How every fact on this site was checked
119 facts. Each one is in our own words, each one has a source, and each one was checked against that source on 13 November 2026.
How we check
We read each source and wrote each fact in our own words. Our build stores the text of every source page, and for each fact it checks that the key words and figures, the “checks” in the table, really appear on the source page. If any check fails, the site does not build. Where good sources disagree, we show each version in a “Sources differ” box rather than picking one. Anything that is our view rather than a sourced fact is labelled “Our opinion”.
Known disagreements
- When she was built. 1789 (Manx National Heritage; National Historic Ships UK’s significance notes; castletown.org.im) or 1791 (Dr Basil Greenhill’s 1967 conclusion, reported by National Historic Ships UK). The family had three similar boats between 1789 and 1793, two of them called Peggy.
- George Quayle’s birth year. 1757 (Manx National Heritage) or 1751 (National Historic Ships UK).
- When she was laid up. About 1810 to 1815 (Manx National Heritage, 2021), in her cellar since the early 1800s (the same document), or hauled up after Quayle died in 1835 and walled in in 1851 (National Historic Ships UK key dates).
- When she was found. 1935 (National Historic Ships UK, main text) or 1941 (the same page’s key dates). One local history page prints the year as “195”, a typing slip.
- How she came to the museum. Presented to the Manx Museum in 1941 when Bridge House was sold (National Historic Ships UK) or bequeathed to the Manx nation in June 1942 (Manx National Heritage, 2021).
- Repairs before the museum opened. The late 1940s (National Historic Ships UK) or not possible until 1950 (castletown.org.im).
- Her guns. Six small swivels and six fowling pieces on her 1793 licence; eight small cannon today.
- Her record. The oldest surviving schooner in the world, the earliest surviving schooner, or one of the oldest surviving pleasure yachts in the world, depending on the Manx National Heritage page.
What we left out
- Sums of money. The sources give grants, project costs and admission prices in sterling; this site does not quote them.
- A 2015 university paint study could not be read by our checker, so nothing on this site depends on it.
- Quayle’s 1796 letter is quoted as printed by the Castletown website, including his spelling (“bolsprit”, “scisme”).
- The exact layout of the boathouse and cellar: we found no plan we could check, so we do not draw one.
The log
| # | Fact | Source | Checks |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Manx National Heritage calls the Peggy the oldest surviving schooner in the world. | Manx National Heritage: The Peggy, her new boathouse and the George Quayle exhibition, Questions and Answers (January 2022) | 1 passed |
| 2 | She is also the last intact surviving shallop, a type of small open boat. | Manx National Heritage: The Peggy, her new boathouse and the George Quayle exhibition, Questions and Answers (January 2022) | 1 passed |
| 3 | She is the oldest surviving vessel known to have been fitted with sliding keels, an early form of dagger board. | Manx National Heritage: The Peggy, her new boathouse and the George Quayle exhibition, Questions and Answers (January 2022) | 1 passed |
| 4 | Unusually, she survives nearly complete and unrestored, and her masts and spars survived with her. | Manx National Heritage: The Peggy, her new boathouse and the George Quayle exhibition, Questions and Answers (January 2022) | 2 passed |
| 5 | Although the Isle of Man is not part of the UK, she is listed in the UK’s National Historic Fleet. | Manx National Heritage: The Peggy, her new boathouse and the George Quayle exhibition, Questions and Answers (January 2022) | 2 passed |
| 6 | There are around 200 vessels in the National Historic Fleet. | Manx National Heritage: The Peggy, her new boathouse and the George Quayle exhibition, Questions and Answers (January 2022) | 1 passed |
