armed steam pinnace

Within the Royal Naval Museum in Portsmouth is a 50 foot long steam vessel known as Pinnace 199. She is believed to be the last remaining naval steam pinnace.  She was built for the Royal Navy at Samuel White’s Yard at Cowes in 1911. On acceptance into the Royal Navy, she would have been allocated to one of the battleships of the time – probably HMS Monarch, as one of the two steam pinnaces carried aboard as picket boats that would protect her when at anchor and carry officers and men ashore. Pinnace 199 was later converted to an admiral’s barge by adding a counter stern and a brass funnel.

Little is known of her movements subsequent to HMS Monarch in 1925 but she is believed to have been used as a dockyard launch and possibly as a tender to the Military Hospital at Netley on Southampton Water. In 1949 she was sold and stored in Weevil Lake in Portsmouth Harbour.

In 1952, she was bought by a private owner for conversion to a houseboat on the Thames.  Renamed Treleague she remained on the Thames in an increasingly poor condition for some years. Her steam machinery was removed and replaced by a petrol engine and she was finally sold for £5 and her new owner commenced her restoration.