National Small Boat Collection

The rights of individuals to collect oysters from the waters around Falmouth have been exercised since at least the late 16th century, and boats equipped with similar dredging gear to Irene’s have appeared in paintings dating back to that period. During the mid 19th century over fishing led to a scarcity of oysters in the…

Simple fishing rafts made from available materials, with designs adapted to local conditions, have been found across the globe: from their use in Polynesia, by Aboriginal Australians, via the Tamil coast of India, to the north east coast of Brazil. When the Portuguese arrived in Brazil in the sixteenth century they encountered very simple square…

White Owl, an innocuous looking boat typical of the thousands of small craft built in Falmouth yards over the last few centuries, was built by Thomas Jackett in 1908 and owned by the same family since she was purchased. At just over 15ft (4.6m) in length she cost £7.50, or 50 pence (10 shillings) per…

Defiant’s long thin hull minimises drag allowing her to plane along at high speeds but, being narrow, it can easily tip over. The sliding seat allows the helmsman to sit out and thus balance the pressure of the wind on the sails, which at 10 sq. m. deliver a great deal of driving force. Sailing…

Pip Emma is a small rowing dinghy built by the famous boat builder/designer F.C. Morgan Giles whilst on leave from the RNVR in 1916. Its very light construction is due to the lack of materials during wartime, for example the stern is made out of an old mahogany table. The boat was originally built for…

Merlin Rockets are a “Development Class” of dinghy, which means a considerable degree of latitude is allowed in design, within certain broad parameters. In the case of the Merlin Rocket these parameters have allowed a particularly wide range of designs. A number of designs, designers, and builders have proved especially successful, while others have fallen…

This dinghy was built by F.C. Morgan Giles at Hammersmith in 1908. It is of clinker construction with spruce planks on steamed oak frames. It is gunter rigged with a single wooden bamboo mast and spars and a cast iron centreplate and copper buoyancy tanks. It is from this design that and other similar types…

In 1961 the entire population of a tiny island was evacuated after its dormant volcano erupted. Situated in the South Atlantic 1500 miles west of Cape Town and 1800 miles east of Argentina the island – almost unknown in this country – was Tristan da Cunha. Claimed by the British in 1816, the island was…

Designed by Jack Holt in 1950, the Heron is still popular today with ownership worldwide now in excess of 10,000. In the immediate post war years people began taking to the water in greater numbers than they ever had before and, by utilising wartime technology, boat developers were able to provide a new range of…