Roger

The Roger was a houseboat laid up under the trees on the eastern shore of Hooe lake near Oreston in Plymouth. Built in Nieuport in Belgium in 1947 as a motor trawler, the Roger was sold to Brixham in 1966 fishing under the portmark BM172(1). The Roger was de-registered and sold to a Plymouth fisherman in May 1974 and then sold on to a yachtsman who had extra fuel tanks added at Mashfords yard up the Tamar. The vessel was sold again and became a houseboat in Hooe Lake (2) and was used as such in 1993, but was later destroyed by fire.

The remains of the Roger lie in Hooe lake between high and low water and are covered and uncovered with the tides. The fire destroyed the upperworks but left the keel, lower frames and outer planking with more of the starboard side surviving as the vessel lies on its port side. The counter stern has fallen off and its remains lie in a number of pieces around the stern along with the remains of the rudder. The stem post has broken off and the upper part lies on the port side of the hull.

The site has been used for many years by the Nautical Archaeology Society(3) as a place for training maritime archaeologists in methods for recording ships both on the beach and underwater. The site is also used by 3H Consulting Ltd(4) for developing hull recording methods for maritime archaeology and as part of this work a 3D computer model of the remains of the hull have been created.