1885 Plymouth Hooker
Mizpah was built at Stonehouse in Devon, England and was first registered on October 13 of 1885 as a 2nd Class (i.e. less than 15 tons) fishing vessel carrying port number 255PH*.
*In 1902 the Plymouth Council reversed the order of numbering of 2nd Class Fishing Boats, on which the numbers had previously preceded the Port Letters. Thus 255PH was thenceforth PH255.
Plymouth Hooker of the 1880’s, ‘Traditional Fishing Boats of Britain & Ireland’ by Michael Smylie
Yawl rigged, fishing with lines and employing a crew of three, Mizpah measured 34’-7” long on deck and 13.08 tonnes. Common details of a Plymouth ‘hooker‘ of the 1880’s included a ‘dandy‘ rig with a standing lugsail set on the mizzen mast, a boomless gaff mainsail, a topsail set on a long yard, and a reeving bowsprit set to port of the stem.
During the Victorian era, the practice of engraving gifted jewelry with the word “MIZPAH” (meaning “May God watch over you” in Hebrew) grew in popularity as a token of love or friendship.
Mizpah was re-registered in 1888 and again in 1914 when a 7hp engine was installed by Dixon Brothers & Hutchinson Ltd. of Woolston. This firm also built boats, including International Six Metre racing yachts.
February 27, 1919, Venture was registered again, in Exeter, by Exmouth pilots Reg Pym and Walter Sturman. At the time of registration the boat was still yawl-rigged, employed two men, and fished using nets, lines and trawl.
A Busy Scene: Unloading & Packing Herrings, Exmouth
Alterations soon followed, including a new 1920 2-cylinder, paraffin motor by the Brit Engineering Company of Bridport, Dorset. The boat was also converted from a yawl to a cutter rig during this period. Venture was given Exeter port number E1 and was to serve as a pilot boat based out of Exmouth. From 1927 to 1934 Venture was owned by five Exmouth pilots: Edgar Pym, Reg Pym, Walter Sturman, Percy Bradford, and Fred Knight.
Pilot boat Venture No.1 at Exmouth Docks
Exmouth pilots Percy Bradford, Reg Pym, Ern Knight, Edgar Pym and Fred Knight. 1932
Exmouth newspapers report the Pilots being at hand for more than one rescue at sea, as well as a rare burial at sea aboard the pilot boat. Venture was the last sailing Exmouth pilot boat before being replaced with the solely motor-driven Quintet. The boat’s registry was closed December 5th of 1934 and in 1937 it was acquired by a ship broker and converted to a yacht.
In 1938 Venture was registered anew by Thomas Benbow McNabb as Gladimaris – named after his spouse Gladys Mary. McNabb was an early member of the Royal Naval Sailing Association.
Gladys Mary & Thomas McNabb aboard Gladimaris
Previously, in 1917, Lieutenant McNabb had received a Distinguished Service Cross. He was recognized for his gallantry in going overboard and securing a line to a drifting mine after attempts to sink it by gunfire had failed, owing to a choppy sea and considerable swell that made accurate shooting impossible. This painting commemorates his heroics.
The 1939 Lloyd’s Register of Yachts shows that the sails were made by Ratsey & Lapthorn.
The boat was sailed out of Fowey, and later the River Hamble. During WWII, Gladimaris was laid up in a mud berth in the River Hamble, likely with a list to port judging by future necessary repairs.
In 1949 a 2-cylinder Fowler oil engine was installed.
Frederick Flanders, a dental surgeon on the Isle of Wight, was an owner for a few months before selling to Phillip Robert Kimber. P.R. Kimber cruised the yacht extensively with his wife and two sons to Spain, West France and Brittany, the English Channel, Germany, Denmark, Sweden, Norway, and the East Coast of England.
The Kimber family regularly attended the annual Royal Cruising Club meet on the Beaulieu River.
Read more of the RCC meets Gladimaris took part in:
1953
“What a sight the river was; big craft such as Isabel, Dyarchy, Fedoa, Havfruen and so on, down to the tiny ones like Corran, Tess of Teign and Gavotte, fifty-seven of us. Surely the finest gathering of yachts in the country, if not the world ?” Read more…
1955
“The meet began informally on Thursday when six or seven were able to give a welcome to Eric and Susan Hiscock in Wanderer III and to Peter and Ann Pye and Christopher Pritchard-Barrett in Moonraker on their return from their long voyages. It is difficult to believe, seeing how spruce both the yachts and their crews looked, that Wanderer had been round the world (coming back via the Cape) and Moonraker had been to the West Indies, the Pacific and Alaska since they left England, Wanderer III in 1952 and Moonraker in 1950.” Read more…
1957
Our thanks are due to the owners of the ‘party ships’ and we all hope they suffered no damage from the overloading—it was a jolly good party. Read more…
1958
“And very good fun it was—in spite of the weather, for unfortunately, when the throng was at its thickest, black clouds warned us of trouble; not that many took much notice— a few put on oilskins, while others dived down a hatch, if near one which was not already full. The rest carried on as usual, and though there was some discussion as to what we were drinking, any passing brewer or wine maker might well have wondered too, seeing the R.C.C., in the torrential rain, glasses held hopefully to the emptying sky. Our grateful thanks are due to the owners of Dyarchy, Atlantis, Sandevore, Blue Bird of Thome, and Restive, who made the pontoon, and we hope the excess cargo did not strain their decks.” Read more…
Cecil Richardson of Maldon purchased Gladimaris in 1960. The boat lay in a mud berth in Essex when Timothy Hall of Mundon found it for sale in 1961 for £975. Hall bought the boat for £850 and commenced a thorough refit in Maldon at the Dixon Kerly yard on Downs road.
