Mark Hosking from the Maritime Museum writes:
My attention has been drawn to the note in the Living Boat Trust newsletter regarding the BSMC’s circa 1870 dinghy, built by John Drake.
MMT is the home to a similar dinghy that we can date reasonably accurately to 1871 that belonged to Dinah Wilson, wife of John Wilson, shipbuilder of Cygnet and surrounding areas.
The dinghy has a fascinating family story attached to it, that it was given to John and Dinah as a wedding gift by ex-Point Puer boy convict Walter Paisley. Dinah certainly used the dinghy for the rest of her life, being photographed in it for The Mercury on her 88th birthday in 1937.
The dinghy came into the museum’s collection in the 1990s and is currently exhibited in our first floor gallery as part of the boatbuilding display.
So I reckon that probably counts as a tie with Devonport’s!
Pictures supplied by Mark Hosking
