Harland and Wolff - Shipbuilding and Engineering Works



Betelgeuse
  GUCC Fleet No. 235
  Class Star
  Original Type: Butty
  Known As Small Woolwich
  Date Built 18.12.35
  Hull Construction Steel Composite
  Registered BREN 568
  Intended Paring 18
 
History		    
  ex trip boat butty converted f.s 7/94. deconverted and at Middlewich 10/00.  She worked for the company until nationalisation in 1948, then for the Docks and Inland Waterways Executive, then British Waterways Board, then was leased to Willow Wren in the 1960s. Sold into private ownership in 1967. After languishing in the Wendover Arm, she was acquired by Stroudwater Carriers and was paired with Comet, steered by Jim Marshall, and carried retail coal in the early 1970s, with Ian Kemp as crew. In the summer, Jim used her to carry passengers as the Chester Packet, pulled by Snowy the horse, and she was converted for this, with a small cabin extension, in the mid '70s. After time as a houseboat on the Macclesfield Canal, she was acquired by Ian Chambers, and a new steel bottom welded on in 2002 at Malkins Bank. The present owner acquired her in 2003 as an empty shell, and commenced restoration to working condition, working from copies of the original H&W drawings. She collected all the timber required from Queen's Head on the Montgomery, and the running gear was built at Godalming on the River Wey, with ironwork made by Ian Kemp. The rudder was also restored and new cloths fitted. Shutts for the hold were finished at Newbury, and cabin restoration commenced in spring 2005 with a new outer skin, and internal fitting out is still continuing. Betelgeuse paired with James Loader.  

Timeline