| 7 | Being under 33 feet long, she sits on the National Small Boat Register, but is kept in the National Historic Fleet because she meets every other test. | National Historic Ships UK: Peggy, register number 1125 | 2 passed |
| 8 | Manx National Heritage calls her the oldest surviving Manx vessel and a rare example of 18th-century boatbuilding. | Manx National Heritage: The Peggy Conservation Facility, Ynnyd Freayltys y Phaaie | 1 passed |
| 9 | Over 95% of her structure is still intact. | Manx National Heritage: The Peggy Conservation Facility, Ynnyd Freayltys y Phaaie | 1 passed |
| 10 | The Nautical Museum page calls her one of the oldest surviving pleasure yachts in the world. | Manx National Heritage: Nautical Museum, Yn Thie Tashtee Lhuingey | 1 passed |
| 11 | Manx National Heritage’s 2021 statement calls her the best-preserved eighteenth-century sailing vessel in the world. | Manx National Heritage: George Quayle and his Legacy, Statement of Significance (2021) | 1 passed |
| 12 | It also says she is really two boats in one: her 1802 form laid over the original of 1789. | Manx National Heritage: George Quayle and his Legacy, Statement of Significance (2021) | 1 passed |
| 13 | The same statement compares her, as an experimental racing yacht, with today’s land and water speed record attempts. | Manx National Heritage: George Quayle and his Legacy, Statement of Significance (2021) | 1 passed |
| 14 | Manx National Heritage counts her among the most precious objects in the Island’s National Collections. | Manx National Heritage: The Nautical Museum, a transformational new visitor experience (FAQs, September 2024) | 1 passed |
| 15 | She is clinker-built, with overlapping planks, and open, with sawn frames. | National Historic Ships UK: Peggy, register number 1125 | 1 passed |
| 16 | She began as a small working-boat shape with six oar holes, schooner rigged with a bowsprit. | National Historic Ships UK: Peggy, register number 1125 | 1 passed |
| 17 | She is 26 feet 5 inches long overall, with a beam of 7 feet 8 inches and an inside depth of 6 feet. | Castletown website: Nautical Museum, the Peggy | 1 passed |
| 18 | Her Admiralty licence of 1793 describes her as of 6.5 tons burthen. | Castletown website: Nautical Museum, the Peggy | 1 passed |
| 19 | Her main planking is pine, between 6 and 8 inches wide and 7/8 inch thick. | Castletown website: Nautical Museum, the Peggy | 1 passed |
| 20 | The rubbing strakes on the top three planks seem to be teak, like the moulding on the transom. | Castletown website: Nautical Museum, the Peggy | 1 passed |
| 21 | Her ribs and floors are oak, and the hull is held with heavy iron bolts. | Castletown website: Nautical Museum, the Peggy | 1 passed |
| 22 | Her rig seems to have been a gaff mainsail, a gaff foresail and a jib. | Castletown website: Nautical Museum, the Peggy | 1 passed |
| 23 | She is about the size of the Bounty’s launch, in which Captain Bligh made his 4,000-mile voyage, but with much sleeker lines. | Castletown website: Nautical Museum, the Peggy | 1 passed |
| 24 | Craft like her were carried by Captain Cook’s ships Resolution and Adventure. | National Historic Ships UK: Peggy, register number 1125 | 1 passed |
| 25 | Boats of her shape were used in Manx waters, the Irish Sea, and on the American coast north of Boston. | National Historic Ships UK: Peggy, register number 1125 | 1 passed |
| 26 | She was a little narrow for her length, with low sides, so she was rather wet to sail. | National Historic Ships UK: Peggy, register number 1125 | 1 passed |
| 27 | In her form and rig she is the only surviving direct link with 18th-century working vessels and naval cutters. | Manx National Heritage: George Quayle and his Legacy, Statement of Significance (2021) | 1 passed |
| 28 | Quayle commissioned her for pleasure, with novel changes for speed. | Manx National Heritage: George Quayle and his Legacy, Statement of Significance (2021) | 1 passed |
| 29 | She carries eight small cannon: six a foot long, three a side, and two slightly longer as stern chasers. | National Historic Ships UK: Peggy, register number 1125 | 1 passed |
