This is it

Yes, this is it. On Wednesday we will lift the Peggy off her timber supports and install the new cradle. Last week we tried the foam cushions against the boat and they are a perfect fit, so everything is now ready. Obviously there's still a risk when we lift her that she'll creak and groan a bit, but I'm confident that, with the lifting gear we'll be using, it'll be OK.

This weekend I was to be heard on Manx Radio discussing the project on Sunday Opinion with Roger Watterson. For a short time you can hear the show by following this link. I was delighted that Roger had lined up my colleague Matthew Richardson, Curator of Social History and of the Nautical Museum, who gave a very fluent account of George Quayle, his life and times which is well worth a listen. Down the line too was John Kearon, Master Shipwright, who knows Peggy well and serves on the Committee of National Historic Ships UK. John has a broader first-hand knowledge of historic ships than anyone else I've ever met.

While I was chatting it occured to me it might be helpful to list some of the articles and books that make reference to Peggy and related matters. So here goes:

Anon., ‘Captain Quayle’s Schooner ‘Peggy’ of Castletown’ in Journal of the Manx Museum, 1937, volume 3, pp. 211-214.

Anon., ‘Peggy – Schooner-Rigged and Rakish’ in The Yachting World and Motor Boating Journal 218, vol. 84 (1936). 

Clucas, W. R., ‘The Saga of the "Peggy”’ Sea Breezes (July 1982) pp. 461-463.

DK Jones, Plans of Peggy, 1969, originals held at the National Maritime Museum in Greenwich

Greenhill, B., ‘The Schooner Peggy: An Eighteenth-Century Survival’ in The American Neptune, January 1969, pp. 54-61.

Greenhill, B., ‘The Schooner Peggy: Eighteenth-century Survival at the Nautical Museum, Castletown’ in Journal of the Manx Museum, 1967, volume 3, pp. 68-76.

Greenhill, B., The Merchant Schooners: Volume One pp. 26, 28;

Kemp, P., The History of Ships, Greenwich Editions (2000)

Lavery, B. (Ed.), Conway’s History of The Ship Vol 4, Conway Maritime Press (1992)

New York Times 21st October 2004.

Nixon, W.M., ‘Les Fantômes de la mer d’Irlande: Histoires et redécouverte des deux plus vieux yachts du monde’, Chasse Marée 27 (1987) pp. 10-25.

Paine, Lincoln P., Ships of the World: An Historical Encyclopedia, pp. 389-90.

Parkin, R., HM Bark Endeavour, Melbourne University Press (1997)

Swaine, G., ’George Quayle and the Peggy’, in World Ship Review, No. 41, 2005, pp. 1-12.

Watkinson, D., Analytical report on corroded nails from Peggy, Cardiff University, (2010).

May, W.E., The Boats of Men of War, Chatham, ISBN 1-86176-114-7

Marquardt, Karl Heinz, Eighteenth Century Rigs and Rigging, ISBN 0-85177-586-1

Lees, James, The Masting and Rigging of English Ships of War, 1625-1860, ISBN 0-85177-290-0