Hi all

Hubbie and I are the proud owners of an ex-admiralty pinnace that we would very much appreciate finding out about!

She was built by Rowhedge Ironworks in Essex c.1911, decommissioned 1947 and converted to a two-masted gaff-rigged yacht with a 6.5l BMC marinised diesel engine. She is (we have been told) larch on oak and iron, diagonal planked.

She has some origianl fittings- wheel with brass trim, bell, two barometers and clock. Above the entrance to the galley is wooden board with an ID number on it of 82755. In the forepeak is a through deck fitting where we beleive a gun turret may have been, and there are several through-hull fittings in the saloon.

Her name is Transmare and she is registered in Gloucester- we were told that she served as a ferry.

She is the oldestboat that we can find by Rowhedge Ironworks and I will be returning to the UK in a couple of weeks with the hopeful aim of raiding the archives of the company held at the University of Essex Library in Colchester.

We are living aboard the boat in Pafos, Cyprus. Photos can be seen on my website :) but here is one to start...

Hello Boatbird

Welcome aboard.

I have seen your website and the pictures of your home "Transmare" do you great credit (lucky girl). Regarding your attempt to 'up-load' pictures here I'm afraid that it was not successful - although you may be able to see the picture on your display - all I can see is a liitle red cross in a small box, while clicking it does not open it up. I would suggest that you try the method of getting the Image down to 50k or less in JPEG then follow the instructions as stated in the Forum opening pages.

As far as the info that you require I am sure that eventually one of 'our' brains will be able to help.

Best Regards 

Yeeehah!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Have started to find out the history of our boat!!! I'm so thrilled!!!!

I contacted a lovely man called Hugh Conway-Jones who runs the website http://www.gloucesterdocks.me.uk - www.gloucesterdocks.me.uk and he provided me with the following information..

I was visiting the Gloucestershire Archives today, and so I looked up Transmare in the local
Shipping Registers. I found that in 1949 she was owned by surgeon Ewart William Evans of Hagley
Lodge, Hagley, Worcs. She was described as a cutter-rigged pleasure yacht with a wooden hull and the
Official No 182755. She was 52.5 ft long and 11.5 ft wide, 11.77 tons register, and she was powered
by a 6-cylinder Chrysler petrol/paraffin engine turning a single propeller.

Note that there is no mention of her being a ferry, and I do not think she would have been suitable
for that role on the Severn. Note also that the official number has an extra digit compared with
that quoted on your website. The 11.77 tons register is not her weight but a maritime measure of the
volume available inside for cargo carrying (or for passenger accommodation in this case).
Unfortunately, the register does not record when the vessel was sold.

How cool is that??!!

And for a bonus... a fellow member of our sailing club (Paphos International Sailing Club), well his grandfather worked at the Rowhedge Ironworks where our boat was built!!! I will be getting what I can from him soon!

 a very happy bunny

Just to keep you all up to date...

I contacted the Rowhedge Regatta website and received a reply from one of the organisers. They would like to feature our boat in the Regatta Magazine as a former 'resident' of Rowhedge! They said they are always interested to hear from boatowners of Rowhedge built boats so I intend to meet up with this guy (whose name has slipped my mind...!) when I have been to the Rowhedge archives and might have more to tell him!

Further information!

(PS I'm back in the UK now for two weeks)

The Deputy Librarian of the University of Essex Library (a very kind gentleman by the name of Nigel Cochrane) contacted me back to say that he had done some research for me in the Rowhedge Collection.

He is 'fairly confident' that our pinnace is one of two commissioned by the Admiralty for HMS Hercules. SP149 and SP150 were powered by AG Mumford compound two cylinder engines and were completed on the 3rd January 1911 and 27th March 1911 respectively. He believes that SP149 is our boat as it is listed as being altered in Chichester in 1946 in a list of Rowhedge vessels compiled by John Collins in 1995.

Sadly, he says there are no sketches, photographs, drawings or specifications of either boat.

For those who would like to know...

HMS Herecules has the distinction of being the first boat to be launched during the reign of His Majesty King George V.  It was built at Palmers in Jarrow, laid down July 1909 and completed August 1911. She was a Colossus Class Dreadnought Battleship of 20,600 tons, length 546 ft (166.4m), beam 85ft (25.9m) and draught 26.3ft (8m). She fought at the Battle of Jutland in 1916. In 1918 she was detached to take the Allied Armisitice Commission to Keil. Reduced to Reserve Fleet in 1919 and in 1921/2 she was scrapped at Kiel.

So now I have a service number, I can try to get her service history- but I will have to apply for both and see what I can find out...  keep you posted!

So, we now have information from the owner before last of Transmare (he is a Master aboard a super yacht! Currently 'out' but will be back in Cyprus soon- other half spoke to him as he was bringing his 60-something metre yacht into harbour.....)... he tells us that they (him and missus) knew Transmare was a harbour launch but the guy who bought it off him thought that 'pinnace' sounded more romantic than 'harbour steam launch' and decided to sell the boat as such.

The ceiling in the saloon is all pitch-pine- deck is teak. He says also that they were the ones to glass over the decks as the Navy/Admiralty/whoever had tried in the past to make repairs and the deck was in a very bad way so they (or possibly the previous owner- not sure at the moment) had little choice but to try and do something to stop the rot.

When he gets back to Cyprus, he is going to dig through the archives and copy everything he has about the boat (obviously not the personal photos etc) but he has bits about the history and thought that she was originally in service in Dover Harbour. Apparently, his wife still has a very soft spot for the boat and gets a wee bit upset talking about her. We'd like to meet up with them when he gets back so that we can reassure them that Transmare is getting lots of love and attention.

They owned Transmare from 1980, and sailed from the UK in her in June of that year. The previous owner had been planning a world cruise in her. We know that she was in St Raphael marina from 1994/5 until we bought her- she was one of the first boats in the marina and I guess that her arrival there coincided with Mr S's starting work as a Master.

Mr S. also says that the ships number (begins with a zero he thinks) is stamped all over the boat (WHERE???!!!) and is on the prop shaft. So guess what I'm doing this afternoon?! He did also say that they had tried to research her history (in the days before the internet) but ran into problems with previous owners having moved (or possibly deceased) and running into many dead ends.

We are both looking forwards to meeting up with them and finding out more from them- and letting them know what I have found out too!

As ever, will keep you all posted (I've also got to update the website now!!)

what's a stempost???? (oops hahahaha)

I will try and ask him- he's based near to Limassol so he might know a little more about it. He watched the slow deterioration of 'Elim' but doesn't know where that pinnace ended up.

He also told Him Indoors that Transmare's masts came from a dutch steel boat, her bowsprit is another boat's mast and parts of her indoors came from other boats. We have (unknowingly) continued that tradition- her galley sink came from White Star (a Soviet built boat that kept sinking in the harbour), her stove from a guy in England (updating his stove to keep up to date with the regulations concerning cut-off valves), and her soon-to-be-added rails for the foresails came from Fleetwood (a fibreglass boat that hit Moulia Rocks several years ago- don't know how they managed that one, Moulia Rocks not only have a light on them but are visible for about two miles!!!!). Apparently, the stanchions are salvaged from a butchers shop- must get the news on the how and why of that one!

Oh, so the stempost is the most forward piece of wood. You seriously want me to stick my head inside the ***** chain locker??????? Thats icky!!

 Okay, needs must, will report back tomorrow and let you all know!