AUTO DE FE HH12

AUTO DE FE was built for J Good, Kings Head St, Harwich by John Vaux. Auto Da Fe (Act of Faith) was built for the very well known fishing Good family who owned and worked her up until 1953, nearly 70 years. Being Harwich built, owned and worked makes her very rare but it doesn’t stop there. Built to go long lining, trawling ,dredging and shrimp trawling, her rig layout was an exception from other remaining Bawley's with a fore and aft with mizzen and boom. Her tiller was a wrought iron tiller cranked to accommodate the mizzen mast which was stepped on the aft deck.

Known as the fastest Bawley of her time, winner of many regattas, she could well be the oldest surviving Harwich workboat. Built at a yard that had a long Heritage in schooners that were built to travel across the seas of the world, these ships were used in the spice trade to Bombay and even further to New Zealand so it is intriguing whether these builders brought elements to their domestic working vessels that we don’t see at other yards. John Henry Vaux was a very influential member of Harwich Victorian society being an Alderman and Mayor no less than six times before his relative early death in 1894 age 54.