14/08/2026
🚢 The Pearl of the Dane, Congleton in England. Moored at the riverside, this abandoned floating restaurant closed around 25 years ago. The tides of misfortune have now turned, and she is currently under renovation!
The vessel began life as a 1970s Danish deep-sea fishing trawler, its oak hull measuring 60 feet long. In the mid-1990s, a businessman purchased the boat. It travelled from its mooring in Wales via sea, river, canal, and road with a police es**rt.
It was refitted to resemble a 1920s Mississippi River steamboat; adding a paddle-wheel housing and a tall funnel completed the transformation.
The 80-seater restaurant served seafood, shark, crocodile tail, and ostrich stew. Turnover hit £200,000 in the first year, but its popularity was short-lived. Only 18 months later, the restaurant closed its doors.
