
Peggy of Castletown
Peggy, the oldest yacht in the UK and the oldest schooner in the world, is being restored. Sometime between 1786 and 1791, George Quayle of Castletown, on the Isle of Man, had a shallop built, which he named Peggy. A shallop is a light sailboat built for coastal fishing, as a tender, or in the case of Peggy, as a pleasure craft. According to National Historic Ships UK, she may have worked as as a cargo vessel in the Irish Sea and around Liverpool sometime between 1791-1835. There is also evidence that she may have been armed with six cannon and two stern chasers. The shallop was also fitted with sliding keels.
Following George’s Quayle death in 1835, Peggy was put in storage in a subterranean boat shed and was largely forgotten about. One hundred years later, Emily Quayle bequeathed Peggy and the boat shed to the Isle of Man.