The pictures above show work being undertaken by Stebbings on the William Fife designed Vanity – a 12 metre class yacht built in 1923. Originally owned by J.R. Payne, Vanity was raced around the east coast and at Cowes. She sunk in a hurricane in the Caribbean in 1992.
HM Watch Vessel Kangaroo (formerly H.M.’s sloop Kangaroo – 483 tons) arrived in Burnham-on-Crouch in 1870, to be used as accommodation for the coastguards and their families. She was moored by the sea wall, where the Royal Corinthian clubhouse now stands, and took the place of another former naval vessel, the Chanticleer, a brig that was towed to Burnham in 1848 and which ended her days being broken up at Sheerness.
She was finally broken up in the 1890’s after better shore-side accommodation for the coastguards and their families was built in Silver Road.
In 1884, Stebbings provided the Commissioners of the Admiralty with an estimate for repairs to HMS Kangaroo,
To caulk H.M. Ship Kangroo, from stem to stern, from rail to copper. Both sides with best oakam and pay good pitch. Provide and fix seven new rails with good yellow deal and paint same 3 times for the sum of £55-10s.
From W Stebbings Boat Builder, Burnham, Essex. January 23 1884
Other watch vessels deployed in the area included HMS Beagle (of Charles Darwin fame). It is likely that some remains of HMS Beagle are still beneath the mud of the River Roach, where the Beagle was stationed (scientists are looking into it).
Below is an image of another of the local watch vessels, HMS Frolic, which was also moored in the Roach.
See the Essex Family History website for further details, and C.E. Jefferies’ ‘Notes on Burnham on Crouch: its History and its People 1800-1900’, published in 1970 by Bay Read.
Zobeide was built in Burnham in 1910 by the Burnham Yacht Building Company, and these days can be found in the environs of the island of St Maarten, in the Caribbean (some boats get all the luck!)
Actually, an article in All at Sea, April 2008, titled Back from the Dead, describes a fair amount of bad luck that has befallen Zobeide in recent years – one t-boning, another collision during a hurricane which sent her to the bottom, a hauling out onto dry land only to be blown over by another hurricane!
Stebbings undertook two weeks of repairs to Zobeide in 1963. The work involved renewing some of the copper on the stern and caulking on the decks and plankends. Some work was also done on the heads in the fore cabin.
Thanks to Gary Brown, editor of All at Sea magazine, for an update on Zobeide’s current condition,
She had a complete rebuild after languishing ashore for years. I know many of the guys who raced her after they brought her to the Caribbean. The boat has a reputation of being something of a freak … amazingly fast and no one can work out why. Everyone who sailed on her said they always pushed her to the limit and she never let them down. The owner has yet to rig and sail her. She has been sitting on a mooring in the Simpson Bay Lagoon for about five years since the refit and she is still in need of work down below.
Stebbings Archive 