Thalatta (Thames barge)

Thalatta
Sailing Barge Thalatta in the River Blackwater
Thames sailing barge Thalatta
History
United Kingdom
NameThalatta
BuilderMcLearon, Harwich, Essex, UK
Launched1906
StatusSailing as of 2020
General characteristics
Class and typeThames sailing barge
Tons burthen67
Length88.9 ft (27.1 m)
Beam20.6 ft (6.3 m)
Draught2 ft (0.61 m)approx
Depth of hold6 ft (1.8 m)approx
PropulsionSail and auxiliary diesel engine
Sail planmainsail, topsail, mizzen, foresail, jib
Complement2

Thalatta is a Thames sailing barge, built in Harwich, Essex, in 1906 and rebuilt in St Osyth in 2012. She is 90 feet (27 m) long and 26 feet (7.9 m) across the widest part of the deck. Like all Thames barges, she is flat-bottomed and has leeboards instead of a keel. She spent some of her life ketch-rigged and some of it spritsail-rigged. She is now permanently spritsail rigged, and has a mainmast and topmast that, together, are about 90 feet (27 m) high, and a mizzen mast. Thalatta has had two periods with an auxiliary engine and two without. She carried cargo for sixty years and was then converted for use as a sail training ship in 1966. She was completely rebuilt between 2006 and 2012 at St Osyth with assistance from lottery funds.