The deck, coachroof, hatches, and deck beams were removed. The iron ballast pigs were taken ashore, cleaned, and coated with bitumen. A 9.4 inch shell comprised part of the ballast!
The beam shelf on one side was replaced, some topside planking was renewed and the hull was refastened.
Upon completion, the boat was kept on a mooring at Lawling Creek off the River Blackwater next to Anne and Peter Pye’s cutter Moonraker of Fowey. The two boats’ crews were very good friends, and on many occasions the Hall children enjoyed Anne Pye’s homemade boiled sweets aboard Moonraker.
The sails at this time were from Taylor & Sons of the Hythe, Maldon. Soon after the refit a new Lister Blackstone engine was ordered, to replace the aging 1949 Fowler engine. Incidentally, the new engine was lost in transit and had to be re-ordered!
James Payne of Essex purchased the boat for £3000. The boat’s registered home port was Maylandsea – once again at Lawling Creek off the River Blackwater. Payne and Gladimaris were early members of the Old Gaffer’s Association (O.G.A. number: 385). The Payne family cruised the boat in the East coast area, and they recall having to be ever mindful of tides due to the boat’s relatively deep draft.
Old Gaffers Association Journal #1 of 1972
David Blackburn of Ipswich bought the boat and cruised it with his wife Jenny and sons Mark and Tim. Their home port was Pin Mill on the River Orwell.
Canadian Michael Camiot employed a yacht broker to find him a suitable boat overseas. Gladimaris was purchased and loaded onto a cradle at Tilbury for transport to Vancouver, B.C. aboard the California Star. Camiot then took on a refit of the boat in Canoe Bay on Vancouver Island under the mentorship of fellow sailor and wooden boat enthusiast George Martin. Planking repairs were made, the bulwarks and stanchions were removed and modified, the stem was cut flush at deck level to accommodate a centred and fixed bowsprit, and a wide band of hardwood sheathing was added to the full length of the hull in a similar fashion to west coast fishing vessels.
Basil Drinnan and Henriette Nielson were encouraged by George Martin (who featured prominently in the previous owners repair work) to purchase Gladimaris. George assisted in making the interior accommodations livable for Henriette and Basil, who spent their honeymoon aboard the boat, sailing in the Gulf Islands. They lived aboard in Canoe Bay.
Rosemary and David Andrews bought the boat and lived aboard in Campbell River, B.C. for some time before once again returning to Canoe Bay.
Gladimaris regularly took part in the local annual Frank Fredette Memorial Gaffers Race.
After David’s passing, Rosemary and John Bowie then happily lived aboard the boat on a private mooring in Canoe Bay for many years, commuting to shore with their lovely wooden lapstrake dinghy. Gladimaris was well cared for and kept in working condition. Additions included a new wardrobe of tan-bark sails from Northwest Sails of Port Townsend, and new standing rigging.
Traditional Oar & Sail take on the stewardship of the boat and begin a restoration sympathetic to the vessel’s early years as the workboat Mizpah. Mizpah will join our fleet, offering future opportunities to experience sailing aboard.
A photo journal of the restoration project can be found here.
Plymouth Hookers
Details of a Plymouth Hooker. Credit: Philip Jesse Oke, National Maritime Museum, Coastal Craft Collection
by H. S. Vaughan, Mariner’s Mirror, 1912
“They are usually manned by two men; bowler hats of an ancient type are the correct headgear on board in all weathers, and the figure of the hard-bitten “old man,” hands deep in his pockets, calmly walking up and down the well, with an occasional expectoration to leeward, while the hooker sails herself along with sheets well aft, is as quaint a sight as you can find at sea in these days.”
“It will be evident that these boats have a considerable sail-spread for their size, and having sometimes “taken them on” for a trial of speed across Plymouth Sound, I can vouch for the fact that their pace is often astonishing.”
Plymouth Sound
“Probably the hookers, in some form or other, will be the last sailing vessels – other than yachts – to survive upon our coasts on the fast-approaching day when steam and motor power have completely driven the sailing trawlers and drifters off the seas, and the last of the rapidly-vanishing trading schooners and ketches have met their doom in the winter gales or been sunk by the “ram-you, damn you” liners and tramps.”
A crew member (far right) looks on from the fore deck of a Plymouth Hooker as a motorized vessel maneuvers in close quarters.
In the foreground the dandy-rigged ‘Grace’ 103 PH lies to her beaching legs at the Barbican in Plymouth. Visible are the gaff of the boomless mainsail resting against the short mizzen mast, and further aft the fishing capstan. In typical fashion of these craft the bowsprit is housed to port of the stem and seen here retracted down the port side of the deck. First registered in 1882, the 13-ton Grace fished with nets from Plymouth from 1882 to 1900 with a crew of five before being transferred to Lowestoft in 1900. It appears some damage may have occurred to her port rub strake just forward of the chainplates.
Surviving Plymouth Hookers
Built in 1885 at Stonehouse
Built in 1889
Built in 1896 in Looe
Built in 1897 in Porthleven
Built in 1898 in Plymouth
Built in 1908 in Looe
Thank you to the following for sharing collections of records, photographs, artwork and stories:
Michael Smylie, Christina Hardyment, Jane Newell, Crispin Hall, Mark Blackburn, Lynda Hendrickson, Martyn Clark, Henriette Nielson and Basil Drinnan, Rosemary Andrews, Barbara Watson, Stephen Mohan
©2026