| 30 | Her 1793 licence lists six small swivels and six fowling pieces. | Castletown website: Nautical Museum, the Peggy | 1 passed |
| 31 | When she was built, war with France was coming again, and privateers haunted the seas round the Island. | Castletown website: Nautical Museum, the Peggy | 1 passed |
| 32 | Her painted transom survives, with a decorative motif and the words George Quayle Castletown. | Castletown website: Nautical Museum, the Peggy | 1 passed |
| 33 | Underneath, an earlier scheme shows the name PEGGY in gilt on green. | Castletown website: Nautical Museum, the Peggy | 1 passed |
| 34 | She had three sliding keels fitted through her keel, forerunners of the centreboard. | National Historic Ships UK: Peggy, register number 1125 | 1 passed |
| 35 | A 1791 letter from Quayle’s brother Thomas describes meeting the sliding keel’s inventor, Captain (later Admiral) Shank. | National Historic Ships UK: Peggy, register number 1125 | 2 passed |
| 36 | Shank may have used her as an experimental craft for his design. | National Historic Ships UK: Peggy, register number 1125 | 1 passed |
| 37 | Her present keel is a replacement, but the original, with its three slots, survives. | National Historic Ships UK: Peggy, register number 1125 | 1 passed |
| 38 | The sliding keels were taken out in the 1802 renovation. | National Historic Ships UK: Peggy, register number 1125 | 1 passed |
| 39 | They made her much more manoeuvrable, and the slots can still be seen. | Castletown website: Nautical Museum, the Peggy | 1 passed |
| 40 | Manx National Heritage’s 2021 statement calls her the earliest known and only surviving boat with sliding keels, a technology now everywhere. | Manx National Heritage: George Quayle and his Legacy, Statement of Significance (2021) | 1 passed |
| 41 | Manx National Heritage says George Quayle lived in Castletown from his birth in 1757 to his death in 1835. | Manx National Heritage: George Quayle and his Legacy, Statement of Significance (2021) | 1 passed |
| 42 | National Historic Ships UK gives his dates as 1751 to 1835. | National Historic Ships UK: Peggy, register number 1125 | 1 passed |
| 43 | He sat in the House of Keys, the Manx parliament’s elected house, for 51 years. | National Historic Ships UK: Peggy, register number 1125 | 1 passed |
| 44 | He was a founding partner of an early Manx bank, George Quayle & Co., run from Bridge House. | Manx National Heritage: George Quayle and his Legacy, Statement of Significance (2021) | 1 passed |
| 45 | During the wars with France from 1793 he was an officer in Manx forces raised to defend the Island. | National Historic Ships UK: Peggy, register number 1125 | 1 passed |
| 46 | He was an enthusiastic inventor and traveller. | National Historic Ships UK: Peggy, register number 1125 | 1 passed |
| 47 | He was the eldest of thirteen children, nine of whom survived childhood. | Manx National Heritage: George Quayle and his Legacy, Statement of Significance (2021) | 1 passed |
| 48 | He spoke fluent Italian, played music, and loved wordplay and sketching. | Manx National Heritage: George Quayle and his Legacy, Statement of Significance (2021) | 1 passed |
| 49 | Manx National Heritage calls him the most documented Manxman of the 18th century. | Manx National Heritage: Nautical Museum, Yn Thie Tashtee Lhuingey | 1 passed |
| 50 | Four Quayle men held the office of Clerk of the Rolls at Castle Rushen: his grandfather, father, brother and nephew. | Manx National Heritage: George Quayle and his Legacy, Statement of Significance (2021) | 1 passed |
| 51 | Manx National Heritage notes that he was a businessman and politician during the Napoleonic Wars and at the height of the transatlantic slave trade. | Manx National Heritage: Nautical Museum, Yn Thie Tashtee Lhuingey | 1 passed |
| 52 | The Quayle family’s papers, thousands of documents, are in the Manx Museum. | Manx National Heritage: George Quayle and his Legacy, Statement of Significance (2021) | 1 passed |
