Lydia Eva Museum

Lydia Eva Museum

Lydia Eva Museum
Hall Quay (opposite The Town Hall)
Great Yarmouth
Norfolk
NR30 2QF

Tel: 07901 915 390
E-Mail: enquiries@lydiaeva.org.uk

Web: Lydia Eva Museum

About Lydia Eva Museum

History of the Yarmouth Steam Drifter - Lydia Eva YH89

Built in 1930 and based in Great Yarmouth, Lydia Eva fished along the East Coast and North Sea for nine years. The Royal Air Force brought her in 1939, using her in a variety of roles until she she laid up in 1969.

She was aquired by the Maritime Trust in 1971/2 and restored as a floating museum in Great Yarmouth.

Lydia Eva joined the Trust's national collection of vessels in London's St. Katherine 's Dock in 1986 but was laid up again in 1990 and eventually returned to East Anglia when the Lydia Eva Charitable Trust Ltd was formed. It leased the ship and shares her between the ports of Lowestoft and Great Yarmouth.

The Lydia Eva Story

She was the last vessel to be built at the Kings Lynn yard. Having been towed directly to Great Yarmouth after her launch, she was fitted out with her engine, boiler and machinery at Crabtrees and undertook her first sea-going trial on July 22nd 1930.

The herring industry had reached its peak in 1913 when 1006 vessels were based at Great Yarmouth, and was in decline at the time the Lydia Eva joined the small fleet owned by Harry Eastick.

Equipped with wireless and electric light, and specifically designed to be more efficient than her contemporaries, the declining herring stocks nonetheless meant that the Lydia Eva had a relatively short working life. With decent catches becoming increasingly difficult, she landed her last catch in December 1938. Two months later Harry Eastick sold her and his other remaining vessel to Norford Sufflings, a local firm of fish merchants.

Air Ministry

She was sold on to the Caernarvonshire Yacht Company and was altered and equipped for a contract with the Air Ministry, maintaining and servicing bouys around the West coast. In 1942 she was requisitioned by the Ministry of War Transport and became engaged in salvage work.

In 1966 she was transfered to the Marine Services Division of the Royal Navy, where she was fitted with a new boiler and a higher wheelhouse but after 3 years service she was laid up for sale in Milford Haven.

Coming Home

The Maritime Trust was founded in 1969 in order to preserve vessels that were representative of Britain's maritime heritage. Being the only remaining vessel of her type, the Lydia Eva was purchased by the trust in 1971, and following an overhaul at Holman & Sons in Penzance she returned to Great Yarmouth.

Charles Eastick, nephew of Harry, was able to offer invaluable advice; the RAF and Admiralty fittings were removed and Lowestoft company Overys were able to construct a new wheelhouse. By 1973 she was a drifter again, and spent the next five years welcoming visitors on board at her berth at South Quay at Great Yarmouth.

In 1978 she sailed from Great Yarmouth, seemingly to be gone forever, to become part of the Maritime Trust exhibition at St Katherine's Dock next to Tower Bridge in London. Financial difficulties eventually saw the closure of this exhibition in 1986, and once again she became laid up, this time at the West India Dock.