From Gloucester to You, from the Past to the Future, Save the Tall Ship Kathleen & May
The Kathleen & May, a 125-year-old coastal schooner is laid up in Gloucester Docks and in desperate need of urgent help to stabilise her structure if she is to once again be restored to sail.
The Kathleen & May Community Interest Company was formed in 2024 to acquire and preserve the vessel and is organising a 100-day fundraising appeal to raise funds to pay for urgent works at T. Nielsen & Co, world leading specialists in repairing and restoring traditional ships.
Designated by the Arts Council in 2011 as a National Treasure, the Kathleen & May is a National Maritime Treasure.
David Morgan, President of the Maritime Heritage Trust and a former Deputy Chair of the Maritime Trust said: “The Kathleen & May was the first major vessel saved by the Maritime Trust in 1970 and her historical significance to the Nation is paramount”
Upon the success of the campaign, the Custodianship of the vessel will transfer from the Clarke family of Bideford to the Kathleen & May CIC.
The Clarke family said: “We are excited for the next chapter in the life of the Kathleen & May and are proud and honoured of the significant contribution of her restoration in the 90s by the late Steve Clarke OBE and we fully support the Kathleen & May CIC with their endeavours”.
History:
Great Britain and Ireland once relied on its maritime trade. Coastal towns and villages received their bulk supplies by sea and their people owned and crewed the boats in this dangerous trade. Thousands of ketches and schooners sailed the coasts of Great Britain and Ireland and ventured to Europe and overseas.
Out of thousands of vessels, only one unconverted wooden sailing schooner survives, the Kathleen and May. Launched in 1900 at Connah’s Quay as the Lizzie May, she sailed from North Wales for eight years until she was sold to owners in Youghal in Ireland. In the 1930s she was sold again to sail from Bideford, trading in the Bristol Channel and beyond until 1960.
In the 1970’s she was selected as a cornerstone of the Maritime Trust fleet by Prince Philip, the late Duke of Edinburgh. Since then the Kathleen & May has been privately restored in Bideford and displayed in Liverpool. In Gloucester her working life has been recorded and there is an archive of links to people and stories over the last 125 years.
The vision for Kathleen & May is to honour the seafarers who made Britain’s maritime trade possible and recognise who they were, the families that supported them, and the owners, shipbuilders, suppliers and agents that supported the trade.
The sacrifice of the maritime trade in numerous small disasters and drownings immense and we can recognise those lost at sea and celebrate a safer working environment today through this restoration.
A restored Kathleen and May, to be registered in the Port of Gloucester, would sail in summer to every corner of Britain and Ireland for 20 years as a sailing educational, research and exhibition centre. From the shore a graceful vessel will sail by, in harbours and seaports, the Kathleen & May will be a compelling visitor attraction.
Survey, repair and refitting work will be recorded to be the handbook of building and maintenance. Her primary purpose will be to properly record and bring together the maritime history of the coastal trade working with family history societies, archives, libraries and museums.
The Kathleen & May, a cultural legacy of maritime transport, a survivor, has one last chance to be rescued and restored to full operational sailing condition and embark upon one great last adventure to explore the nation’s maritime heritage as never before.
Zone Heart of England