The mindsweeper on fire. The mindsweeper project is on hold. In the afternoon of the 15th of September a fire broke out in the generator area. A third of the boat is destroyed. You can find rough material documenting the project in the Deptford.TV database.

HMS Ledsham was built in Poole for the Royal Navy after World War II (completed in 1954) and did service on the Suez Canal. It is entirely wooden and is an excellent and rare surviving example of triple-carvel construction shipbuilding.

She was subsequently decommissioned, passed around; lost its bridge and upper structure in a storm; was stripped of most of its remaining fittings – wiring, plumbing and copper sheath – and abandoned on the Greenwich Reach of the Thames, where it suffered considerable rain damage (rain in cities is acidic and very bad for wood.)

The vessel was salvaged in 1998 by a group of friends who saw it had possibilities as a venue, and got together to invest their time and money in it. The vessel was renamed The Mindsweeper, and moved to its present location on Deptford Creek

The front deck was plied over – to prevent further rain damage – and the main upper-deck/venue-space was constructed of steel and glass and roofed over.

The rear deck was temporarily roofed over, but suffered further damage during a fire in September 2007. In 2008, The Mindsweeper was accepted onto the Registry of Historic Ships as a vessel of historical significance to the nation.

check out the mindsweeper blog, tymon dogg’s movie & his blog