| 53 | They even record the colours of his phaeton carriage and his favourite inn in London. | Manx National Heritage: George Quayle and his Legacy, Statement of Significance (2021) | 1 passed |
| 54 | His hat from the Manx Fencibles, worn as a captain, survives. | Manx National Heritage: George Quayle and his Legacy, Statement of Significance (2021) | 1 passed |
| 55 | She was built locally in 1789, together with her own dock and boathouse. | Manx National Heritage: George Quayle and his Legacy, Statement of Significance (2021) | 1 passed |
| 56 | National Historic Ships UK names her builder as T. Kelly of Castletown. | National Historic Ships UK: Peggy, register number 1125 | 1 passed |
| 57 | She was one of three similar boats built for the Quayle family between 1789 and 1793. | National Historic Ships UK: Peggy, register number 1125 | 1 passed |
| 58 | Two were named Peggy, one called the ‘new Peggy’, and the third was Neptune, which is why it was unclear which one survives. | National Historic Ships UK: Peggy, register number 1125 | 1 passed |
| 59 | In 1967 Dr Basil Greenhill, then Director of the National Maritime Museum, concluded that the surviving Peggy was the one built in 1791. | National Historic Ships UK: Peggy, register number 1125 | 1 passed |
| 60 | The land beside Bridge House was bought specially for running a sailing boat, and the boathouse and private dock were built to suit the Peggy. | Manx National Heritage: The Nautical Museum, a transformational new visitor experience (FAQs, September 2024) | 2 passed |
| 61 | In 1796 she went to a regatta on Lake Windermere and raced there. | National Historic Ships UK: Peggy, register number 1125 | 1 passed |
| 62 | To reach the lake she was taken overland from below Ulverston to Newby Bridge. | Manx National Heritage: George Quayle and his Legacy, Statement of Significance (2021) | 1 passed |
| 63 | She may have raced against the yacht Margaret, now shown at Windermere Jetty. | National Historic Ships UK: Peggy, register number 1125 | 1 passed |
| 64 | Quayle wrote that her long bowsprit and sliding keels had already caused a ‘scisme’, a split, among the lake’s freshwater sailors. | Castletown website: Nautical Museum, the Peggy | 2 passed |
| 65 | He added that Captain Heywood’s boat was the second best on the lake, and modesty stopped him saying which was first. | Castletown website: Nautical Museum, the Peggy | 1 passed |
| 66 | Coming home in very rough weather, with tide and gale against him, he thought about running for Liverpool or Wales. | Castletown website: Nautical Museum, the Peggy | 1 passed |
| 67 | Instead they put down the sliding keels, which let them keep going and reach Castletown Bay. | Castletown website: Nautical Museum, the Peggy | 2 passed |
| 68 | He wrote that without the quarter cloths they would have gone to Davy Jones’s locker, and without the sliding keels they could not have carried enough sail. | Castletown website: Nautical Museum, the Peggy | 1 passed |
| 69 | She also went to Liverpool on family business, sometimes with passengers and cargo, once carrying a phaeton. | National Historic Ships UK: Peggy, register number 1125 | 1 passed |
| 70 | National Historic Ships UK says she even smuggled French brandy. | National Historic Ships UK: Peggy, register number 1125 | 1 passed |
| 71 | But it doubts how much cargo she could carry: the gear for three sliding keels would leave little room. | National Historic Ships UK: Peggy, register number 1125 | 1 passed |
| 72 | Early on she was heavily altered: a new strake and gunwale raised her sides, the six oar ports were plugged and the thwarts moved higher. | National Historic Ships UK: Peggy, register number 1125 | 1 passed |
| 73 | National Historic Ships UK dates those alterations to 1802. | National Historic Ships UK: Peggy, register number 1125 | 1 passed |
| 74 | Her transom was raised too, yet the letters PEGGY still show on the old paint, matching the earlier, shallower transom. | National Historic Ships UK: Peggy, register number 1125 | 1 passed |
