PRESS RELEASE 1R.I.P Rosemarie – A lifetime on the River

2009 saw the demise of a much-loved wooden houseboat on the Penryn River. From my research I have found that the Rosemarie II, as she was originally named, was built at 'Little Falmouth', some 79 years earlier in 1930, her lifetime spanning some of the most significant changes in marine vessel construction and usage. She was one of the earliest types of motorised pleasure yachts, measuring 42’ by 11’ with a 6’ draft. Built of oak and pitch pine, by craftsmen from a fast fading golden age, she was a ‘double-ender’ in design and sported two, four cylinder, Thornycroft petrol engines.
In 1930, the Little Falmouth boatyard was under the management of R.S.Burts & Son ltd, who are most famous for their pioneering ‘Falmouth quay punt type yacht’, a smaller wooden boat established around 1870 that worked ‘tending’- ferrying stores, to and fro, from the big square-riggers that regularly used the port of Falmouth in those days. R.S Burt & son ltd. were acting as the sale agents for Thornycroft’s in Cornwall, helping to bring marine engines into main-stream and popular use.
Wooden motor boats like the Rosemarie, would only have been built for a short period of around 10-15yrs, from the 1930’s up to the start of the war, and they would very quickly have been superseded in the post war years, by rapid advances in the development of cheaper, quicker and lighter fibreglass hulls. Rosemarie and her kind, where the beginning of the true pleasure boats and would have been an expensive luxury to commission. Many of her contemporaries where built by ‘Thornycroft’s, at Platt’s yard, Hampton-on-Thames, and as such they are sometimes referred to as ‘Thornycroft Cruisers’. Several of these were later to become Dunkirk Little ships and the Rosemarie too, was acquisitioned in 1940 and I presently, await a reply from the Association of Dunkirk Little Ships, about her war time activities.
My personal interest in the Rosemarie derives from a magical year spent living on-board as a child in the early 1970’s. I have collected almost 40yrs of her ‘houseboat’ history back to 1970, and I also have her early history up to 1948, but I have a gap of twenty years, for her ‘working life’, before she became permanently beached on the Penryn river flats. There are rumours locally that she was at one time working as a ferry in St Mawes and also in the Helford. I’m very to keen to hear from anyone who remembers the Rosemarie, or who may have photographs of her, or her owners, which they wouldn’t mind me using in a film that I’m making about her fascinating life. She like many other important aspects of Cornish heritage was perhaps over-looked or undervalued in her own time, but I intend to keep her memory afloat.
Interviews with 40 years worth of Rosemaries’ houseboat inhabitants are currently screening as monthly episodes at http://www.houseboat-tv.co.uk/ and a feature length documentary DVD about the life of the Rosemarie is due to be completed in 2011.

Still the star of the show!

For a moment there I thought that our Rosemarie was originally comissioned in 1930, by her first owner Mr Arthur H. Henderson from St Mawes, to tow a J-class racing yacht called 'Moonbeam'. After a quick visit to the National maritime museum in Falmouth, I can verify sadly that the 'Moonbeam' which is also registered to Mr Arthur H. Henderson at that time, was not a J-class after all!
She was another wooden working boat, built in Southampton 1913. 24ft by 6.4, 2.9 draft. As for those J-class, they are infectiously beautiful and it was the height of the Kings Cup races in Falmouth at the time that our Rosemarie was built. Its worth noting though, that the J-class will be racing again in the Falmouth Ragatta 27th-30th June 2012. The good news is, that Rosemarie is officially Cornish built; at R.S. Burts & Sons boat yard ('Little Falmouth') This week I am trying to find out the profession of her original owner, and personally I'm glad our wooden tub remains the star of this show!

I'm really excited about a possible ending for the film, where the keel of the Rosemarie has been re-cylced, reused and floats again on another boat! Guess what this boat is called? Rosa. So it seems that a little piece of the Rosmarie is living on, and not just in our-hearts! It's a strange fact that her keel will go on to have adventures in open seas, which the Rosemarie never truly achieved. Nice twist and I'm glad to be finishing on a good note. This picture is of the skeletal remains of the Rosemarie as she lay on Muddy Beach in Penryn August 2009.The sign is a spoof, that a fellow boat-dweller placed on her, I called the number and got no reply. Still its good to see her being valued even this late in the day.

Cirra; Unexpected Interests and more coincidences

It seems that boat owners are a breed of like mind, who love thier craft and have a great inclination to trace the history of their vessel, and in such a way perhaps a soul of the boat is held by all those who have loved her. Each boat inadvertantly drawing them into a community of people who belong to them!

This picture is of a boat called Cirra, in Bristol Harbour. At this time she belonged to Hugh and Monica King, who I interviewed about their time onboard the Rosemarie Houseboat. Last week I got an e-mail from the Cirra's present day owner, who had seen the boat featured in the previous episode of Houseboat TV. He was keen to fill in the gaps of her history and wanted to make contact with the kings! How amazing, coincidental, fateful, fantastic. These are the sort of threads which I'd love to follow, but can't fit into the main storyline. Yet somehow they feed back into it indirectly!

Just one more day to see Hugh and Monica King talking about boat-love on Houseboat-TV! Episode 4 will be revealed on Friday!!! So come back then.

Episode 3 Houseboat TV - Interview with Hugh & Monica king

So, better go visit the mothership at www.houseboat-tv.co.uk if you want to see episode 3 of Houseboat TV! Hugh and monica king owned the Rosemarie in the early 1970's and have donated a fine collection of personal photographs from that time making this a charming film, full of time travel! It seems that the Rosemarie kindled for them an enduring love of houseboats.....

Rosemarie as the St Mawes / Falmouth passenger ferrry

Today I recieved an amazing photograph, from Katheryn Osborne in the U.S.A, confirming that the Rosemarie houseboat had indeed been the passenger ferry between Falmouth and St Mawes as rumoured! Not exactly sure of the date, but 1940's-50's is an educated guess! The family who owned her at this time where called Henderson, and having phoned all the Hendersons in St Mawes to no avail, I've unfortunately no other testimony of the boat at this time. Which is why this one photo is such a special find. On the back of the picture is written £2,250 obo (or best offer), priceless! She was also rumoured to have worked as a ferry in the nearby Helford river, although I can't find any evidence to support this. Time to go back to the library I think........