A pensioner’s dream of sailing his narrowboat along the Tees has gone up in smoke after flames ripped through the vessel.
An apparent arson attack in the early hours of Thursday morning has gutted the boat, which Gordon Bennett had spent the last seven years lovingly restoring back to its former glory. Gordon, who even lived on the boat during the Covid pandemic, said he has no words to describe the devastation when he saw the charred remains of his boat at White Water Way in Stockton.
The great-grandad, who lives in Stockton, said: “It was just gone, I can’t put into words how it felt. It was my dream to travel the canal system of Britain, but I would always have my base in Stockton, people don’t realise how beautiful the journey along the Tees is.”
Normally Gordon sleeps on the boat on a Wednesday night, but thankfully decided not to. He said: “It is just luck I wasn’t asleep on the boat or we would be talking about an arson and a murder.”
When Gordon, who is 68 tomorrow (January 14) and suffers from a disability, bought Lady Lilith it was a wreck. But, he taught himself lots of skills, including welding, so he could spend hundreds of hours restoring it, saying it was “a labour of love”.
The remains of Lady Lilith
The beautiful narrowboat before fire struck
(Image: Graham Bennett)
He hoped the Lady Lilith would become the first narrowboat to traverse the River Tees. He said: “You don’t see narrowboats in this area and a lot of people knew me from seeing me on it.”
Gordon, who worked for 20 years maintaining the Tees Transporter Bridge, said the destruction of Lady Lilith has cost him around £20,000 and it is unclear if his insurance covers this sort of issue.
Gordon is also very worried about the costs of removing the boat from the river, which could run into thousands of pounds. He said: “It is not about the money for me, it is that my dream has gone.”
Gordon even lived on the boat during the pandemic
(Image: Graham Bennett)
Not only has the boat itself been destroyed, Gordon has also lost all his belongings, including precious family photographs which can not be replaced.
Just days before the boat went up in flames, Gordon said it was ransacked in a burglary. He said: “They took every single tool I had. They must have thought it was B&Q with the amount of tools there were for repairing the boat.”
He said he was just coming to terms with that and berating himself for leaving the tools on board when he went along to the vessel on Thursday morning ready to clean up and found it had been destroyed.
TeessideLive has approached Cleveland Police for further details.
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