page_title: Fire-float Pyronaut
section_title: 1972 review
hierarchical_section_title: Fire-float Pyronaut / 1972 review
caption_attribution_description: English: The Pyronaut on display at the Bristol Harbourside festival
context_page_description: Pyronaut is a specialised form of fireboat known as a fire-float. It was built in 1934 by Charles Hill & Sons Ltd., Albion Dock Bristol, Yard No. 208. Registered number 333833. She is owned by Bristol Museums and based at M Shed in Bristol's Floating Harbour.
  Originally powered by two Petter Atomic diesel engines rates at 55 bhp each. Two Merryweather & Sons three-cylinder reciprocating pumps capable of delivering 500 imperial gallons of water per minute.
  This equipment was replaced in 1968 by two Ruston & Hornsby 6YDM six-cylinder diesel engines rated at 90 bhp each, driving screw propellers from the front power-take-off, and Coventry Climax centrifugal pumps capable of delivering 1,000 imperial gallons of water per minute from the main drive.
context_section_description: Despite these improvements, Pyronaut's working days were numbered. In 1969, the decision to close Bristol City Docks to commercial traffic by 1975 was announced and a review of the fire cover in the city docks in 1972 noted that very few buildings remained which could not be reached on all sides by land-based fire-engines. Consequently, Pyronaut was put up for sale in 1973. Seven years later Aquanaut was also sold, and fire cover in the Avonmouth and Royal Portbury Docks became the responsibility of land-based fire appliances and new tugs equipped with fire-fighting equipment.
  Pyronaut was sold to the Port of Bristol Authority, who took her to Avonmouth and began work on converting her into a divers' boat. This entailed removing all the fire-fighting pumps and moving her engines forward in the hull to create space for a changing room. The work was never completed, and she was sold again to a private owner in 1983, who began to fit out the changing room as a saloon, with the intention of using Pyronaut as a working/living craft in the south of Ireland. Shortly before completing the work in 1989, he decided to sell the vessel to Bristol City Museum and Art Gallery, based at the now-closed Bristol Industrial Museum where restoration and preservation was completed in 1995.Pyronaut can now be seen outside the new M Shed museum, berthed with the museum‘s tugs Mayflower and John King. Listed as part of the National Historic Fleet,
  she performs displays during major harbour events as well as operating for trips on some summer weekends. In June 2012 she travelled to London by road to take part in the Queen's Diamond Jubilee Pageant.
caption: The Pyronaut on display at the Bristol Harbour Festival
exif: {"Image Make": "Apple", "Image Model": "iPhone 4", "Image Orientation": "Horizontal (normal)", "Image XResolution": "72", "Image YResolution": "72", "Image ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Image Software": "Mobile Fotos 1006.06211345", "Image DateTime": "", "Image HostComputer": "iPhone (iPhone OS 5.1.1)", "Image YCbCrPositioning": "Centered", "Image ExifOffset": "244", "GPS GPSVersionID": "[2, 2, 0, 0]", "GPS GPSLatitudeRef": "N", "GPS GPSLatitude": "[51, 26, 525991/10000]", "GPS GPSLongitudeRef": "W", "GPS GPSLongitude": "[2, 35, 524961/10000]", "Image GPSInfo": "342", "EXIF FNumber": "14/5", "EXIF ExifVersion": "0220", "EXIF DateTimeOriginal": "", "EXIF DateTimeDigitized": "", "EXIF ColorSpace": "sRGB", "EXIF ExifImageWidth": "2406", "EXIF ExifImageLength": "1024"}