ships & boats

Type: Schooner rig
Length: 30m
Built: 1900
Last of its type

The Kathleen & May
This three-masted topsail schooner set sail on her maiden voyage in 1900, transporting various cargo up and down the length of the British Isles. She was bought by the Maritime Trust in 1968 and restored as a typical West Country schooner to full sailing condition, and is the last remaining example of her type.

Type: Ketch rig
Length: 30m
Built: 1907
Last of its type

The Irene
Built from oak, elm, pine and chestnut in 1907, she carried cargo in the coasting trade from Bridgewater and Swansea until 1961. In 1965 she was found by her current owner, Dr Leslie Morrish, in a derelict state and was restored over 20 years. The Irene has been used as a houseboat, starred in films (she became the Flying Dutchman in a biopic of the composer Richard Wagner) and spent some time in the Caribbean as a charter vessel. When the ship was gutted by fire and sank in Marigot Bay, St Maartens in 2003, it was Dr Morrish who stepped in again, raising the vessel and restoring her as a labour of love over the next 7 years. The Irene is now the only survivor of her type, a West Country trading ketch.

Type: Cornish Lugger 
Length: 22m
Built 1926
One of last 12 
survivors of its type

The White Heather
A Cornish lugger, she has operated out of Megavissey and fished out of Falmouth, before being laid up on moorings of the River Fal. She was converted back to sail in 1988 and found a new purpose running sailing trips from Fowey. Under a new owner in 1992, The White Heather sailed to Morocco, Brazil before returning to British shores via the Caribbean. Out of the hundreds of Cornish luggers that were built, The White Heather is one of only a dozen surviving today.

Type: Brig rig
Length: 30m
Built: 1929

The Phoenix
Built in 1929 as an Evangelical Mission Schooner, she retired from missionary work 20 years later and carried cargo until her engine room was damaged by fire. She was bought by new owners in 1974 who converted her into a Brigantine before being purchased by Square Sail Shipyards of Cornwall in 1988. During 1991 she was transformed into the 15th century caravel and Columbus’ flagship the ‘Santa Maria’ for Ridley Scott’s film ‘1492 Conquest of Paradise’. She remained as the Santa Maria until, in 1996, due to increasing demand for period square-riggers, she was converted into a 2 masted Brig and reverted to her original name ‘Phoenix of Dell Quay’. Her other film and TV credits include ‘Hornblower Series III’, ‘Voyage of Discovery’, ‘Moll Flanders’, ‘Frenchman’s Creek’ and ‘The Scarlet Pimpernel’.

Type: Topsail schooner
Length: 29m
Built: 1945

Johanna Lucretia
Although originally built as a fishing vessel in Ghent, Belgium, she was never used for that purpose and was converted for recreational use in 1954. She sailed in Dutch waters until 1989 from her port in Enkhuizen in The Netherlands. In 1989 the Johanna Lucretia was sold and transferred her base to Plymouth in the United Kingdom and was refitted in 1991/1992 she was refitted at Gloucester’s very own Tommy Nielson Yard. She has since been used for charter mainly from Gibraltar, the Caribbean and the Eastern coast of the United States until 2001 after which she was sold to Cutlass Classic Charters Ltd. She has starred in the film The Riddle of the Sands in 1978 when she took the part of the Medusa and more recently in the film Amazing Grace - a drama about the Abolitionists campaign to end the slave trade.

Type: Purpose-built 
      lightship
Length: 35m
Built: 1958

Sula Lightship
One of the best preserved lightships in the world. Unique due to her foghorn design and lens system. Officially registered National Historic Vessel. This type of ship is threatened with extinction, as manned lightships have now been replaced with automatic buoys or unmanned light vessels. The ‘Sula’ was an active light vessel on the ‘Spurn Humber’ station, off the east coast of England from 1959-1985. She was built for the Humber Conservancy Board in Beverley, Yorkshire, and in operation, was crewed with seven men, working two weeks on, two weeks off. Since 1985, she had been moored in Guernsey, Milford Haven and Ireland until 2007 when she was towed to the Sharpness shipyard, where conversion for her current role as a centre for complementary therapies took place. The lightship is also partially open for the general public as a tourist attraction. During the Tall Ships, regular hour long presentations will be given on the history of lightships (limited capacity).