User:MIDI/sandbox/Seagull

Seagull was a steam-powered narrowboat owned and operated by the Hampshire Brick & Tile Company on the Basingstoke Canal. Built as early as the 1830s, the boat is a rare example of longbottom construction, where the hull was made of planks running longitudinally rather than laterally. Last used when the brickworks closed in the early 1900s, Seagull's steam engine is now held at the National Waterways Museum in Gloucester, but the hull has been left as a wreck in situ at the brickworks in Up Nately, Hampshire.

History
In 1895, the Basingstoke Canal was purchased by Frederick Seager Hunt, who invested heavily in the waterway. Hunt also bought and significantly expanded a brickworks at Up Nately, and added a 100 yard cut to serve the works and allow shipment of the bricks to the upgraded army camps at Aldershot, Deepcut, and Pirbright.

The Hampshire Brick & Tile Company owned and operated ten boats, including Maudie, Ada, and Seagull, to transport bricks away from the works as well as importing coal from Basingstoke. The first load of bricks was carried from the site in 1899, and by the end of the year two million bricks had been made shipped. Initially thought to have been built in the 1890s, Seagull, a 70 ft narrowboat, was possibly constructed as early as the 1830s from longitudinal lengths of elm. This type of boat, known as a "longbottom", was a common construction method until the mid-19th century. Seagull's steam engine was built by A J Bignall of Stony Stratford in 1890.

When the brickworks was wound up in the early 1900s, Maudie and Ada were sold and taken down the canal towards the Wey Navigation and the Thames, but were abandoned in the flight of locks at Deepcut before sinking. Seagull remained in the arm.

In The Inland Waterways of England (1950), L.T.C. Rolt described narrowboats' longbottom construction method, but said that there were no existing examples.

Salvage
An unsuccessful attempt to remove the wreck's engine was made during the Second World War. At this time, the boiler was likely taken for scrap metal. In 1969, Country Life described the boat as a "long-forgotten fascinating skeleton".

In the mid 1980s, following a grant from the Science Museum, the boat's inverted single-cylinder steam engine and flywheel were removed and exhibited at The Canal Museum in Stoke Bruerne before being donated to the National Waterways Museum (NWM) in Gloucester. Plans of the late 1980s to remove the entire hull and donate it to the NWM did not come to fruition and its hull, propeller and prop shaft remain in situ.