Working in wood
William “Admiral” Wyatt worked as a shipwright and boatbuilder beside West Mersea Hard. Alongside repairs to yachts and fishing smacks, he built the small shallow-draught punts used by local wildfowlers. His 1919 wooden punt survives at Mersea Museum with its original gun, a rare surviving example of this specialised local craft.
A trade passed on
Wyatt’s yard became part of the training ground for later shipwrights. John Milgate, for example, learned his trade with William Wyatt before moving on to other boatbuilding work and traditional-vessel restoration.
The barge UNITY
UNITY was an Ipswich-built sailing barge of 1885, later stripped of her rig and used as a timber lighter at Heybridge. Shortly after the Second World War Wyatt bought her for £25, but she ended up at Sampsons Creek. With Wyatt’s permission, John Milgate rescued her wheel. It passed through the Wivenhoe boatyard of Guy Harding before Martin Wade restored it; the wheel has been used in Mersea Museum displays. The wheel’s rescue is documented separately from the fate of the abandoned hull.
“Admiral” Bill Wyatt
“Admiral” Bill Wyatt appears in photographs of West Mersea’s Sailing and Social Club, including celebrations of his birthdays in the 1950s. The familiar nickname belonged to a working shipwright closely associated with Coast Road, the Hard and the club, rather than indicating a naval rank.
Inside a surviving 1919 punt
Wyatt’s 1919 duck punt, preserved at Mersea Museum, was built of timber planking with a flat bottom and about a three-foot beam. Its narrow hull and grooved bow were arranged to carry a punt gun; the little transom sits above the waterline.
John Milgate later measured and studied this surviving boat when developing his lighter plywood design for sailing and rowing on the Mersea creeks.
Small Boats — Wyatt punt and Milgate design ↗