Is this boat still afloat?

[simon137]

Hi everybody,

 

I am undertaking a bit of family history and have reached a dead end so am hoping that someone here might be able to point me in the right direction.

 

Here goes - my late father worked in a Wigan boat yard during the late 40'/early 50's and I have found images of him with a gang of boatmakers both working on and launching a boat called 'Catterick', with a reg no of 1724. If my maths are correct (and my dad's writing on the back of the photo is accurate), this launch took place in 1949.

 

My question is, how do I find out whether or not this boat is still around?

 

Any help will be gratefully received.

 

Simon Wiggins

[grahame r]

Jim Shead's site is the usual starting point in finding a boat. I've had a quick look and came up with nothing under Catterick or Registation 1724. I'm no expert so try googling "Jim Shead" and see if you can find anything. Of course someone on here may have personal experience of the boat. Good Luck.

[Grace and Favour]

Hi everybody,

 

I am undertaking a bit of family history and have reached a dead end so am hoping that someone here might be able to point me in the right direction.

 

Here goes - my late father worked in a Wigan boat yard during the late 40'/early 50's and I have found images of him with a gang of boatmakers both working on and launching a boat called 'Catterick', with a reg no of 1724. If my maths are correct (and my dad's writing on the back of the photo is accurate), this launch took place in 1949.

 

My question is, how do I find out whether or not this boat is still around?

 

Any help will be gratefully received.

 

Simon Wiggins

 

Was it a working boat/narrowboat - or a barge?

It would help if you could post a photo of it on the forum - - we've members on here whom can recognise most things!

[alan_fincher]

Jim Shead's site is the usual starting point in finding a boat. I've had a quick look and came up with nothing under Catterick or Registation 1724. I'm no expert so try googling "Jim Shead" and see if you can find anything. Of course someone on here may have personal experience of the boat. Good Luck.

1724 will not be a BW index number, if it has it in the late 1940s, as they didn't exist till many many years later. It is not of a format that looks like one anyway.

 

Not many leisure craft will have been built then, and I'm assuming this is probably the construction of a commercial craft.

 

By far Simon's best chance of any identification would be posting the picture, I think.

[Pluto]

Catterick was the next to last boat built at Wigan, and was launched in 1949, just after nationalisation. She was part of the Canal Transport fleet operating on the Leeds & Liverpool Canal, with the wooden boats built post-nationalisation being named after Yorkshire towns, and the steel boats after Lancashire towns. The 1724 is the public health registration number at Liverpool. She was probably broken up just before 1970.

[simon137]

Thanks to everybody for their replies.

 

I can't work out how to attach the images to my response here so will try to put them onto the gallery. If they do make it there, the work gang image shows my dad third from the left on the front row as a 16 year old. The second one is the Catterick launch.

 

My dad always commented on how much he loved his time in the boatyard - his first job from 14 to 18 before going into the pit to earn a bit more for his mum. Ironically, he probably helped build the vessels that then carried the coal that he dug!

 

Thanks again.

 

Simon

 

PS: I managed to upload the pic's onto my gallery, imaginatively called 'Is this boat still afloat?' thanks again everybody.

Edited March 10, 2013 by simon137

[pete harrison]

Catterick was the next to last boat built at Wigan, and was launched in 1949, just after nationalisation. She was part of the Canal Transport fleet operating on the Leeds & Liverpool Canal, with the wooden boats built post-nationalisation being named after Yorkshire towns, and the steel boats after Lancashire towns. The 1724 is the public health registration number at Liverpool. She was probably broken up just before 1970.

I have Liverpool 1724 as inspected 19 December 1949 and issued 20 January 1950 - CATTERICK for Docks & Inland Waterways Executive, Bee Mills, Sandhills Lane, Liverpool 5 - a wide beam motor with a cabin approved for 3 persons. James Draper was listed as 'master'. This registration was cancelled on 16 August 1962, although this is not suggesting that CATTERICK was broken up at this date.

[Pluto]

I have Liverpool 1724 as inspected 19 December 1949 and issued 20 January 1950 - CATTERICK for Docks & Inland Waterways Executive, Bee Mills, Sandhills Lane, Liverpool 5 - a wide beam motor with a cabin approved for 3 persons. James Draper was listed as 'master'. This registration was cancelled on 16 August 1962, although this is not suggesting that CATTERICK was broken up at this date.

The first boatmen should have been T Cheetham and T Carrington according to the Canal Transport papers now at Ellesmere Port, and which I have been looking through. There are several letters from boatmen asking for the boat prior to her entering service in 1950. I seem to remember being told that Catterick went into the maintenance fleet when general cargo carrying ended in 1964.