A Fellows, Morton & Clayton Miscellany

Historical Profiles: NarrowBoat, Spring 2026

Christopher M Jones

Chris M. Jones studies images of FMC’s boats, including several previously unpublished. Many appear to have come from family collections and, while most aren’t captioned, subsequent research has helped identify the boats and, in some cases, the families connected with them

Cassell & Co Ltd / Les Hales Collection Photographed at the Meadow, Brentford, before World War I, this image was taken for the Boatmen’s Mission based in the town and it shows seven boaters representing three generations as they pose aboard FMC steamer Baron. Seven was the usual number of crew for a steamer and its butty: four on the former and three on the latter. The all-male steamer crew comprised a chief captain, captain’s mate, chief driver and assistant driver. Perhaps the butty crew are the man and woman standing on the counter and the boy sitting on the cabin roof. Baron’s first captain was George Crockett but, for much of the first decade of the 20th century, it was captained by Edward Wenlock. Baron was one of 16 iron composite steamers built by Fellows, Morton & Clayton at its Saltley yard (mostly named after titles given to persons of rank) in November 1898 for £560. It was number 64 in the fleet and registered at Birmingham the following …