P.S Lincoln Castle

No Stan - To take over the ship we would have had to move her from where she currently is.

Our consultant's costs were :-

1 A pontoon at £700k

2 To float her off the pontoon we would have needed to double the entire hull below the waterline - another £700k.

Those figures did not include the cost of removing and then replacing the superstructure to get her below the fixed span road bridge, or finding a berth - any berth - where she could have been kept pending identifying, funding and implementing any long term restoration.

I trust that satisfactorily explodes your misconception that the nasty PSPS was just dreaming up figures to give you another reason to browbeat them after your previous disagreement with some decision taken years ago.

The society was dealing in facts when the decision was taken - unpalatable and hard to accept given that the result probably condemned the ship - but we do not have £1.5m and it would have been suicidal as well as contrary to Charity Law to put all the other projects in which the society is involved at risk by behaving as if we did. if I had been sitting round the Council table that day I would have agreed with them.

It can be hard living in the real world - you should try it sometime

 

Mr Gradwell you do not even know me so please do not tell me what world I live in.

Thanks

Stan

 

Very sad pictures on the Lincoln Castle website now destruction is underway.

Even sadder its been allowed to happen.

Stan

 

Be that as it may Martin but unlike many on this forum Stan has restored something with his own hands and money.

 

But nevertheless he can't and won't understand why those in charge of a Registered Charity with limited resources, and almost limitless responsibilities now, took a prudent view to stand back, but nonetheless encourage the local presence, who have eventually suffered a rebuff that may well have come our way if we had gone ahead.

Preservation at that level requires more than competence with a spanner and a welding torch. It needs legal, professional and financial skills - and good business brains too. Those brains - in multiple, together took the only sensible route.
​

 

For what its worth I am passionate about steam ships and I find it extremely sad how this vessel has been destoyed, also for whats it worth I have personally made large contributions over the years to many ship preservation societys so I do put my money where my mouth is.

Perhaps a few folk on here need to realise that the way things are going other than the wonderful PS Waverely we will not have any other paddlers that are capable of plying the seas.

The PSPS have done and still do sterling work but mistakes have been made. I am well aware of the continued struggled waverely has to remain active (and that why I will be spending my hard earned ££ sailing on her in the next couple of weeks) but the PSPS were really PS Lincoln castles last chance, when they turned her down that spelt the end for her. The PSPS may have had their reasons but thats all by the by now.

Also for the record (like many folk who read these pages) I have personally spent well in access of 100K in restoring my own projects not to mention many 1000"s of hours doing so (not for financial gain either) but merely for my own and others pleasure.

As for Franks comments I give as good as I get.

Stan

 

It is a tragedy that the Lincoln Castle was lost.

However it seems to me that serious cash was needed to give her an assured future, much more than than just a few bob here and there and to raise something in the region of £1.5m just to secure her was asking too much of a very limited enthusiast community.

Bear in mind the annual appeal struggle to keep the Vulcan XH558 in the air with all the public exposure that gets and you can see it was just not going to happen to poor old Lincoln Castle, with a much lesser public profile.

 

But at least my posts are in cogent English

 

My skills are out there with spanners and tools in restoring things not sitting behind a keyboard.

Will you be on the Waverley whilst she is down on the Thames? perhaps if so you can give me some English lessons!

Stan

 

No because in most other shipping forums the general consensus is the Lincoln Castle should have been saved and that its a disgrace that something that was quite easily capable of being restored has been destructed.

Stan

 

And that Martin is the honest truth.

I don't know how many times that I have to write on here that the hull needed doubling before the MCA would allow the vessel to be floated and that for the work to be done she would have to be pontooned - hence the £1.5m to start......

If you don't have £1.5m you can't - and we didn't

 

For those who stomach it there are now some pretty depressing pictures on the Lincoln castle website and it appears that the engines have not been spared the destruction (lets hope initial reports are wrong).

Theres also some rather interesting comments on the facebook links.

Stan

 

Martin P - By the way - this forum is called National Presevation and the section we are posting on is called Everything Else Heritage

This forum may be all but monopolised by those who devote all their time to steam machinery that runs on rails, but its very name and topics made available for discussion indicates the wider intentions of its founder and the wider outlook of some of the forum members.

In any case - to get really picky - what could be more relevant to this forum than a three cylinder LNER steam machine? If this was 4771 being cut up there would be bloody revolution and Colin Johnson would probably be swinging from the yard arm right now - a fate that in my view he richly deserves!

 

Very well said Frank.

Stan

 

Whaaaa Stan and I agree!

Must go and get some fresh air - a week on Blackpool front with the trams should do it