Failure to raise sunken boat

THE Environment Agency is to resort to divers to help its staff raise the narrowboat that sunk in the Thames at Oxford when two broke loose from their moorings.

They failed to raise it yesterday using pumps and had to leave it where it was blocking the river, but today they intend to use divers who should be able to fasten flotation bags under the sunken narrowboat, Alan Tilbury tells us.

Attempt to fix bags

A spokesman for the Agency told that they divers would be brought in this afternoon (Wednesday) and attempt to fix the flotation bags on the boat that sank on Monday.

However if this also fails, a crane will have to be brought in, though this in itself causes problems with access.

The boat, The Old Peculier is the home of John Simmonds, who put his savings into purchasing the boat as a liveaboard, and tells he has quite literally seen his life sink to the bottom of the Thames and doesn't know where to go from here, left only with the clothes he is wearing.

His home they were staring at

He told he left his boat on Monday to go shopping and when he returned all he saw was flashing blue lights and a crowd on the bridge, realising it was his home they were staring at that had come adrift from its moorings and crashed with another narrowboat into Botley Bridge over the river.