History of Mischief

The original “Mischief” was a 45ft Pilot Cutter built by Thomas Baker at Cardiff in 1906 for William “Billy the Mischief” Morgan, who once sailed her into Ilfracombe harbour in such appalling weather, that he and his boat earned great respect from the local pilots for a first class piece of seamanship.

After her working life of fifteen years, she was sold out of service, and had various owners until she ended up in Malta, where in 1954 she was bought by the legendary explorer and mountaineer Bill Tilman. This inveterate adventurer then sailed her a hundred and ten thousand miles from the Antarctic to the Arctic, including Patagonia, Greenland, South Georgia and Heard Island in search of mountains to climb.

Tilman wrote six books detailing his expeditions with Mischief. She was a very able boat, and looked after her crew exceptionally well until a sad day in 1968, when she hit a rock and was then crushed by ice, sinking off Jan Mayen Island in the Arctic Ocean.

Tilman records the loss of Mischief thus:

“For me it was the loss of more than a yacht. I felt like one who had first betrayed and then deserted a stricken friend; a friend with whom for the past fourteen years I had spent more time at sea than on land, and who, when not at sea, had seldom been out of my thoughts. Moreover, I could not but think that by my mistakes and by the failure of one of those who where there to serve her we had broken faith; that the disaster or sequence of disasters need not have happened; and that more might have been done to save her. I shall never forget her.”

Bill Tilman owned two more Pilot Cutters, “Sea Breeze”, and “Baroque” which still survives today, but “Mischief” was always his favourite boat.

With thanks to Roger Robinson and Paul Ripard Snr. (Malta) for the Mischief images.