One Ship, Two Rivers, Many Young Crews

The motor barge Loach was one of many built to fill the cargo-carrying void left by ex. sailing barges and their genre which had come to the end of their trading lives. Commissioned in 1968, she was offered for sale 15 years later and acquired by the St. Paul’s Trust, the brainchild of the Revd. Mike Keulemans, to take young boys and girls off afloat on the Loach, converted to accommodate them within her cargo space and to introduce them to seafaring in a supportive Christian environment. Against all odds the scheme was a great success, and won praise and support from many institutions and businesses, despite the constant battle for funding. Over twenty years later, with the Loach redeployed in Liverpool as a classroom for aspiring seafarers to sit courses and qualify for a career afloat, the story of this heart-warming enterprise is now in print.