Name Yarmouth Belle

YARMOUTH BELLE was built as a passenger steamer in 1892 by Thomas Bradley, Southtown, Great Yarmouth, on his own account, but was subsequently sold to the Great Yarmouth & Gorleston Steamboat Co. She was mainly used on the Yarmouth to Norwich service on the River Yare, but occasionally ran to St Olaves on the River Waveney and elsewhere on the Broads. In 1946, she was sold to Henry Hastings of Kingston-upon-Thames, who in 1947 converted her to diesel using a 1933 engine. In 1955, she passed to Thames Launches and had several otherowners before being purchased by Turk Launches, in 1988. She was later completely rebuilt and restored at the Turk boatyard in Sunbury-on-Thames: the paddle wheels and funnel are dummies. Her current engine is a Perkins Sabre diesel of 130 hp installed in 1997. She is one of the few remaining coastal passenger boats still working on the inland waterways. Source: Paul Brown, Historic Ships The Survivors (Amberley, 2010), updated Mar 2011.