Conservation and Restoration

It’s been a very productive year in the restoration of the Steam Launch Osprey. Shona Meiklejohn joined the team in December 2011, bringing with her valuable wooden boat building qualifications and skills which have helped Osprey’s progress immensely.

All of the internal framework is completed, including seven new planks, some of them full length, and a new keel and stem that have been bolted into position. Curved templates were made of each part of the stem, then taken to felled oak trees in Devon, Hampshire, Oxford, Northumberland, Cumbria, and Hull, where curved oak branches were matched to the templates, then cut to the correct thickness and transported to the museum for the seasoning and fitting process.
Newly trained varnishing volunteers who have been dedicated to learning their new skill are applying varnish in volume. The cabin has been craned onto Osprey and the engine and boiler will soon follow. This will allow the engineering volunteers to do what they have craved for so long... to fit all the pipes and get steam up!

Plans are already in place for the next conservation projects; Penelope a 1932 motor launch similar to the varnished steam launches, has been surveyed and the engine is currently being overhauled by volunteers; we want also to start work on Dolly, the oldest steam boat in the collection.

Adrian Stone
Conservation Workshop Manager