I had the chance to take a few hours and I got on the Great Western Railway and took the train from Southampton to Temple Meads in Bristol. The journey did not take long, a couple of hours. I started early at 06.22hrs so the day was just starting to get light and all the meadows and fields were covered in fog. It reminded me of when I was bicycling through Wales a few years ago during summer and tried sleeping one night in a field, it was cold although the day was hot. Now it felt and looked even colder with the brown and wet earth.
Narrow boats
I got off the Temple Meads station around 0830hrs and moseyed along signs pointing to the Canal ferry going through Bristol. At first I glanced the jetty and then a sign that they start operating only at 1000hrs so I turned left and walked along the Canal. Then I started spotting several narrowboats of various sizes and condition moored at the banks. None of them appeared to be in continuous use but closed for winter.
Narrow boats
Narrow boats
Narrow boats
Narrow boats
Narrow boats
Narrow boats
St Mary Le Port Church
Canal + church
Art
As I progressed along the Canal I saw some of the old Bristol, St Mary Le Church & St Mary Redcliffe Church. Did not have time to go in so there is something for another visit.
Narrow boats at Canal
The side walk meandered from one bank to another but I kept going along the Canal, soon there were larger and more interesting hulls coming up to view and I kept clicking until I reached the SS Great Britain. Below are some of them as well as a bit of info of the more notable boats still floating but in various state of condition.
Merchant Navy memorial
Trinity House Lightship 55, John Sebastian
Lightvessel LV55 John Sebastian was built in 1885. She was built by Charles Hill and Sons, Albion Yard Bristol for Trinity House and was one of three vessels built here: LV54, 55 and 59.
Following her decommissioning, she was sold for scrap in 1954 at Portishead. Her lantern and metal fixings were removed and she was beached and burned at New Passage and left derelict.
The Cabot Cruising Club in Bristol were looking for a new club venue at the time when LV55 was discovered in Portishead Dock. She was of interest to some of the members who had delivered groceries and papers to the crew when she had been in service.
The club purchased her in 1954 for £275, and the burned-out hull was gradually restored and opened in 1959. She now resides in Bathurst Basin as part of the clubhouse.
LV55 was renamed John Sebastian after the father and son who set sail from Bristol to begin their voyage of discovery. She is one of the few wooden lightvessels remaining.
The vessel weighs 274 tons and is approximately 102ft long and 24 feet wide with a double-skinned hull.
Bathurst basin marina
Bathurst basin canal, Thekla on opposite side
Another Canal view
Small coaster, Fortuna
Narrowboat
Houseboat Nostra Vota, originally a Dutch canal boat built in 1926
Fairbairn Steam crane, constructed in 1878, which is today the oldest survivor of its type.
The crane was designed to unload heavy cargo from ships, with a maximum load capacity of 35 tons.
Leisure boat Lady Kate, ex Rosamonda,
a fishing vessel by Dunston Richard Thorne - Thorne UK, built in 1970
Full-size replica of sailing ship that discovered Newfoundland in 1497 with John Cabot.
The Matthew of Bristol
T/B John King
John King is a diesel tug built in Bristol in 1935 by Charles Hill & Sons and now preserved by Bristol Museums Galleries & Archives.
Pyronaut (originally Bristol Phoenix II) is a specialized form of fireboat known as a fire-float. It was built in 1934 by Charles Hill & Sons Ltd., Albion Dock Bristol, Yard No. 208.
Originally powered by two Petter Atomic diesel engines rates at 41 kW each. Two Merryweather & Sons three-cylinder reciprocating pumps capable of delivering 2,300 L of water per minute.
This equipment was replaced in 1968 by two Ruston & Hornsby 6YDM six-cylinder diesel engines rated at 67 kW each, driving screw propellers from the front power-take-off, and Coventry Climax centrifugal pumps capable of delivering 4,500 L of water per minute from the main drive.
Mayflower is a steam tug built in Bristol in 1861 and now preserved by Bristol Museums Galleries & Archives. She is the oldest Bristol-built ship afloat, and is believed to be the oldest surviving tug in the world.
Narrow/touristboat
Balmoral at Prince's dock, IMO 5034927
As per Wikipedia and the link above I gleaned the following details of her history: Originally Balmoral was built as a ferry by John I. Thornycroft & Company at Woolston in 1949, for the Southampton, Isle of Wight and South of England Royal Mail Steam Packet Co. Limited, more normally known as the Red Funnel line. She could carry up to 10 cars on her aft car deck, and she normally operated a ferry service from Southampton to Cowes on the Isle of Wight.
Red Funnel ceased operating excursions in 1968, after which Balmoral was acquired by P&A Campbell. She moved to the Bristol Channel, where she became part of P&A Campbell's White Funnel Fleet until 1980, by which time she was the last working member of the fleet. Balmoral moved to Dundee to become a floating restaurant. This was unsuccessful and the ship was placed for sale again.
Balmoral was purchased by Waverley Steam Navigation Co. Ltd and subjected to a major refit. As part of this, her car deck was enclosed to form an area that is now in use as a dining saloon.
Balmoral returned to the Bristol Channel in 1986. Since then the ship has operated a summer season of excursions around the Bristol Channel, with visits to most areas of the UK. In winter 2002, Balmoral received new engines, her original twin 6-cyl Newbury Sirron diesels were removed and replaced with a pair of Danish-built Grenaa diesel engines.
Balmoral can now accommodate up to 800 passengers and has a self-service restaurant on board, along with two licensed bars, a heated observation lounge and a souvenir shop.
