May 2026

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After navigating up the Weaver at the end of April, we moored below the Anderton Boat Lift in readiness for the Steam at the Lift event on 9th and 10th May. Due to recent dredging and the expensive fitting of our high-level condenser suction we had an incident free passage, the new suction being deployed very successfully so for once we avoided the dreaded silting up of the condenser. The event itself was very successful with a good foot flow of interested visitors who particularly enjoyed guided tours of the Engine and Boiler Rooms. In these times when the burning of fossil fuels is somewhat frowned upon it seems to fascinate people of a certain age of the concept of burning coal to provide the power to turn the engines. We spent the following week-end ashing-out and once again raising steam for our return trip to Liverpool, the plan being to sail to Ellesmere Port on the Monday, and on Tuesday to sail out into the Mersey and across to Canning Dock to spend some time on public display. However, things did not turn out that way. Monday’s trip to Ellesmere Port was considerably shortened, apparently due to the lack of C&RT staff to man Weston Marsh Lock which accesses the Manchester Ship Canal. This resulted in a layover on the western side of Sutton Weaver Swing Bridge overnight. This meant a considerably extended voyage on the Tuesday, and to add to our dismay, problems were encountered with the swing bridge at Canning Dock entrance which meant that we were forced to return to Sandon Dock, but this was also delayed as we had to wait for an available lock to get us back into the Liverpool Dock system. All in all, not the end of the trip we had planned but we could at least reflect on the fact that the vessel ran extremely well. As we tied up at 7.30pm and the telegraph rang ‘Finished with Engines’ we had had fires lit for 13 days and sailings for 6 days. Not bad for a 113 year old ship with a crew with an average age of over 70!! After a couple of weeks R&R for the crew, it was back to Saturday working, raking, shovelling out and bagging the ash and clinker from the furnaces for disposal into skips as we contemplate our next move.

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