Save Churchill’s barge from overseas sale, says Boris Johnson and campaigners
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Sir Winston Churchill’s barge must be saved for the nation, campaigners including former prime minister Boris Johnson have said.
The vessel that carried the coffin of the wartime leader is in danger of being sold to an international buyer after none from Britain came forward.
The Havengore took Churchill on his final journey along the River Thames following his passing in 1965, while dock workers lowered their cranes in a mark of respect.
Watched by a then-record 350 million people worldwide on television, Churchill was carried on the iconic barge following his funeral at St Paul’s Cathedral to Waterloo Station, where he was taken by train to a family burial plot in Oxfordshire.
Boris Johnson, the former prime minister, is among those who have called for a British buyer to be found.
“This boat is part of the history of our country and it deserves to remain here,” he told the Mail on Sunday.
Its owner, Chris Ryland, 75, has been looking to sell the Havengore for 18 months, during which time he has lowered the price from £2 million to £800,000.
Mr Ryland bought the 85 foot former Port of London Authority hydrographic survey vessel for £780,000 in 2006.
It had mainly been used to map changes to the seabed in the Thames Estuary, but journey along the River Thames in memory of Churchill in 2015 to mark the 50th anniversary of his death.
“I’ve been trying to sell her for 18 months, but I haven’t been able to find a buyer in Britain,” Mr Ryland told MoS. “It’s got to the point where I’ve had to put her on the international market.
“I’m devastated, but things have to change. I’ve reached a certain age and was recently diagnosed with cancer. Someone else needs to step in and take the project on.”
Historians have called for a museum to purchase the vessel, such as the National Maritime Museum in Greenwich or the Imperial War Museum in London.
Jonathan Dimbley, the broadcaster and historian whose father Richard provided the commentary for the BBC’s coverage of the barge’s voyage during Churchill’s funeral, said it would be “wonderful” if it could stay in Britain.
“I think it would be wonderful if this iconic barge, which is in so many memories as we mourned the final departure of Winston Churchill along the Thames, could be retained in this country and that the funds could be raised to make that possible,” he said.
The immortal words delivered during the coverage of the funeral by Richard Dimbleby are engraved in a plaque on the barge.
“And so Havengore sails into history – not even the Golden Hind has borne so great a man.”
