spritsail Barge Research, 1995

Own this vessel?

If you are the owner of this vessel and would like to provide more details or updated information, please contact info@nationalhistoricships.org.uk

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