| 75 | The changes turned a light, fast rowing boat into a heavier sailing one. | National Historic Ships UK: Peggy, register number 1125 | 1 passed |
| 76 | The extra strake spoiled her looks a little but probably made her more seaworthy. | National Historic Ships UK: Peggy, register number 1125 | 1 passed |
| 77 | Manx National Heritage’s 2021 statement says she was laid up in her boathouse around 1810 to 1815. | Manx National Heritage: George Quayle and his Legacy, Statement of Significance (2021) | 1 passed |
| 78 | National Historic Ships UK’s key dates say that when Quayle died in 1835 she was of little interest to the family and was hauled up into her cellar. | National Historic Ships UK: Peggy, register number 1125 | 1 passed |
| 79 | The same list says she was walled in with solid masonry in 1851 and forgotten. | National Historic Ships UK: Peggy, register number 1125 | 1 passed |
| 80 | At some point the opening she used to reach the harbour was walled up and the ground filled in, cutting her off from the sea. | Castletown website: Nautical Museum, the Peggy | 1 passed |
| 81 | The conservation facility page says she spent over 200 years in her original boathouse. | Manx National Heritage: The Peggy Conservation Facility, Ynnyd Freayltys y Phaaie | 1 passed |
| 82 | She was found in 1935 in a walled-up cellar in Castletown, where she had lain for more than 150 years. | National Historic Ships UK: Peggy, register number 1125 | 2 passed |
| 83 | The key dates on the same page put her rediscovery in 1941, ‘still with cargo on deck which included French brandy’. | National Historic Ships UK: Peggy, register number 1125 | 1 passed |
| 84 | Naval architect P.J. Oke surveyed her and drew her plans for the Society for Nautical Research. | National Historic Ships UK: Peggy, register number 1125 | 1 passed |
| 85 | Her plans and photographs were shown at the Science Museum in South Kensington. | Castletown website: Nautical Museum, the Peggy | 1 passed |
| 86 | When Bridge House was sold in 1941, the Peggy and her boathouse were given to the Manx Museum. | National Historic Ships UK: Peggy, register number 1125 | 1 passed |
| 87 | Manx National Heritage’s 2021 statement says the boathouse and the Peggy were bequeathed to the Manx nation in June 1942. | Manx National Heritage: George Quayle and his Legacy, Statement of Significance (2021) | 1 passed |
| 88 | Only her keel, stern post and two planks, damaged where she lay on her starboard side, needed replacing. | Castletown website: Nautical Museum, the Peggy | 1 passed |
| 89 | The repairs could not start until 1950. | Castletown website: Nautical Museum, the Peggy | 1 passed |
| 90 | National Historic Ships UK puts that repair in the late 1940s, by local craftsmen. | National Historic Ships UK: Peggy, register number 1125 | 1 passed |
| 91 | The Nautical Museum opened to the public in 1951, with the Peggy in a support cradle. | National Historic Ships UK: Peggy, register number 1125 | 1 passed |
| 92 | The museum has a scale model of the Peggy made by John Gawne of Fistard in 1949. | Manx National Heritage: Conservation of the Peggy | 1 passed |
| 93 | The museum is Quayle’s 18th-century private dock and boathouse, overlooking Castletown harbour. | Manx National Heritage: Nautical Museum, Yn Thie Tashtee Lhuingey | 1 passed |
| 94 | For more than 200 years it was home to the Peggy. | Manx National Heritage: Nautical Museum, Yn Thie Tashtee Lhuingey | 1 passed |
| 95 | The Quayle Gallery shows finds from the excavations, including a leather pistol holster, coconut-shell drinking cups and what is thought to be an 18th-century microscope. | Manx National Heritage: Nautical Museum, Yn Thie Tashtee Lhuingey | 1 passed |
| 96 | You can sit in a room made like the cabin of a naval warship, with secret doors and panels. | Manx National Heritage: Nautical Museum, Yn Thie Tashtee Lhuingey | 1 passed |
| 97 | Upstairs is a sailmaker’s loft with the tools of the trade. | Manx National Heritage: Nautical Museum, Yn Thie Tashtee Lhuingey | 1 passed |
