Meriel Larken at the Arts Centre

 

Arts Centre

Swindon

Wednesday 16 May 2012

 

Today, the steamship Yavavri sails on Lake Titicaca. But in 1862, she was taken to bits, shipped to South America, her thousands of parts carried up the Andes, and reassembled 12,500 feet above sea level.

 

For more than a hundred years, she sailed up and down the world’s highest navigable waterways. Then, she was retired and left to rot, ending up a sad hulk on the shores of Lake Titicaca.

 

In 1985, she was found by archaeologist and maritime explorer Meriel Larken, who, against enormous odds, set about restoring this magnificent steamship ship to its former glory.

 

She succeeded! In her newly-published book, The Ship, the Lady, and the Lake, Meriel tells the extraordinary story of the steamship Yavari, from England to Peru, from abandonment and decay to a new life today.

 

Doors: 12.30pm

Tickets: £6, Concessions £5

 

For more information, please contact the Arts Centre via the link below.