Donald Campbell’s Bluebird to return to Lake District after 20-year battle
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The Bluebird K7 hydrofoil in which record-breaker Donald Campbell was killed will be sent to a museum after a legal wrangle over its future.
Campbell died at the age of 45 while trying to set a new water speed record in 1967, when the K7 flipped and disintegrated at 300mph on Coniston Water.
The wreck and his remains were salvaged 34 years later in 2001, with the debris later becoming the centre of a dispute between Campbell’s family – who wanted to hand the Bluebird to a Lake District museum – and Bill Smith, the engineer behind its restoration, who wanted to restore it and use it around the world.
The dispute was due to go to the High Court in the spring after Mr Smith threatened to break up the restored hydroplane, but on Friday the Campbell family announced that they had come to an agreement and the boat will be given to the Ruskin Museum in Coniston.
His daughter Gina said: “It is fantastic news for the people of Coniston and the Ruskin Museum. I will now be able to go to my grave having fulfilled my promise to return Bluebird to where it belongs.
“I am glad Bill Smith has come round to making the right decision after all these years.”
She said that it was “sad that we have had to come to this stage”, and that Mr Smith had either realised he would lose a court case or realised “it is the right thing to do”.
While critical of his role in the dispute, Ms Campbell also thanked Mr Smith for retrieving her father’s remains from Coniston Water.
The Bluebird was given to the Ruskin Museum by Ms Campbell, and while Mr Smith continued restoring the craft with the museum’s blessing, the relationship soured and there were claims that he “tried to retain control over the museum’s property”.
In 2019, the museum threatened legal action in an effort to secure the vessel’s return to the Lake District for display, while Mr Smith’s team wanted to see the working Bluebird taken out on the water once more.
In 2021, Mr Smith’s team began dismantling the Bluebird to separate restored parts, fitted by Mr Smith, from original elements, intensifying the legal battle.
Campbell, the son of world land and water speed record-breaker Sir Malcolm Campbell, set water speed records during the 1950s and 1960s. He also broke the land speed record at Lake Eyre salt flats in Australia in 1964.
He began developing his own craft in 1952 amid intense competition to break the record for the fastest vessel on water.
Campbell ultimately arrived at the design of Bluebird K7, which allowed him to set seven speed records between 1955 and December 1964, when he reached 276.33mph.
He attempted another record in 1967 and reached a speed of more than 300mph on runs across Coniston Water, but in front of the waiting crowds and press, Bluebird flipped and disintegrated.
