Steam Launch ARTEMIS The steam launch ARTEMIS (National Register of Historic Vessels Nr.1474) was built in 1899 and launched in April 1900. She was built as tender to the 94 ton yawl ARTEMIS. The two vessels were built by Summers and Payne, Southampton. The hull is of close seemed carvel construction, straight stem and transom stern, with cedar planking on ribs of rock-elm (LOA 21ft x 5’ 2” x 2ft draft). The engine and boiler were made by Simpson Strickland, Dartmouth. The two drum water tube boiler is a natural draught modified Thorneycroft type as introduced by Frederick Strickland in 1892. The engine is a 1/4A quadruple expansion condensing type patented by George Kingdon in 1888. The sole builders were Simpson Strickland. Contemporary published photographs of the yawl in 1900 and 1904 show the tender suspended in the davits. Little more is known of the tender until she was acquired from Webbs Boatyard (Brightlingsea) in 1951 by Bill Leach. Bill Leach started with his first steamboat on the River Cam in the 1930s. It is said that one day when he was working on his previous steamboat in Banhams yard someone called in with a steam engine in the boot of his car. This led to a visit to Brightlinsea where he found the launch being prepared by Webbs for conversion to a motor boat. On the spot he acquired the hull and machinery complete and arranged the transfer to Cambridge, where her hull was restored by Banhams Boatyard and machinery put into working order with a substitute boiler (Merryweather B) and 17” x 33” propellor. She was used regularly on the River Cam from 1953. Prior to acquisition in 1996 various repairs were made to the hull by Two Tees Boatyard (Cambridge). The original boiler had been re-tubed in the 1970s but had never been fully restored. In 2000, restoration of the original boiler and engine was completed by Historic Steam Ltd (Kew, London) and installed in the boat. The original 15½” x 21” propeller was also fitted following reconditioning by Bruntons (Clacton-on-Sea). Since 2006 the boiler has been certified for a working pressure of 150psi (original design working pressure 250psi). An end of life boiler certificate was issued in 2007 and since then a replacement boiler (made by Glyn Lancaster Jones) has been commissioned in 2009. The Yawl ARTEMIS There are references to the yawl ARTEMIS in The Yachtsman of June 14, 1900; The Yachting World Summer Number, 1900, and there are photos in supplements to The Yachting World, November 8, 1900 and The Yachtsman, January 21, 1904 (both showing the launch slung in the davits). She is also mentioned in the second of two recent articles on Paynes in Classic Boat (December 2000 and January 2001), although the information reported differs from that given in the earlier references above. The yawl ARTEMIS was built for Frank Loughborough Pearson (3 Langford Place, St Johns Wood, London) and was launched by his wife on January 4th 1900. In 1904 she was acquired by W.G.Nicholson (80 Eaton Square, London). The RYS archivist confirms that she was on the Royal Yacht Squadron List 1904 – 1939. The 1938 Lloyd’s Register of Yachts records the owner as Col.Rt.Hon.W.G.Nicholson (last known address Basing Park, Alton, Hampshire). W.G.Nicholson was a member of the Royal Yacht Squadron (1904 – 1939), and Royal Thames Yacht Club (1913 –1918). It is believed that he was also a member of both the Royal Southern and Royal Victoria yacht clubs. The yawl was sold in 1938 to William Bentley (8 Astell Street, Chelsea, London) and used primarily as holiday accommodation moored in the estuary of the River Blackwater on the East Coast. It was acquired in 1994 from Mrs Bentley, by DATA TV (Brian Morris) on behalf of Jugend in Arbeit Hamburg e.V. (a German Youth Training Scheme and the present owners). The Scheme Co-ordinator Joachim Kaiser has reported from Hamburg that the hull is restored and again afloat with masts and rigging still to be completed. An article covering the acquisition of the yawl and transfer to Hamburg appeared in the German yachting magazine Boote Exclusiv (Oct-Dec 1998). Enquiries with the archivists at RYS, RTYC and Cowes Maritime Museum have yielded no further information. Further enquiries with various sources including Beken’s of Cowes have failed so far to locate any plates of historic photos. Enquiries with members of the Nicholson family have also yielded no further information. Steam Launch Owner History 1899 Built for F.L.Pearson 1904 Col.Rt.Hon.W.G.Nicholson 1939 (?) Webbs of Brightlingsea 1951 A.F.Leach 1989 Two Tees Boatyard of Cambridge 1996 Mark Brett MB (2009)