Churchill’s funeral barge on Sotheby’s
In near future auction house Sotheby’s will auction an interesting and quite unusual lot. The London Sotheby’s sales on December 15 will feature the barge that bore the body of British World War Two leader Winston Churchill down the River Thames during his state funeral forty years ago.
On January 30, 1965 «Havengore», 87 feet long and 17 feet wide, carried Churchill's flag-draped coffin past dock cranes with their jibs lowered in mute tribute to the nation's hero. The unique barge is estimated to fetch over one million pounds.
«Havengore», commissioned in 1954 and launched two years later, had a dual life as a working survey boat in the Thames estuary and a ceremonial transport craft carrying royalty and overseas visitors. Decommissioned in 1995 and completely restored, the barge now works only on ceremonial occasions – most recently leading a flotilla of small ships down the Thames in tribute to naval hero Horatio Nelson in September.
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