Blue Mermaid after 2019 rebuild
General characteristics
Type	Thames barge
Length	87.84 feet (26.77 m)
Propulsion	Sails
Sail plan	Spritsail with bowsprit

Blue Mermaid is a replica steel-hulledThames sailing barge constructed between 2015 and 2019. She was built specifically to operate under sail and does not carry an engine. She is a replica of an older vessel of the same name, built in 1930 but sunk by enemy action during theSecond World War.

Blue Mermaid was built to carry cargo, and in 2023 she received permission from theMaritime and Coastguard Agency to carry cargoes of up to 110 tonnes, on theThames and along theNorth Sea coast betweenLowestoft andSandwich. In 1900 there were around 4,000 such barges, each with a crew of two and using just the wind and the tide, but she is the first sailing barge built for trade in Britain since 1930 and the first since the 1970s to be authorised as a commercial cargo carrier.^[1]

Blue Mermaid is 87 feet (27 m) long and has a hold that can carry 84 pallettes or 150 short tons (140 t) of loose cargo. She has a couple of cabins aft for skipper and mate and bunks forward for five or six more crew. The hold can also be used for accommodation when it is empty.^[2][3]

Blue Mermaid was built at Toms shipyard inPolruan, nearFowey inCornwall, andlaunched from there as a bare hull on 28 May 2016. The vessel was towed around the coast toMaldon where she was fitted out at the Downs Road Boatyard.^[2][3][4] She will operate out of theHeybridge Basin.

Blue Mermaid belongs to the Maldon-based charity Sea Change Sailing Trust who have many years of experience taking all kinds of people sailing. Richard Titchener with his partner Hilary Halajko, runs both the barge and Sea Change Sailing Trust. They are also involved in training young people for a hands-on career in Maritime Heritage, supplying crew with heritage sail experience, essential for looking after and sailing the aging fleet of Britain's historic vessels.^{[citation needed]}

Reminder (sister ship) from Gillingham Pier
History
United Kingdom
Name	Blue Mermaid(1930–1942)
Owner	F W Horlock, Mistley
Builder	Mistley Shipping Company[5]
Launched	1930
Fate	Destroyed through enemy action
General characteristics
Type	Thames barge
Tonnage	108 GRT
Length	87.84 feet (26.77 m)
Beam	19.38 feet (5.91 m)
Draught	6.49 feet (1.98 m)
Propulsion	Sails
Sail plan	Spritsail with bowsprit

Blue Mermaid was one of sevenThames barges built between 1925 and 1930 for F W Horlock,Mistley.

In 1924 the Horlocks commissioned seven new steel Thames barges, of whichBlue Mermaid was the sixth. Six of these 'seven sisters' are still afloat:Blue Mermaid was lost to a mine in World War II.^[6] They were built at Mistley.

• Benham, Hervey; Kershaw, Philip; Finch, Roger (1986).Down tops'l : the story of the East Coast sailing-barges (3rd ed.). London: Harrap.ISBN 0-245-54487-9.
• Carr, Frank (1951).Sailing Barges (Revised ed.). Peter Davies Ltd.
• March, Edgar (1948)."Spritsail barges of Thames and Medway". London: Percival Marshal.

• Thames sailing barges
• 1930 ships
• Individual sailing vessels
• Ships built in Mistley
• Transport on the River Thames
• Sailing ships of the United Kingdom

• Use dmy dates from April 2022
• All articles with unsourced statements
• Articles with unsourced statements from February 2023