VOLUNTEERS are keeping their fingers crossed that they have found the ‘culprit’ as to why a restored historic Second World War torpedo boat started letting in water – only a few hours after she had been lowered into Bridgwater Docks.

The alarm was raised at just after 9.15am on Sunday to the problem involving the 70ft 1941 Motor Torpedo Boat 219 which had been placed into the Docks at Anson Way for testing less than 24 hours earlier.

Firefighters were called out to deal with the situation.

Warship enthusiast Paul Childs, who has overseen the colossal rebuild of the boat which will cost in the region of £60,000 and involved hundreds of hours of work, told the Mercury yesterday (Monday) that they were confident they had found why the problem had happened.

“When you’ve got a wooden boat which is 70 years old you’re going to get problems because you can’t see what’s going on inside,” he said. “But we’ve found the culprit – there was seepage in the bulkhead. All wooden boats leak – it’s inevitable. The only way you can test these things is by actually putting them in water.

“I had a sleepless night on Sunday, but all of the people living near the Docks have been great and will be standing guard to raise the alarm just in any case anything else happens.”

Twenty four hours before the drama unfolded, there was a ceremony to celebrate the launch of the boat with the Mayor of Bridgwater, Cllr Steve Austen, and other dignitaries on hand to see her lowered into the water (for more videos of the lowering of the boat and the ceremony, click here). 

Paul told the Mercury: “It’s become a real Bridgwater thing.

It was a lovely ceremony and the mayor was almost crying with pride.

“In the morning we did have a bit of problem when she took on too much water but we’ve found where it’s coming from.

“It has been so long since she was in the water. There might be a problem with the original keel which is made of oak and has split.

“The fire brigade came to help us out because they didn’t want to see it go wrong and even the chief came down to say they were happy to help.”

Firefighters used a water pump to bail out the boat.

The 219 was involved in numerous battles during the Second World War including an attack on the ‘Channel Dash’ German battle cruisers, Scharnhorst, Gneisneau and Prinz Eugen, as they tried to avoid bombing in Brest.