Tavistock Canal - Boats

Boats

None of the boats used on the canal has survived completely, but a wrought iron rudder found in the tunnel in 1976 is on display at Morwellham Quay Museum and recent archaeological survey work has found more wrought iron plates within the canal tunnel. A report from 1888 describes the boats as being 30 feet (9.1 m) in length, 5 feet (1.5 m) in width, and made of rivetted iron, while an earlier description from 1826 gives the width as 4 feet 6 inches (1.37 m) wide by 2 feet 6 inches (0.76 m) deep.

These iron barges were first referred to in 1811, when one was launched on the canal on Easter Monday. In all, nine were built between then and 1817, when 300 invited guests were carried along the canal in them on the occasion of the grand opening. They are of considerable international importance as they appear to be the earliest boats of any sort to have been built of wrought iron, the second earliest having been launched on the Forth & Clyde Canal in 1816. The earliest iron boat of all, built in 1787 and launched on the River Severn by John Wilkinson of Broseley Ironworks, Shropshire, is now thought to have been of cast iron plates, bolted together.