About Our Thistle.

Sailing Barge Thistle 1895.

Thistle is the oldest iron barge still sailing and the only Thames barge built in Scotland.

She was launched by William Hamilton & Co on the Clyde in 1895 and traded through two World Wars before her first engine was installed in 1948.

Her first owner was H A Covington, a coal merchant of Battersea, London.  She traded regularly from the Humber to the Thames, carrying 150 tons on coastal voyages and 170 tons when bound between the Thames and Medway.

In the 1930’s her skipper was a Shotley (Ipswich) man named Amner who took his sons Jimmy and Stanley as mate and third hand.  Times were hard and cargoes scarce, and after a lengthy stay on the Starvation Buoys at Woolwich, their first order was to pick up a cargo at Guernsey, a notoriously unpredictable passage.  Stanley promptly left the barge and joined the Ipswich Fire Service, a much safer job and with a regular income.

In 1940 she was sold to The London & Rochester Trading Company still with the Amners as crew, and it was on a heavy passage in 1948 that her metal sprit bent, whereby she was towed back to Rochester, her sailing gear taken out and she was converted to a motor barge.

In 1958 a Captain Barton from Rochester was known as her skipper.

Thistle was sold out of trade in 1972 and restoration started at Woodbridge in 1980.  She then lay for 5 years near Battersea Bridge as a house boat before a complete restoration was undertaken in 1987.  Since then she has voyaged to Brest, competed in the Tall Ships Race from Newcastle to Kiel, won a number of barge races and appeared in various television programmes.

Thistle in the Stour 1895. Image By Simon Ashely

Sailing Barge Thistle On Her Maiden Voyage. Image By Ray Rush

Her regular trade now is taking passengers out for day sails from a number of locations on the East Coast including Ipswich, Maldon, Tilbury and London. Visit the website and come and join us onboard