Fire-float Pyronaut - 1972 Review

1972 Review

Despite these improvements, Pyronaut's working days were numbered. In 1969, the decision to close Bristol City Docks to commercial traffic by 1975 was announced and a review of the fire cover in the city docks in 1972 noted that very few buildings remained which could not be reached on all sides by land-based fire-engines. Consequently, Pyronaut was put up for sale in 1973. Seven years later Aquanaut was also sold, and fire cover in the Avonmouth and Royal Portbury Docks became the responsibility of land-based fire appliances and new tugs equipped with fire-fighting equipment.

Pyronaut was sold to the Port of Bristol Authority, who took her to Avonmouth and began work on converting her into a divers' boat. This entailed removing all the fire-fighting pumps and moving her engines forward in the hull to create space for a changing room. The work was never completed, and she was sold again to a private owner in 1983, who began to fit out the changing room as a saloon, with the intention of using Pyronaut as a working/living craft in the south of Ireland. Shortly before completing the work in 1989, he decided to sell the vessel to Bristol City Museum and Art Gallery, based at the now-closed Bristol Industrial Museum where restoration and preservation was completed in 1995. Pyronaut can now be seen outside the new M Shed museum, berthed with the museum‘s tugs Mayflower and John King. Listed as part of the National Historic Fleet, Core Collection, she performs displays during major harbour events as well as operating for trips on some summer weekends. In June 2012 she travelled to London by road to take part in the Queen's Diamond Jubilee Pageant.