National Small Boat Collection

The Dghaisa has been the chief work boat of Malta for centuries and its origins can be traced back thousands of years. High ended boats such as these have been found in palace wall carvings from ancient Iraq. Older paintings of dghaisas show they have changed little over the last 400 years, although it was…

In 1972 this boat saved the lives of the Robertson family as they drifted in the Pacific Ocean for 38 days. Lyn and Dougal Robertson had bought a 43ft, 1920s schooner, Lucette and planned to sail around the world with their children; leaving Falmouth on 27th January 1971 to embark on the adventure of a…

These boats were based on the Thames working skiffs but were more heavily built, and were used by watermen for various uses including ferrying, fishing and taking people out for pleasure trips at Margate, Kent in the summer months. Haughty Belle was reported to be the last Kentish Wherry to be used at Margate in…

Claritie is a 1956-built typical example of the common wooden and later GRP built pram dinghies which were carried aboard yachts as a tender. Designed and constructed by the well known designer Austin “Clarence” Farrar Claritie was an early experiment in cold moulding plywood. This system of manufacture was developed to improve the more traditional…

Finesse is one of three Finn dinghies in the museum’s collection and is the oldest surviving British registered Finn, possibly the oldest in the world. She was one of a number built for the 1952 Olympics (see early history of the class under Seawolf BAE0020) and numbers for the class were allocated internationally, with 9…

Speed on the water is as desirable as it is on land. In the early 20th century a new breed of propulsion, the internal combustion engine, enabled boats to go faster than less efficient and heavy steam engines would allow. The romantic steam launch with its stoker gave way to the more dashing launches, which…

Traditional Thames rowing boats, the type of craft described in Jerome K. Jerome’s ‘Three Men in a Boat’, have four distinct styles. The largest boats are the magnificent ceremonial barges still used by some livery companies on grand occasions. The three smaller ones are very similar at first glance. The skiff is often confused with…

Although a distinct design in her own right, in many ways Sea Queen looks like a smaller version of the better known Looe Lugger or Falmouth Working Boat. Mevagissey Toshers (Tossers or Toshers) is a name generically applied to small fishing boats), were built in Mevagissey and nearby Portmellon for use by Cornish fishermen for…

On 4-5 June 1976, Derek Hutchinson (leader), Tom Caskey and Dave Hellawell paddled their kayaks from Felixstowe Ferry, Suffolk to Ostend, Belgium, over 100 miles of open sea in 31 hours. This was to be the first recorded unsupported West-East crossing of the North Sea by kayak. In August 1975, Hutchinson, a school teacher by…