Registration number 3690
Status Registered
paula.palmer

Previous names

  • 1938 - 2021 Silver Bird

Details

Function Leisure Craft
Location Birdham
Vessel type Silverleaf
Current use Private use
Available to hire No
Available for excursions No

Construction

Builder Silver, James A Ltd, Rosneath
Built in 1938
Hull material Wood
Rig None
Number of decks 1
Number of masts 1
Propulsion Motor
Number of engines 2
Primary engine type Diesel
Boilermaker None

Dimensions

Length: Overall
43.50 feet (13.26m)
Breadth: Beam
10.00 feet (3.05m)
Tonnage: Gross
19.14

History

SILVER BIRD was built by the well known firm of James A Silver Ltd of Rosneath, in 1938, one of the Silverleaf’s designed by John Bain.  She was made to the order of Ian Clarkson MacFarlane, a Glasgow ship-owner.

In 1939 she joined the Clyde River Patrol, along with several other Silver’s boats, searching for mines on the River Clyde, under the command of the RNVR.  The Clyde River Patrol was described by one participant as a “sea-going version of Dad’s Army”.

Following her successful war service, in May 1947 she was sold to Ian Edgar Wylie, a company director from Glasgow.  He passed her on in October 1948 to a Fish Merchant in Hull by the name of William Cluff.  From there, in early 1950 she moved to Cornwall, and stayed in the South of England through a succession of a lucky thirteen owners until moving north to the West Coast of Scotland in June 2019. 

Update, May 2023: SILVER BIRD is under new ownership.

 

 

 

Sources

Links to Clyde River Patrol information

National Museums of Scotland – Dish presented to skipper of MV Tarka, CRP 1939-45

http://nms.scran.ac.uk/database/record.php?usi=000-180-000-212-C

 

HISTORYLINKS ARCHIVE – Dr Struan Robertson

https://www.historylinksarchive.org.uk/picture/number12394

Own this vessel?

If you are the owner of this vessel and would like to provide more details or updated information, please contact info@nationalhistoricships.org.uk