So, you've got an old boat on your yard - what do you do with her? Starting from scratch, you try to find a boiler. "Remember I was a novice at this steam lark. Build a boat, repair a boat - but steam - well I was learning fast!"

Boiler No. 1::   "I found in a scrap yard in Shrewsbury. A marine engine, but it was a bad buy as it proved to be impractical to repair it. However, it was sold to the Dorothea Restoration Society and they did restore it - eventually."

"There was a super chap in Bristol called George Watkins. He was at Bath University and had the most complete listing of steam installations in Great Britain. No. 1 boiler was identified as a turn of the century boiler by him. He was a fund of kindly advice, which he willingly gave, and at his own expense. He put me in touch with Philip Weaver who turned out to be another bastion of help."

"We had a boiler which wasn't any good, so we started working on the boat and I got involved with the search for the engine.
We found this one - we must have travelled miles - and we paid £1150. It was a strip and rebuild job. However, it was worth doing as it was the type of engine we were looking for, albeit, a bit underpowered. But it was about 1908, so was the right age. It cost a lot of money to rebuild and then we continued to search for another boiler."

Boiler No. 2::   It was on offer and the only snag was that it was in a boat. The "Leviathan" (picture in "195" No.17) was on the Kennet & Avon - it was a funny old boat (complete with chickens). It had been built originally for the canal navigations but how it got down on to the K & A I don't know. Anyway, it had this boiler, with a Board of Trade ticket and insurance. The boiler had been re-tubed on its previous job - at the GWR Yard at Swindon.

"I was cock-a-hoop, but they wouldn't sell it to me... so I had to buy the whole boat! After that, it was simple: I organised a lorry and a crane so we could take the cabin off, strip off the pumps and boiler, and they were on their way to Norton Canes." (This is the one F.O.P. has just replaced. In addition to the boiler, the Worthington-Simpson twin horizontal and a Hall vertical single cylinder pump were transferred to 'President').

Ref WW Sept 1979 article by Nicholas Bostock

The "Leviathan" was left on the K & A and eventually sold off which reduced our losses a bit. "And that was it - we'd got a boat." It was the end of 1976 and we'd got a working boat.

It wasn't as easy as that of course; we had a lot of cooperation from the Board (BWB). George Watkins approved this boiler. We had the certificate and the agreed price for the "Leviathan" was £2250. We also had a lot of fun "Fiddling around". We spent 3 years "Fiddling around" and in all that time, the thing I remember most is the incredible amount of freely given help from the 'steam community'. Once they got to know about her, they kept calling in and 'finding' bits in their back shed that were just right, or said "I know where you can get that". It's a sad reflection that this marvelous attitude "doesn't always occur" in the waterways societies nowadays.

The support was quite, quite exceptional. George identified the boiler as a Muir & Findley of 1926. "I eventually managed to sell the hull of the "Leviathan" to a man in Stratford-upon-Avon for £900. The Crofton Society had been running the "Leviathan" as a passenger boat but they'd given up on grounds of inefficiency!"

The best people to make a propeller are Brunton's at Sudbury, so I got them to make a prop for us. They designed and made it for us at cost. Their principle designer was very kind to us - he was wonderful and put himself out no end. We actually paid them about £300, but the prop is still working on her today. I'd got an Eagle bottle stove and that went in and the front lamp came from the "Phoenix"... it all just gelled. I lost more money that I dare think on that project. I'm not fussed - I enjoyed doing it. It was a challenge and something I'd always wanted to do...

"and I don't regret it..."

Jennifer Thomas