The Massey Shaw team have social media well covered. However, I wasn’t expecting the photo collection on their Facebook page to include pictures of Beta. These were from when she was out of the water at PLA Denton.
I am not sure when they date from – any ideas anyone?
Today has been a bit of a break through in finding out more about the history of Beta III post fire brigade.
Through the Massey Shaw site, Ben got in touch. He works on the Thames and runs the Liquid Highway site that collates images of and information about boats working on the Thames.
Here is Ben’s email…
“Hello Helen
I was over the moon to see the site and she was saved. I saw her in deptford creek myself a few times and then for sale last year and sighed at the sight she had been left in .
I’m a captain on passenger boats on the River Thames and so is my father, He told me about beta III and the photos were found online and the slipway ones were sent by her owner in the 80s. She operated for a time Thames Barrier trips where she can be seen white in the photo.
If you like I can post onto my Facebook page at Facebook.com/liquidhighway which I update with historic photos daily. Many of the members are also thames captains or crew and will no doubt know what her career was as a passenger boat
Do you plan to restore her like Massey Shaw to a fireboat state?
This is what I have myself on her
BETA III – Fireboat
Built: 1925 by Merryweather & Sons of Greenwich
Engine: Twin Screw 6cyl
Converted 1960 Single Screw Gardner 6LB
Length: 67ft 2in
Operators:
R.F Jackson (1951-1958)
Thompson Launches (1959-1978)
F&B Boats,Kingston (1979-198x)
Spotted as a houseboat in Deptford Creek (2007)
Regards
Ben
Keep up the good work!”
And now for the photos. These are from the 1970s when the boat was working in the Kingston area for F&P boats (more on that later).
Ben has put the feelers out through Liquid Highway, so hopefully I may get a bit more info in.
He is part of the swiftstone trust helping to preserve a thames tug boat so seems to be an old hand at dealing with rusty old boats!
Seen here http://www.nationalhistoricships.org.uk/register/2620/swiftstone
Am rather chuffed as, after a bit of form filling, Beta III is now registered on the Register of National Historic Ships maintained by National Historic Ships UK. Best of all, I get a rather nice certificate.
The entry can be viewed here: http://www.nationalhistoricships.org.uk/register/2762/beta-iii
I thought the photos I submitted were just for their reference and perhaps in hindsight not the best idea to send the dorky one of Gizzi and I posing in front of the boat!
They also send me some great promo material with some more fine examples of rusty hulls!
Have also ordered myself a copy of their handbook.
From Neil, the previous owner.
Photos by Kate Symonds Joy. Wood mover and shit-shoveller par excellence.
The mission for today was to pootle up the A1 in the landrover to deepest darkest Lincolnshire to collect my trailer compressor.
The mothership was at the wheel so I think it is only fair to point out in this semi-public forum a 40-year deeply hidden secret. She is from SCUNTHORPE. And it was mere miles from there we headed to collect the gear.
It is a beauteous thing resplendent in mustard and reassuringly chunky.
As easy to switch on as a car ignition and with only 600 hours on the clock… You can probably tell by this point that I have got deeply deeply into plant and all semi-industrial equipment. So much so that I have now purchased my own Dickies boiler suit in flame red. You gotta look the part, eh?
A massive thank you goes out to the guys at T A Industries. They were charming, super helpful and even donated the
Tow bar so we had lights to drag it home. Quite liked Lincolnshire generally – the most retro service stations you have ever seen, the Red Arrows doing practice fly bys and everyone calls you “Duck”. What’s not to like.
There was inevitable a slight technical hitch… The landrover had the wrong tow bar. I had to buy a brand new orange tow bar thingy. The guys at T A Industries very kindly bolted it on to the back. It did however cost me several bottles of wine at the pub before I could show Nigel quite what had been bolted to the back of his pride and joy.
A final thank you goes to Tony. Advanced RAF parking skills meant he could “fish tail” it round and reverse it through the gates!
Onwards to Rye tomorrow!
Miles and miles up north lies the land of Shotblasting. So I buzzed up there in the van to visit blast clean and grab some gear.
Shiny clean and very smart looking. The guys were lovely and gave me a full explanation of what lead connects to which valve. Which I have promptly forgotten. They assured me it was foolproof…
As soon as I got home Roland, gizzi and I were quick to try out the helmet… (At this point you have to imagine flashdance playing in the background…)
What can I say? After 7 hours driving the van in the pissing rain I deserved the red wine.
Also got sight of a new photo. I think beta is in the middle with Massey Shaw to the left. Not sure which the other is but would guess Gamma. Will have to recreate this when back in London.
A prize for anyone who can identify the building in the background. My guess would be the MI5 building but not sure…
UPDATE: Just found this photo on a norwegian stock photo site. It has the following caption:
“As part of the formal opening of the London Fire Brigade headquarters building on the Albert Embankment, London’s fireboats Massey Shaw, Beta III and Gamma III lay off the headquarters foreshore together with the Brigade’s fireboat tenders. Date: 1937”
I have been putting off writing this post for weeks as am only just in clenching from the frustratingness of the situation…
EDIT: I was so frustrated that I never finished this post from December. Basically in short, no one – not even the bloody manufacturers – will tell you definitively what paint to shop prime a steel hull with and whether it will react with subsequent layers. Ask five people, you will get eight opinions. The whole thing made me want to cry and panic drink strong gin and tonics and punch things.
In the end went for Jotun. In fact that was the only positive thing out of the whole paint experience. Finding out that the jotun paint tin has a nice little penguin on it. Let’s focus on the penguin… And breathe….
betaiiifireboat 