Mayflower is a steam tug built in Bristol in 1861 and now preserved by Bristol Museums Galleries & Archives. She is based in Bristol Harbour at M Shed (formerly Bristol Industrial Museum). She is the oldest Bristol-built ship afloat, and is believed to be the oldest surviving tug in the world.
Contents
Building
Mayflower was built by Stothert & Marten (later G.K. Stothert & Co), who were connected with the Bath-based engineering company best known as Stothert & Pitt. A branch of the Stothert family came to Bristol to start a company to build railway locomotives for the GWR during 1837 (this later became the Avonside Engine Company). This company started building ships in 1844, and by 1852 the shipbuilding part of the company became a separate entity based at Hotwells which survived in business until the 1930s.
Mayflower was built for the towage contractor Timothy Hadley to work on the Gloucester and Sharpness Canal and in the River Severn on behalf of the Canal Company. She was one of three tugs ordered shortly after trials by the Canal Company had shown they were much more efficient than horse-drawn boats. The other two tugs were Moss Rose (1860), which was very similar to Mayflower, and the smaller Violet (1862); together, they cost £3,000. All three were fitted with simple single cylinder vertical engines.
The tug has an iron hull. She is 63.3 ft (19.3 m) long, her beam is 12.0 ft (3.7 m), her depth is 7.2 ft (2.2 m) and her tonnage is 32 NRT. Her United Kingdom official number is 105412.
Service
Mayflower started work between Sharpness and Gloucester Docks, towing trains of small sailing vessels such as trows and ketches, and, after the new docks at Sharpness were completed in 1874, larger steamers one at a time. During 1874, she was purchased (along with Hadley's four other tugs; the initial three had been joined by the Stothert built Myrtle and Hazel) by the Canal Company, which had by then renamed itself the Sharpness New Docks and Gloucester and Birmingham Navigation Company. She was fitted with a new boiler and a condenser (both provided by G. K. Stothert) in 1876, and converted into a tandem compound in 1888 by adding a new high pressure cylinder and piston above the existing one.
During 1895 the dock company had fitted the tug Speedwell with a more powerful inline compound engine to make her suitable for work in the Bristol Channel. This was deemed a success, and during late 1897 they decided to make similar modifications to Mayflower so that she could also undertake this work. Her original engine was replaced in 1899 with a vertical two-cylinder compound condensing engine supplied, along with a new boiler, funnel, propeller and shafting by W. Sisson & Co of Gloucester for £940 (Sisson had also provided the engine for Speedwell). Her original engine was transferred into Hazel. The steering position, which had previously been abaft the funnel, was moved forward, and a waist high iron steering shelter added to give the skipper some comfort. She went to work outside Sharpness, towing sailing vessels through the dangerous stretches of the Severn Estuary to the mouth of the river Wye and back again.
In early 1906, the dock company decided to compete with the Severn and Canal Carrying Company on the River Severn upstream of Gloucester to Worcester. Mayflower was again altered with the funnel being arranged to hinge down (counterbalanced with large weights which can still be seen) to enable her to pass under the fixed bridges on this stretch of water and set to work at the start of March 1906 alongside the similarly modified Myrtle. The S&CCC complained, but by early July they had given up towing and sold their tugs to the dock company.
During 1909 she was fitted with another new boiler, made by G.K. Stothert (No. 303) and costing £298; this boiler is still in the tug. She was now capable of working on every part of the navigation from Worcester to Chepstow, and because of this, became regarded as the training tug in the canal's fleet, which she continued to be until the end of her working life.
Preservation
On 4 April 1981 she was auctioned, and purchased for £3600 by curator Paul Elkin of Bristol Museums & Art Gallery. She was then towed back to the city where she was built. Over the next six years Mayflower was restored to working order by a team of volunteers, and she steamed again in 1987. Early in 1988, she steamed back to Gloucester on a courtesy visit.
Mayflower regularly steams during the summer months carrying visitors on trips in Bristol Harbour. She marked her 150th anniversary in May 2011.
Mayflower had her boiler re-tubed in 2020 and returned to service in May 2021.