Benjamin Wheeler brought to my attention Tom Dolby’s blog and his restoration of on ships lifeboat that he has converted into a music studio over in England. Though not used as a tiny house there is absolutely no reason that it couldn’t be converted into one.
I’ll let Tom Dolby tell you a little bit about the boat and you can use your imagination to see where you could take a boat like this.
She was built in the 1930’s as one of a pair of ship’s lifeboats aboard the SS Queen Ann, a British merchant vessel serving in the South Seas. If you look at the red stripe down the side, this was her original gunwale: the deck was added in the 1960’s and we built the wheelhouse this year. In the 30?s she would have had a sail, oars and small paraffin engine. It’s carved on her bowpost that she could hold up to 99 souls.
The SS Queen Ann was damaged by a German torpedo early in the 2nd world war, and then had a collision on her way to be fixed in the USA, and was subsequently scrapped. After that the lifeboat went to the Netherlands, and may have been converted there to a seagoing liveaboard vessel. At some point she transferred to the UK and was moored for many years on a canal in Nottingham. She has a wood burning stove, galley and hot water head/shower, as well as ‘shore power’, hence was a very comfortable liveaboard.
Be sure and visit Tom Dolby’s blog to learn about his music and more about his boat.
All photo credits: Tom Dolby.
Beautiful workmanship throughout. Well done.
I love it! Would be cool to see it as a living space as well.
There’s just something about all that varnished wood in a tidy nautical package, so appealing! Would love to see below deck as well.
Thomas is one of the coolest musicians around. He sometimes frequents one of my favorite forums and mixes it up with the rest of us freaks. Kudos to Thomas for saving a piece of history.
What an absolutely unique home. I couldn’t imagine how interesting it must be to live on a lifeboat!
Great boat! And i’m sure he’s sick of hearing it, but i still love “She Blinded Me With Science”…which i also believe was the 1st pro recording to use electric drums?? Sorry, i know that’s off the tiny house subject.
are we talking about THE Thomas Dolby from 80’s MTV fame? “She blinded me with Science….” That guy? If so, how frappin cool is that! Love it!