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High and dry but this old girl is actually back home and about as far from the open water as you can get in England. The Pat was built by the Edward Hayes Company in Stony Stratford 80 years ago. The 45 foot tug spent its working life on the River Thames but was renamed The Wey in the 1930s. Recently she was lifted gingerly from a low-loader to become an exhibit at Milton Keynes Museum after being donated by its current owners the Environment Agency. “We have been looking for a Hayes boat for many years and to find and secure the last example of a boat built by this important local manufacturer is significant for the museum and the local community”, said Museum Director Bill Griffiths. Edward Hayes was a major manufacturer of boats and agricultural machinery between the 1860s and 1920s. One of its apprentices was Frederick Rebbeck, who later worked on the Titanic and became Chairman of Harland and Wolff in Belfast. It was possibly unique for boats of the size of The Pat to be built so far from tidal waters. She was towed from Stony to now closed Buckingham Arm of the Grand Union Canal and launched sideways in the water minus her engine, which was fitted in London after she was towed there by horse. Hayes boats served across the world, including on the Sea of Galilee, another was a gunboat in South America and another chased U-Boats in WWII. The Pat started her life moving freight on the Thames and later was an ice-breaker on the river in the winter of 1940. In 1959 she was used by the Metropolitan Police to find a car in which a couple had committed suicide and in 1966 she recovered a sunken sailing boat. “She will go straight on display and I am sure she will create a lot of interest locally and further afield,” said Bill. “We would love to find more items made by or associated with Hayes,” he said. The Pat is now on public display, every weekend 11 am to 4.30 pm. Steve Larner, The Citizen January 4th 2005
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