Plea to bring back ‘spectacular link’ with city’s maritime past

The City of Edinboro, launched in Hull in 1884, was sold to the Lowestoft-based Excelsior Trust more than a decade ago for £1.

But members of the trust are now hoping people in Hull will take up the challenge to make a Heritage Lottery Fund bid to restore the vessel so she can eventually sail back to her home port.

The last representative of the deep sea sailing trawlers that once worked from Hull, fishing the Dogger Bank and the North Atlantic, she is a unique example of Victorian wooden ship construction, and is held together with wooden pegs, making her one of the largest “treenail fastened” vessels in the world.

The trust is holding a working lunch at 12.30pm on Tuesday June 11 at The 1 Gallery, 2 Humber Quays.

At the moment the huge vessel is in a specially-constructed polytunnel at their yard in Lowestoft.

Chairman Geoffrey Copeman said it was wrong such a maritime gem was hidden from the public.

He said: “Her back is broken. She needs a colossal lot doing to her, it’s a big job.

“If it’s not done she will be lost, but if she is you will not only be preserving heritage but if you put her to a use, as we have done with Excelsior (a Lowestoft sailing smack which takes hundreds of people to sea every year) then you have a win-win situation.”

After her launch on April 28 1884 from William McCann’s shipyard on Garrison Side, the City of Edinboro spent the next 13 years trawling in the North Sea.

She was then sold to Reykjavik, Iceland, and then in 1913 to Faeroese fishing master Neils Juel Mortense. She carried on fishing until around 1960.

She later sailed the western seaboard of Europe as a charter ship.

Mr Copeman said: “We hoped that we would possibly restore her but we have been so busy restoring our own.

“What we are coming to discuss is whether there is a group of people who could put together a Heritage Lottery Fund application. The first part of the work could be done in our yard and once she is seaworthy she could be taken back to Hull and fitted out and rigged. Initial thoughts are that it will cost £1m.”

A group, spearheaded by the vice chancellor of the University of Hull, Calie Pistorius, is behind a separate project to bring the aircraft carrier HMS Illustrious to the city after she is decommissioned next year.

Mr Copeman said that was a “wonderful idea” - but bringing back the City of Edinboro was a cheaper and more practical option, against the “absolutely colossal” Illustrious. And he said it would complement the city’s Cat Zero yacht, with the older boat offering a different experience - and plenty of hard work for a crew.

Maritime historian Robb Robinson said: “As far as I know there’s no other Hull sailing trawler still operational.

“By the time the vessel was built the British fishing industry was the largest in the world - and Hull, Grimsby and the Yorkshire coast played a major part in the development of this industry.” Anyone who wants to attend the meeting is asked to contact Mr Copeman at [email protected].