ANTLIA worked for GUCCC between 1936 and 1941. She was then commandeered by the Ministry of War Transport and was used on the River Lee as a fire fighting boat until 1945. After the war, she worked as a maintenance boat until 1949 for the South East Division. In 1950, she was transferred to Gloucester via the Kennet and Avon Canal and was among the last six boats to use the canal before it closed. She went on to become a maintenance boat for the South West Division until 1956, when she was chopped in half. Her stern was taken by the tug TARDEBIGGE and the bow by WATER VIXEN; a British Waterways holiday boat. The two ends were re-joined in 1994 now 60ft bought as two halves by present owner and welded back together occasionally used for carrying Her hull is made from riveted iron plates and she once had an elm bottom, now replaced with steel. She has a pointed bow with a raked curved stem, and a counter stern. The current engine is an inboard Lister diesel; model HB2, with two cylinders and twenty-two horsepower, made in 1960. Photo GUCC A-G

From September 1935, she worked for the GUCCC in the London Docks taking zinc ingots, steel bars and other cargoes to the Midlands and returning with coal. She may have been laid up from 1938 to 1947 in London. From September 1947 to January 1989, she was a maintenance boat on the Bridgewater canal. The current owner bought her in 1989, after she had sunk for three months the previous year, due to corrosion and lack of maintenance. Between 1989 and 1993 restored by Ian Kemp and the present owner. now unconverted and named MSC No2 MSC Co Works Tug No 2

In November 1941 she was sold to Stanton Coal and Iron Company. At this time she was registered at Ilkeston to have 4 adults, or 2 adults and 2 children living on board (in an 8 ft cabin!) and her steerer was Albert Boswell, who lived in Sandiacre lock cottage. She was sold to Joseph Rayner, canal carrier, of Runcorn in 1947 and renamed ‘Sandra’.  In 1955 she was sold to the coal merchants S T Brant of Hockley Port, Birmingham and renamed ‘Gertrude’ following extensive repairs at Yates Bros. dock at Norton Canes on the Cannock Extension Canal.  This included taking out the old National engine and fitting a new twin-cylinder Bolinder, reputedly the first of this type to be fitted in a canal boat in this country.  Willow Wren Canal Carrying Co. were reputedly the suppliers of these engines. Once her refurbishment was completed, she did three trips a week, towing a ‘joey’ boat (or day boat, without a full cabin), carrying coal from the Cannock coal fields to Brant’s Wharf in Birmingham. From 1965 – 69 she worked for the Birmingham and Midland Canal Carrying Company but, as the wooden boats were not as robust as the steel boats, she was no longer used and so was consequently sold to Dodds, Peters and Co of Netherton, where her working career ended. When she was repainted in 1975, and the many layers of paint were removed, her original name ‘Merope’ was discovered. Peter Dodds wrote in Waterways World, May 1977:

"We began to repaint in the Summer of 1975.  Before commencing to strip off all the old paint, we had a gentle scrape at the thick layers of paint over the engine ‘ole porthole.  We could scarcely contain our excitement as we gradually revealed, like a child’s magic colouring book, the clearly painted ‘no. 63’ in white on a dark blue ground.  The letters had lain hidden since 1942 when she was first painted in the Stanton livery.  It proved, beyond doubt, that we had ‘Merope’."

She was built as a cargo carrying vessel and was part of the British Transport Waterways fleet. They converted her for pleasure use between 1958/60 and at that time she was named WATER BUCK. A steel top was added in 1977 and she was then renamed PERSEUS. Operates as a passenger launch with a capacity for 68 passengers. She operates a service on the Regents Canal from Little Venice to the London Zoo and Camden Lock with occasional trips to Limehouse, the River Lea and Brentford. PERSEUS

As one of 38 similar boats built by Yarwoods and known as a Large Northwich, SHIRLEY was built to a larger specification than previously and carried more cargo. The GUCCC fleet passed to the British Transport Commission on nationalisation in 1948 which in turn became the British Waterways Board in 1962. Between 1963 and 1970 she was on loan to Willow Wren Canal Transport, for some time carrying wheat on the River Nene. In the early 1970s she passed into private ownership and was converted to a houseboat. Between the 1970s and 1994 she was renamed HALIFAX before reverting to her original name. fully converted and based in London SHIRLEY GUCC I-Z