| 98 | Manx National Heritage calls the boathouse eccentric: it still puzzles architectural historians. | Manx National Heritage: Conservation of the Peggy | 2 passed |
| 99 | Excavations found the dock built for her and the remains of a complex dock gate. | Manx National Heritage: George Quayle and his Legacy, Statement of Significance (2021) | 1 passed |
| 100 | Manx National Heritage says the dock parallels canal and dock engineering in the UK but comes before much of it. | Manx National Heritage: George Quayle and his Legacy, Statement of Significance (2021) | 1 passed |
| 101 | Conserving the Peggy is the largest project Manx National Heritage has ever taken on. | Manx National Heritage: Conservation of the Peggy | 1 passed |
| 102 | Work began in 2009 because of rising high tides in Castletown and signs of decay. | Manx National Heritage: George Quayle and his Legacy, Statement of Significance (2021) | 1 passed |
| 103 | In 2013 a new steel cradle was made using a 3D laser survey of the hull. | Manx National Heritage: Conservation of the Peggy | 1 passed |
| 104 | In 2014 archaeologists dug out the way for her removal and found her original dock. | Manx National Heritage: Conservation of the Peggy | 1 passed |
| 105 | In January 2015 she was lifted and taken to a dedicated conservation facility. | Manx National Heritage: Conservation of the Peggy | 1 passed |
| 106 | She was moved to protect her from decay caused by high humidity and from tidal flooding. | Manx National Heritage: The Nautical Museum, a transformational new visitor experience (FAQs, September 2024) | 1 passed |
| 107 | In the facility the humidity was slowly lowered to 55%, bringing her timbers to 14% moisture. | Manx National Heritage: The Nautical Museum, a transformational new visitor experience (FAQs, September 2024) | 1 passed |
| 108 | Since 2015 her timbers, fixings, paint and rig have been surveyed and analysed. | Manx National Heritage: The Nautical Museum, a transformational new visitor experience (FAQs, September 2024) | 1 passed |
| 109 | Behind-the-scenes tours of the facility run at Cooil Smithy on the Isle of Man Business Park. | Manx National Heritage: Nautical Museum, Yn Thie Tashtee Lhuingey | 1 passed |
| 110 | Manx National Heritage is committed to bringing her back to Castletown, at the heart of a rebuilt Nautical Museum. | Manx National Heritage: The Nautical Museum, a transformational new visitor experience (FAQs, September 2024) | 1 passed |
| 111 | The plans include a new boat hall where she would be shown fully rigged. | Manx National Heritage: The Nautical Museum, a transformational new visitor experience (FAQs, September 2024) | 2 passed |
| 112 | In September 2025 the plans were put on hold after a funding bid failed. | Manx.News: Peggy plans on pause (10 September 2025) | 1 passed |
| 113 | Isle of Man Today reported that only a third of the money needed had been raised. | Isle of Man Today: Manx National Heritage committed to Nautical Museum revamp despite funding issues (11 September 2025) | 1 passed |
| 114 | The Enterprise Minister said Manx National Heritage remained fully committed, subject to funding. | Isle of Man Today: Manx National Heritage committed to Nautical Museum revamp despite funding issues (11 September 2025) | 2 passed |
| 115 | The Nautical Museum is on Bridge Street, Castletown, IM9 1AX. | Manx National Heritage: Nautical Museum, Yn Thie Tashtee Lhuingey | 1 passed |
| 116 | It is visited as part of the Castletown Heritage Tour. | Manx National Heritage: Nautical Museum, Yn Thie Tashtee Lhuingey | 1 passed |
| 117 | When we checked in November 2026, the museum page said it reopens in March 2027. | Manx National Heritage: Nautical Museum, Yn Thie Tashtee Lhuingey | 1 passed |
| 118 | The facility page said its tours start again in March 2027. | Manx National Heritage: The Peggy Conservation Facility, Ynnyd Freayltys y Phaaie | 1 passed |
| 119 | Castletown has a stop on the Isle of Man Steam Railway, and several bus routes. | Manx National Heritage: Nautical Museum, Yn Thie Tashtee Lhuingey | 1 passed |