A fundraising effort has begun to support the owners of the African Queen, which was gutted by a fire this week.
The boat, first built in 1946, was struck by fire late on Monday March 10 and blazed until the early hours of Tuesday morning.
Now the fire has been put out, the thoughts of the community turn to the boat’s owners, Hilary and Alan Hemsley, who have lost both their home and their livelihood in one terrible night.
Many people who know the couple have expressed a desire to help them, and Harbour Master Rob Giles has offered for the harbour authority to handle all donations through a special account.
“We all want to help so we have set up a special bank account for people to pay donations into,” said Capt Giles. “It’s the least we can do as an authority to help Alan and Hilary, who are very well regarded on the river. We hope that it helps to make a difficult situation a little easier.”
If you would like to donate, you can send cheques, made payable to ‘DHNA African Queen Fund’, to the Dart Harbour Offices, 6 Oxford Street, Dartmouth, TQ6 9AL.
Photo: courtesy of The View from The Dartmouth Office
