All I can say here is I am so grateful that I didn’t have to do this. Imagine using a heavy heavy steamer and hose to squirt boiling steam in an enclosed space to remove eighty years of gunky diesel sludge. Yuck.

Some sterling work from team L&L and it is looking a lot cleaner. You wouldn’t exactly eat your dinner in there but I did venture down there in a white dress and came out pretty much muck free. I can still taste diesel though.

The metal plates covering the bilges (? And can it even be plural) have been removed and most of the gunk cleared.

All the water had to drain through this one tiny missing rivet hole.

It also turns out, from the slightly barbecued underside to the deck, there was once a fire in the engine room.

Setting a fireboat alight is a fail of epic proportions.

Despite the muck and grime inside, the view from the engine room looking out is great.

Lurking in the bottom of the boat we found a seacock covered with a wooden bung. Another example of how amazing it is that this made it down the river…

The final job was the blasting of the plates that make up the floor of the engine room. I know I keep banging on about this but isn’t Shotblasting amazing? From crappy cruddy rusty metal to really quite passable. Again, very tempting to zap all your possessions.

The “before” exhibits are to the right.