Daily Casefile · Forensic
The Winter Mooring Affair
≈ 4 min
In late March 1979, boatyard manager Clive Aldous reported that the brass navigation lamp and two rolled charts from the narrowboat Perseverance had vanished while the vessel sat in winter lay-up at Audlem Wharf. The owner, retired schoolteacher Margaret Fenwick, had left the boat unattended since October. Suspicion fell on Ray Suttcliffe, a freelance maintenance hand who had access to the mooring, but Suttcliffe claimed he had repaired the hull and left months before anyone else visited the boat. Investigators must establish the true sequence of visits and actions aboard Perseverance to determine whether Suttcliffe's account holds — or collapses.
The scene
A narrowboat named Perseverance, moored on the Shropshire Union Canal for winter storage, and the adjacent boatyard at Audlem Wharf, England, 1979.
The events
- An unknown visitor forces the forward hatch
- Fenwick returns and provides an inventory statement
- Fenwick locks the boat and departs for winter
- Aldous discovers the theft and secures the boat
- Suttcliffe caulks the leaking bow seam
- The brass navigation lamp and charts are removed
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