1. The aim is to professionally restore the Fly-Boats SATURN and SYMBOL to their original working condition, and to generate continued income and interest to ensure their survival in good condition for the foreseeable future.

2. The intention is that they will be reconstructed to the exact measurements, using elm, oak or similar materials and techniques as the original, re-using as much as possible of the original iron work and timber, with the addition of modem preservative techniques where these are felt to prolong the life of the craft without substantially altering the construction methods used at the original time of building.

3. It is an accepted principle that the best way to ensure a high standard of maintenance, as well as fulfilling some of the society’s subsidiary aims is to work the boat as often as is found practical and possible, with a load with its original motive power a horse; thus preserving and demonstrating some of the techniques of horse-drawn boat working practice.

In addition to these main objectives, the group plan that the restoration work will also achieve:

A. The accurate recording and documentation of the construction and restoration of a Shropshire Union Fly-Boat

B. The creation of an archive for the records of Shropshire Union fly-boats, both construction and operation, including the history and techniques of the men and horses who worked them.

C. A public display of the boat restoration in progress. The rebuilding work is expected to take two to three years and will be used as a working exhibition about the craft of boatbuilding. It thus has great potential as an educational and tourist attraction.

D. Upon completion and launch, it is intended that SATURN will be on public display in the Border Counties Waterways area of British Waterways and also visit other parts of the waterway system, promoting and publicising the campaign for the preservation of Britain’s waterways. She will be a regular visitor and exhibit at the canal museums and events throughout the system, with particular emphasis on The Boat Museum at Ellesmere Port, the original hub of the Shropshire Union Fly-boat services.

E. The creation of the complete historic unit of boat crew, horse and cargo moving through the canal and its architecture explains the complex inter-relationship far better than each of these items independently displayed. It becomes a complete mobile canal museum, directly explaining first principals of the collaboration between man and natural forces. By tackling and demonstrating the fundamentals of water transport. the reasons for the development of navigable waterways architecturally, socially and economically can be more easily understood and its survival may be more sympathetically secured.