Christobel and I were beginning to descend the Caen Locks, a famous flight in the inland waterways world, when I spotted something seemingly out of place.
To sketch out why we were so far from the sea – we were in Devizes on ‘mother watch’ whilst my sister was in Greece for a spot of sailing – for two weeks in fact!
What caught my eye was a river launch, of a definite 1930-40 vintage.
Arriving at the boat’s approaching lock before it, I took the preferred line from the only man then aboard: his two crew were working the locks…
Striking up in conversation, I learnt that the boat was on its way to Tetbury (I think…) and had been bought towards the end of the phase two Covid-19 lock-down somewhere u the Thames.
The boat had been essentially refurbished by the last owner, who, for an unknown reason lost interest. The boat sat in a yard for over two years without a cover, deteriorating…
The name, Mariner III, could well be her original name and she apparently has a pedigree: she was one of a pair of motor launches built for the River Thames Police Unit in 1942. She would have been based at Wapping. This particular boat, and possibly her sister, escorted the Havengore with Sir Winston Churchill’s coffin aboard up the Thames prior to his funeral.
When built the launch had an open cockpit aft of the steering position amidships. The aft cabin was fitted when the boat was converted into a river cruiser. As I said to the owner, who plans to keep the additions, the arrangement was neat and looked as if it could have been as built.
I’m told that when built the boat’s hull would have been finished in black – as were police vehicles in those days. The 30′ 0″ vessel was built by Osborne’s of teak.
I wished the owner well in his venture – an extended Covid-19 lock-down project, apparently – and we carried on for on foot, we were travelling far faster then all the craft coming down the Caen flight…
If anyone has any info on the boat, I’d be pleased to hear from you.
Thank you to the people who alerted me to a couple of mistakes…