In December 2012 Waverley Excursions and Waverley Steam Navigation announced that Balmoral would not be sailing in 2013. The ship's operation has been hampered increasingly in recent years by extreme weather conditions.
In 2015, ownership of MV Balmoral was transferred to a new registered charity MV Balmoral Fund Limited, and she is now operated by their subsidiary, White Funnel Ltd.
Following a refit costing over £300,000 and with help from a Coastal Communities Fund Grant, Balmoral started public sailing again on 19 June 2015.
It was announced in December 2017 that she would not be sailing in 2018 as she requires major hull plating work. That work was completed in Albion dry dock, which she left on 19 July 2024. It is planned to resume excursions in 2025.
Poop deck of Balmoral
Old tug
Thekla, ex 1958 built cargo ship converted to floating night venue, IMO 5358218
Built as No. 185, Thekla was launched on 12 July 1958 by Büsumer-Schiffswerft W & E Sielaff at Büsum, Schleswig-Holstein for the Schepers family of Haren/Ems. One of the last riveted ships to be produced, she measured 424 gross registered tons and had a deadweight tonnage of 718 tons. Her overall length is 52.77m and breadth 8.82m, with a 3.21m draft. Thekla's hold was lined with Australian red jarrah, a very hard wood. With a single screw propulsion, she was powered by a 220 kW (300 bhp) Bohn & Kähler diesel engine from Kiel.
Thekla as original, photo by Bunts (credit of Shipspotting)
Thekla was a coaster carrying a variety of cargoes between northern and western European ports, particularly timber from ports of the Baltic Sea. During her trading life, she remained on the ship register of Haren/ Ems, passing in ownership from Johann Schepers to Josef Schoning and then Bernhard Schepers but with no change of name. After running aground at Gatesend, Norfolk, she was abandoned for seven years and left half submerged in a derelict dock of Sunderland on the eastern coast of England.
In 1982 she was purchased by Ki Longfellow-Stanshall, the wife of Vivian Stanshall for £15,000 alongside their project partners Peter Jackson & Anne Slydell. They assembled a small crew, most of which had no previous nautical experience. The Stanshalls bought the ship with a government-guaranteed loan. Refitted and covered in a new coat of black paint and white paint Thekla took six days and six nights to sail the 732 nautical mile journey to Bristol, arriving on 4 August 1983. Her opening night was on 1 May 1984.
Houseboat
The dry dock dates back to 1820 and was saved by the SS Great Britain Trust in 2018 when the dockyard laid derelict.
Fridtjof Nansen, ex Edith, Frederik Fischer, Gertrud II, IMO 5130094
Out of the many hulls floating in the Canal this one is interesting as she has a colorful history of being built as a gaff schooner, converted to a coaster and then converted back into a sail training ship.
According to Tallshipfan her history is as follows:
Originally built at a Danish shipyard in Kalundborg as a gaff-rigged schooner in 1919 under the name "Edith", this ship sailed the North and Baltic Seas as a motorized sailing vessel transporting fresh produce for the company Frøede A/S.
She changed owners and names on various occasions, 1922 "Frederik Fischer" for ship owner P.F. Cleeman from Aabenraa/DK, 1927-34 for owner Capt. M.P.F. Leistikow as "Gertrud II" based in Arnis/GER, since 1934 under Capt. H.F.P. Morgenroth and since 1938 under Capt. H.C. Jungclaus, her area of operation were the coasts of Mecklenburg, Pomerania, East Prussia, Sweden, Norway and Finland.
As Gertrud II, photo by Lars Staal (credit of Shipspotting)
During WW II she has been in Greifswald and at the end of war she was used to transport refugees.
1952 she was lengthened at the shipyard of Johann Oelkers to 52m length overall.
1981 bought by Capt. H. Temme, who used her as a coaster first but intended to convert her to a sailing vessel for the youth, 1986 laid up in Arnis and used as a store.
In 1991 she was towed to Wolgast and converted into a three- masted topsail schooner through a scheme for the unemployed, equipped with all necessary safety equipment, though the superstructure has been kept deliberately simple.
As Gertrud II, photo by Lars Staal (credit of Shipspotting)
1992 renamed as "Fridtjof Nansen". The ship is used mainly for leisure-time activities for young people and sails in the STAG fleet; since 1992 the vessel has taken part in sailing ship gatherings in Bremerhaven, Kiel, Rostock, Hamburg and Wolgast.
1993-94 she undertook an 8-month world voyage with 22 school students, sailing through the Panama Canal to the Galapagos Islands, Cuba and the Bermudas, and across the Atlantic to Wilhelmshaven, her motto: "Learning to live on sailing ships".
1997 fitted with a figurehead, a hunting Inuit.
2004/05 used in a film project as the "Bremen", where 40 people adapt the conditions on board of a 19th century emigrant ship from Germany to America, the ship was prepared in a shipyard, all luxury equipment, like heating, electricity and running water was removed, begin of the journey in Bremerhaven in October 2004
Sold to Seas Your Future from Great Britain and moved to Bristol for an overhaul in a shipyard in March, 2022.
This is where she still remains, seeing that she arrived in 2022, it was at the time of Covid so maybe the funds ran out of the Seas your future outfit or the intended investor never materialized.
Colourful buildings, Redcliffe Parade West
Houseboat Repertor
This one looks like a Dutch built tjalk but not sure what her origins are, definitely house use for now with all the grass growing on her cargo hatch. The name Repertor points to a London built boat of the same name but in the pictures they do not resemble each other.
Houseboat Repertor
Houseboat Repertor
River Avon, tide running out
Bristol Temple Meads train station (also by Brunel)
Train station
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