Registration number 2320
Status Registered
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Details

Function Cargo Vessel
Subfunction Narrow Boat
Location Stone
Vessel type Butty
Current use Private use
Available to hire No
Available for excursions No

Construction

Builder Harland & Wolff Ltd, Woolwich
Built in 1935
Hull material Steel
Rig None
Number of decks 1
Propulsion Towed
Primary engine type None
Boiler type None
Boilermaker None

Dimensions

Breadth: Beam
7.00 feet (2.14m)
Depth
3.00 feet (0.92m)
Length: Overall
71.50 feet (21.81m)

History

BETELGEUSE is a narrow boat butty of steel construction, built by Harland and Wolff, Woolwich in 1935 and originally paired with BARGUS. Her original owners were the Grand Union Canal Carrying Company from 1935 to 1948, thereafter the Docks and Inland Waterways Executive and the British Waterways Board, always carrying general cargoes.

In 1960 she passed to the Willow Wren Carrying Company and in the 1970s she was working for A Jones and Stroudwater Carriers in the retail coal trade. A change of use followed when she was known as THE CHESTER PACKET during the 1970s and ran as a trip boat. Shortly before or on 2002, she was purchased and restored to cargo carrying condition, with the replacement of the original elm bottom with a steel one that year. In 2003, she was carrying cargo again and in 2014 she was bought by her present was purchased by her current owner who reunited her with BARGUS in 2016. In 2023, both BARGUS and BETELGEUSE began being used as pleasure boats once more.

 

Key dates

  • 1935

    Built by Harland & Woolff, Woolwich

  • 1935/1970

    General cargo carrying

  • 1970s

    Became a trip boat

  • 1980s

    Reverted to cargo carrying

  • 2005

    Carried landscape Artist, Tanya Korat’s art installation Meadow from Bath to London

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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