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)