The Victorious is once again sailing the coastal waters of Norfolk, exactly a century after she was first launched.
The shrimping smack, built in King’s Lynn 100 years ago to fish the shallow waters and tidal creeks of north west Norfolk was discovered three years ago by Henry Chamberlain.
‘I found her on a mooring in Cornwall, all but abandoned. Her stern was completely rotten and her deck was also rotten, but she was a Norfolk boat and needed saving,’ said Henry, who, returning from a career in peace-keeping and humanitarian missions, launched a business specialising in sustainable sailing adventures around the Norfolk coast.
The Victorious is the latest addition to his fleet of restored traditional Norfolk boats.
'She will be working hard demonstrating that sail power is still just as relevant as when she was built,’ said Henry, of the Coastal Exploration Company, based in Wells-next-the-sea.
‘We think she has a new and very important role to play in Norfolk’s maritime future - her hull was designed to work the shallow draft east coast powered only by the wind, what could be better for sustainable transport in the forthcoming years?
We are not looking to preserve an old boat for the sake of it, but to use her unique design to help solve environmental challenges for our future, sailing cargo along the north Norfolk coast and beyond.’
The Victorious was built, for shrimping and cockling, at the famous Worfolk boatyard, for fisherman Harry Cook. Crews would sail out into the Wash on an ebbing tide, ground the boat on a sandbank and rake cockles from the mud until the water washed in again to carry their harvest back to Lynn.
A century on she joins Henry’s fleet of traditional Norfolk wooden boats including a terracotta-sailed whelk boat built in King’s Lynn in the 1950s, a Sheringham crabbing boat, a Brancaster mussel boat and a punt built for wild-fowling.
Henry is now searching for a permanent berth for his rediscovered and restored Norfolk treasure, where people can visit her, enjoy a coffee, find out about Norfolk’s maritime history and, said Henry, ‘Build a community that loves what we do.
‘It could be from Kings Lynn to Great Yarmouth but she should really be in the Purfleet, by the Customs House - can anybody help?’
Please visit the website to contact us with offers of help
coastalexplorationcompany.co.uk
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