Excelsior is an authentically restored fishing smack of the Lowestoft fishing fleet and a member of the National Historic Fleet. She was built by John Chambers of Lowestoft in 1921 and worked until 1936 before being converted into a motor coaster.</ref> In 2021 Excelsior will celebrate her 100th birthday. During her time as a motor coaster she was known as Svinør and worked mainly in Norwegian waters before returning to Lowestoft in 1972.
She measures long with a beam of and is ketch rigged and is the last traditional sailing trawler able to tow a full-sized traditional trawl net. Excelsior was restored in 1989 and operates as a sail training vessel based out of Lowestoft, able to accommodate up to 17 people, including 12 trainees or passengers.
History
The Demonstration of History in Her Physical Fabric
EXCELSIOR was built in 1921 by John Chambers & Co, who were the ports leading smack builders. She was designed by Ernest Chambers drawing upon the firm's accumulated experience, and she and her sisters represent an apogee of Lowestoft smack design. They were highly regarded, and all the sisters survived their working lives whatever the North Sea threw at them.
By contrast her construction was carried out on speculation as a 'hospital job' for the yard apprentice boys following the first World War. Good timber was in short supply following the Admiralty's extensive programme of wooden Steam Drifter construction – John Chambers & Co being selected as the lead contractor. This resulted in some sapwood being used in her construction and all her knees being 'short grained'. (Tight oak bends remain the most difficult timbers to obtain today.) However, her longevity speaks volumes for the workmanship, and any inferior timber was subsequently replaced in an extensive rebuild.
After fishing for fourteen years she was sold to Norway and converted to a motor coaster. The alterations undertaken were minimal as her hull was so new. They merely involved removing the centreline deck structures, cutting a couple of cargo hatches and a cabin into the deck, and erecting a housing over an engine with a wheelhouse on top. The hull and bulwarks were left unaltered, although below decks the hull was completely stripped and new bulkheads erected to create a crew cuddy, hold, and engine room. Loaded to her marks she could manage 100 tons deadweight.
When John Wylson was looking for a sea-going sailing hull with headroom below decks that could be restored back to sailing condition there were many such conversions of former British sailing trawlers in Norway and Sweden at that time (1971). In Britain he had failed to find any former commercial sailing vessel large enough, still afloat, and available, other than Thames barges. He was particularly attracted to the former Excelsior (LT472) which was still largely in original condition and coming up for sale. Another factor was that none of the very numerous fleet of Lowestoft Smacks existed in sailing condition in the UK at that time. The Leader (ex LT474) had been converted into a sail training vessel at Gothenburg, and Keywardin (ex LT1192) was in Greece, but Bermudan-rigged with aluminium spars. In fact, none of the large British sailing trawlers had been restored - those that were sailing having been converted into yachts with deckhouses and light-weight gear.
By that stage in her life Excelsior, then called Svinør of Mandal, had extensive rot in her topsides and bulwarks, and needed rebuilding. However, unlike other vessels, her original bulwarks had survived and were therefore a pattern for accurate replacement. Mortices for carlings in the original deck beams and other evidence revealed the location of all the original centre-line structures. A decision was therefore made to purchase and repatriate her to Lowestoft where all the facilities existed for the restoration of a local smack along with the necessary skills.
John Wylson and a new partner, Mark Trevitt of Beccles, set about the necessary reconstruction, removing virtually all trace of her Norwegian life as a motor coaster in the process. (The only Norwegian part remaining today being the engine beds and stern tube).
Inadvertently the decision had been taken not to preserve the bastardised remains of a Lowestoft smack in order to retain the entire history of the vessel through its fabric. This was fortunate as such vessels are of limited academic, and no public interest, besides which, many more extensively converted ex-British smacks and luggers existed in Norway and Sweden, one of which, the Fremad II (the former Lowestoft lugger, or sailing drifter, Boy Jack LT199) has now become a museum ship to this numerous class of vessel.