Merganser

by Peter Turvey

Back to Steamboats

John

Just got a good digital show of Merganser's engine & machinery for your site
  (courtesy of Bob Shearer, SBA of Great Britain website manager)

Here they are for inclusion on your steamboat site.

Peter Turvey - U.K.

Lake Windermere steam launch Merganser

Merganser was built by boatbuilder Ian Cooper of Windermere in 1981 for the English Canal Historian Edward Paget-Tomlinson, and fitted with machinery by Roger Mallinson of Windermere 
(well known in UK steamboating for his fine workmanship).

She is normally kept on the river Thames near Wallingford, in Oxfordshire

Merganser's hull is 18' by 5'3" beam, clinker construction in columbian pine on oak with cedar seats & transom.

Engine & Boiler built & installed by Roger Mallinson of Windermere, 1981.

3-Drum coal-fired Blackstaffe-type water-tube boiler, working pressure 120psi.

Stuart "Swan" engine (two cylinders 2 1/4" bore by 2" stroke") with enlarged bearings and geared-down feed pump.

Propeller 16" diameter by 20" pitch by Roger Mallinson, narrow-bladed steam
type, 16" diameter by 20" pitch.

Merganser Runs non-condensing taking water from river/lake through feed filters and is fitted with an exhaust feed heater/silencer, injector, hand feed pump, and one of Roger's superb Windermere steam kettles (to make tea when required!) She seats 6 in comfort and runs at about 5- 5½ mph.

Peter Turvey

Thought you would like to see a few pictures of our 18 foot steam launch Merganser (you have already a photo of her machinery). They were taken on Sunday 30 June.

In her boathouse on the River Thames at Wallingford, England, just after pulling off the dust sheets Tied up outside whilst raising steam Going upstream towards Wallingford bridge — with only 40 psi on the gauge, not steaming very well at all!  (I later realigned the blast pipe, she is non-condensing, exhausting up the funnel, and last week was keeping 100psi and more easily for hour after hour.)