Fire-float Pyronaut
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Pyronaut approaching her berth at M Shed.
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| History | |
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 United Kingdom
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| Builder: | Charles Hill & Sons Ltd |
| Launched: | 1934 |
| Christened: | Phoenix II |
| Decommissioned: | 1970s |
| In service: | 1934 |
| Out of service: | 1973 |
| Renamed: | 1938 |
| Homeport: | Bristol |
| Status: | Museum ship in Bristol Harbour |
| General characteristics | |
| Tonnage: |
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| Length: | 55 ft (17 m) |
| Beam: | 13 ft (4.0 m) |
| Draught: | 3 ft (0.91 m) |
Pyronaut (originally Bristol Phoenix II) 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 (41 kW) each. Two Merryweather & Sons three-cylinder reciprocating pumps capable of delivering 500 imperial gallons (2,300 l; 600 US gal) of water per minute.
This equipment was replaced in 1968 by two Ruston & Hornsby 6YDM six-cylinder diesel engines rated at 90 bhp (67 kW) each, driving screw propellers from the front power-take-off, and Coventry Climax centrifugal pumps capable of delivering 1,000 imperial gallons (4,500 l; 1,200 US gal) of water per minute from the main drive.
When ships loaded with valuable cargoes are berthed together in crowded docks surrounded by warehouses, a fire can be disastrous. Although land-based fire-engines are able to reach much of the fire ground, waterborne fire-engines, or fire-floats, can fight the fire from the water (outside the UK fire-floats are commonly known as fireboats).
The first recorded fire-float was built in 1765 for the Sun Fire Insurance Company in London. This was a manual pump in a small boat, rowed by its crew to the scene of the fire. A similar craft was built in Bristol by James Hilhouse for the Imperial Fire Insurance Office in the 1780s. All fire fighting in Bristol was carried out either by private insurance companies or the Docks Company until the formation of the Bristol Fire Brigade as a branch of the police in 1876.
By the middle of the nineteenth century, self-propelled steam-fire-floats were beginning to be introduced. The first to appear in Bristol was the Fire Queen, built by Shand Mason & Co., London, in 1884 for service in Bristol City Docks. The 53-foot (16 m) long craft was equipped with a three-cylinder steam-pump supplying two large hose reels; one of these was replaced with a monitor, or water-cannon, in 1900. Fire Queen served until 1922.
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