WATERDOG c. 1876 (see new picture gallery)

89' x 14'7" (27m x 4.45m) Humber Trading Barge

Information from 'www.GooleShips.co.uk' suggests that Waterdog was built by Baltic Engine Works in January 1876, making her 136 years old! The Aire & Calder Navigation Company contract book shows the order for two iron barges Nos 80 and 81 at the cost of £795 each. Baltic Engine Works were installers of steam engines and this fits with first hand information that Waterdog was steam powered for the first part of its working life and that it was called No.81 until British waterways bought her in the 1940s.

The black and white photo below is from her trading days on the Humber, Trent and Aire and Calder. She is pictured near Pollington Lock in the 1950s or 1960s.

Lorna saved Waterdog from the scrap yard in 1996 and then Lawrence joined her in 1997 and they worked on the barge from 1997 till 2008 to make it ready for crossing the North Sea and cruising Europe. We set sail from the Humber to Dunkerque in July 2008 to carry on the adventure in France. Everyone needs a dream and we wanted to start ours even though Waterdog was not finished and still isn't finished. The drop down links on the left of the page navigate to our stories along the way. (Enlarge picture).

Our third attempt (due to lock closures and work schedules) in 2011 to get Waterdog to dry dock, in order to complete the TRIWV certification for Europe, has finally worked and we have been to Vankerkovens yard near Charleroi for a hull survey and other various jobs. The story of dry dock and the visit by Lawrence's Dad and cousin are shown in the new pages here or on the drop down list under 2011. As a footnote to this story is the closure of Vankerkoven ship yard on 22nd November 2011 with the liquidators coming in. They had traded for 50 years but had seemed to be in financial crises for the last few years.

Blessing for Waterdog

We took Waterdog down the Sambre to the 'Pardon' at Marchienne-au-Pont this September. This event was originally for the commercial bargees and pleasure boaters to get to know each other and to receive a blessing from the church there. It seems more like a gathering of pleasure boats now but with commercial bargees joining in. We were the only British barge but we had a warm welcome and the sun came out for a late summer blast through September 2011 - great.