Queen

Let’s Save our Graceful Queen

Queen is one of our most important boats as far as historical interest goes. She is now probably the oldest surviving wooden motor boat, built in 1917, and her hull is of a style that went out of fashion in the 1920s and 30s as boats started to be built more for carrying capacity than for speed.

She’s a bit of a mystery. We don’t know which boatyard built her. We know she was gauged as Walsall Queen on 23rd June 1917. Her butty was called Queen of the Ocean, an odd name for a boat based in Walsall!

Walsall Queen was built for a company called Hildick & Hildick, malleable iron fittings manufacturers, along with a small fleet of similar boats. It seems that they carried coal to Brentford, but we don’t know why.

Originally her engine was a single cylinder semi diesel British Kromhaut. Kromhaut were a Dutch company but they set up a works at Southampton to assemble engines for sale in Britain, thus evading some customs charges.

In 1924 most, if not all, of the fleet were sold to Harvey Taylor of Aylesbury. Queen was collected from Walsall and taken to Aylesbury by 22 year old Jack Monk. The original engine was replaced with a ‘water drip’ Bolinder and the name shortened to Queen.

In about 1980 I got to know Jack when he was running camping boats on the River Soar. He had fond memories of Queen, his first motor boat. He liked the engine, which, he said, went like the clappers when you turned the water on. The ‘water drip’ or E type Bolinder is the original design, dating back to 1908. It injects water into the cylinder along with the fuel to smooth out the combustion.

Most of the Bolinders in use today are of the later BM series which have an adjustable injection nozzle and dispense with the need for water injection. 

Later in her career at Harvey Taylor Queen was skippered by Arthur Bray. Jack and Arthur were great rivals, always trying to be first to load, first to empty and willing to carry a ton or two more than anyone else. Either of them would run all night if necessary to make sure they stayed ahead. Jack once showed me a photo of his butty, Dabchick loaded so deep that the flush from the motor is flowing over the foredeck and hitting the deckboard. In 1947, with trade dying after the war, Queen was laid aside. She was rescued in 1949 and became a pleasure boat, owned by Bernard Barker for 38 years and kept at Ashwood Basin on the Staffs & Worcs.

When I heard in 1994 that Jack’s old boat was sunk and abandoned at Denham I was determined to save it. At the time Forget me Not was still on the bank at Guide Bridge, but nearly ready for her launch that summer. British Waterways were happyfor us to take Queen away as it saved them the trouble of smashing her up and disposing of the bits.

With pumps borrowed from everywhere we camped in the woods overnight, then pumped her out in the morning. Luckily there turned out to be no major leaks. She’d simply sunk through neglect. Over the following 6 weeks relays of volunteers hitch hiked her North to Runcorn, where most of our boats were then kept. 1997 saw her towed to Ashton by Forget me Not and in 2001 we got a grant from The Waterways Trust to encase her sides in chalico and tin. Since then she’s been waiting for us to get our act together. Hazel, which we’d had since 1988, took priority. Lots of concrete, clay, rags and expanding foam have been used to deal with leaks and solar panels help to keep her bilge pump batteries charged. Armchair experts have often been critical of the Wooden Canal Boat Society for collecting so many boats. The fact is that if we hadn’t intervened there would be nothing left to restore. Another criticism is that our boats don’t always look pretty.

The fact is that we’ve got good at saving boats and stopping them falling apart. Pretty paint and brasswork comes later. I get rather fed up of the negativity that hangs around traditional boats, always criticising rather than lending a hand.

Rant over!

So. what’s needed to get Queen back into service? We have the boatyard, though it needs a good sort out. We have tar, pitch, oakum,

bottom spikes, a Bolinder E type engine and a Bolinder fuel tank. We need several big oak trees, a couple of boatbuilders (I’m probably only available on a consultative basis) and about £100-150,000.

Of course, some will say that’s impossible. The same was said when I started rebuilding Lilith back in 1974.

Chris.

When Hazel sank and had to be raised during the Tameside Canals Festival in 2007 a certain gentleman in a very posh boat went on an online canal forum making out that we were all a lot of drunkards and declared that if we got that boat restored he’d show his whatsit on the town hall steps. In 2013 the restored Hazel splashed down into the Huddersfield canal. He kept very quiet. Sadly, the gentleman has since gone to meet his maker, so we’ll never have the dubious pleasure of seeing his exposed whatsit.

Anyone who would like to help in any way please