Heritage Afloat

Vessels at Risk

As a general rule ships and boats preserved afloat are far more difficult and expensive to maintain than any equivalent historic artefact or building. Exposed to the weather and often salt water, keeping them going is a continuous challenge for the volunteers and charitable organisations who operate them.

Age, wear and tear, the cost of repairs and loss of visitor income all take their toll and it is larger vessels which are most at risk. In the last 10 years we have lost:

• The large steam tugs Torque, Goliath and Sea Alarm and the steam dredgers Clearway and Seiont II, leaving scarcely a dozen active coastal steamships across the UK;
• The last cargo carrying vessel to trade around British coasts under sail, the ketch Emily Barratt;
• Large numbers of craftsmen built wooden hulled motor fishing vessels;
• The 1920's steam cable layer John W Mackay.

Currently at risk are paddle steamers such as The Medway Queen and many of the large museum ships whose visitor income is quite insufficient to pay for the cost of maintenance, as is the case even with the famous tea clipper Cutty Sark.

Read what Heritage Afloat is doing about this situation.