Ethel Ada is an 82ft wooden spritsail-rigged sailing barge built in Paglesham in Essex by the Shuttlewood Brothers in 1903, and named after the two wives of the shipwrights. Her hull is oak on oak frames, the bottom boards being of pitch pine.
Decended from Darwin's Beagle?
Built in the same creek as the final resting place of HMS Beagle, legend has it that she was partly constructed with timbers from Darwin's famous ship.
Thames sailing barges remain one of the most efficient cargo carriers ever devised; Ethel Ada was capable of transporting more than a hundred tonnes of produce into the heart of the city of London, under sail and tidal power alone, crewed only by a man and a boy (and possibly a dog). Her flat bottomed, shallow draft meant she could navigate far inland to rural ports, and rest on the mud at low tide to load and unload her cargo. The spritsail rig is considered to be one of the most efficient sail-plans ever used, giving a huge sail area high up above the disturbance of the river banks. Once the sails were stowed, the sprit became a useful crane for handling the cargo.
In the 1900's there were thousands of barges, both steel and wooden hulled. However, now only 50 or 60 remain, and few of such charm as the Ethel Ada.
Originally built to carry coal, she was subsequently used to transport agricultural and building materials, and latterly explosives in and around the Thames estuary until she ceased trading and was converted for private use in the 1960's. Her engine was installed during an extensive renovation during the 1980's.