A floating cafe that sank in Bristol Harbourside in 2021, has reopened.
The Greenshank spent three weeks at the bottom of the docks before being salvaged with help from specialist divers.
The vessel, a former Dutch coal barge, then spent 18 months in the Albion Dockyard being refitted.
"It's just so fantastic now to see it up here and people on it," said Luke Dunstan, director of owners Bristol Packet.
The cafe is one of the firm's fleet of six boats and had been in operation near the SS Great Britain since 2017.
The vessel sank on 15 June 2021 after a mains water valve burst and the boat started filling up with water.
"It was pretty devastating to wake up in the morning and have the policeman tell you, your boat's on the bottom," said Mr Dunstan.
"We were in a terrible mess. The good thing was, the boat wasn't destroyed, it was only on the bottom, in the wrong place.
"We were able to save it and that kept us going throughout the terrible times."
The boat has a proud history as it was constructed by the Irish shipbuilding company, Harland and Wolff, which also built the Titanic.
She originally worked alongside the Redshank on inland waterway systems carrying timber, coal, aggregates and Rose's lime juice.
Local boat builders, painters, electricians and carpenters have now lovingly helped restore it to be "shipshape and Bristol fashion".
"We completely refurbished the boat after it had been through its trauma. We scrubbed it down, cleaned it, painted it, rebuilt it and brought it completely back to life to where it is now," said Paul, from Albion Dockyard.
Most of the original hardwood teak of the fittings survived and has been re-varnished.
Remarkably it had been salvaged before from a merchant ship sunk in the Irish sea during the First World War.
A second boat, tethered to the Greenshank, also sank before being salvaged during the operation in 2021.
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June 23, 2023 at 10:49PM
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