The Steamboating Forum

Froya

If you look at the manner in which the paint is peeling off of the hull in the first photo, it appears to be of diagonally planked wood construction. I am told that the diagonal planking is very traditional of the British Royal Navy.

What bothers me is that you can not se the side planking round the transom, as would be normal for a wooden hull.

It really looks as if the transom is mounted as the last element in that construction.

Jørgen

While I agree with Jorgen that some of the features appear to be pretty nasty there are others that seem to be promising .

It does look ( as Wesley observes ) from the way the paint is flaking on part of the hull that it might be of diagonal planking : double diagonal planking with oiled canvas between the two layers of planks was used on all RN picket boats from about 1865 . The oiled canvas was used so that the watertight integrity of the hull was maintained even though the boats might spend days or even weeks out of the water on the decks of cruisers or battleships , having the canvas meant that when lowered into the water one didn't have to wait for the wooden planking to take up before setting off on whatever task had been given .
Unfortunately this type of construction is difficult and expensive to repair as it is often necessary to remove a lot of planks to get to what may be only a small area needing attention .

The shape of the transom is similar to that of a RN picket boat , as is the hull and some of the upperworks but the bridge is totally wrong as is not only the funnel itself but its position .

It is impossible to be categoric without having much more detail but I would hazard a guess that the hull MIGHT have started life as a RN 50' picket boat . Since then the steam plant has been removed and an infernal combustion installed further astern than the original engine and boiler ( meaning that the bulkheads have also been removed/repositioned . ) The upperworks have been heavily modified and a completely new and hideous bridge installed .

IF the hull is sound , and it's a very big if , it might not be too incredibly expensive to remove the bridge and restore the upperworks to something approaching their original shape and put an i/c engine where the original steam engine would have been . An exact replica of the original boiler and engine would be very , very expensive but there are a few plants around from Harbour Service launches and similar craft which might be suitable .

So it is possible that she might once have been a RN picket boat and it is of course possible (if indeed she was a picket boat) to restore her , at a price . However even if the hull is in a good condition and a limited restoration of the hull and upperworks is undertaken it would be expensive . A restoration and return to steam would be very expensive and a complete restoration with replica plant would make an oil sheikh whince .


Regards Edward .

Hi all,

thanks for all you comments so far, this old craft is certainly a strange animal!!

The location mooring is Port Hampton, on the Thames, opposite the LEH boatclub, about 2 miles upstream from Hampton Court[Henry 8ths place!!]

cheers,

Sunburyboy

Just for comparison, I enclose a couple of pictures of the 30' Navy Pinnace (or Barge or whatever) that I am involved in at present.

According to information’s from the Danish Navy it is build by J. Samuel White in Cowes around 1870.

As can be seen, the outer planking is longitudinal, but inside there is one (or two) layers of diagonal planking.

I did not know the reason for this specific way of hull construction when I took the pictures, and I did not realise that it was important.

My part of it is related to reconstruction of the machinery, but I will investigate the hull construction in details next time I visit the museum.








Best Regards
Jørgen

I'm guessing that hull is diagonal strips of galvanized steel with a wood transom fitted.

The galvanic gray coloring can be seen and the material is too thin where is meets the wood transom to be anything else. Unless they did some compound miter.

-Ron

I suspect she's an RN Harbour Services Launch (HSL) 50 or so feet long WW2 vintage mostly steam powered. Check out Oceanid and SL Puffin and the HSL that Portsmouth have. probably diseasilized by now though.

steamer wrote:I suspect she's an RN Harbour Services Launch (HSL) 50 or so feet long WW2 vintage mostly steam powered. Check out Oceanid and SL Puffin and the HSL that Portsmouth have. probably diseasilized by now though.

I am very familiar with Oceanid and must say that the basic hull design is very similar.