The Tamar sailing barge 'Shamrock', which lies alongside Cotehele Quay is l00 years old this month.

She made her first voyage to Fowey for Regatta week in August 1899.

To mark the occasion the National Trust is holding a tea party on Cotehele Quay today at 4.30pm, and Shamrock will be the guest of honour at the Plymouth Classic Boat Rally.

At her birthday party the barge, which relies totally on wind power, will be escorted down-river by a tug sponsored by Serco Denholm, Plymouth Yacht Haven, for her only outing this year. On July 31 she will be alongside at Plymouth Yacht Haven and be open to visitors. She will take part in the Rally's sail past, and on Sunday afternoon will be used as the start boat for the Rally's race in Plymouth Sound.

Shamrock is one of the last surviving Tamar sailing barges. She was rescued by the National Trust in l974 and restored with the help of the National Maritime Museum. She was built in l899 for Tom Williams of Torpoint by Frederick Hawke, of Stonehouse, and named after an America's Cup challenger of the day. Shamrock is comparatively small, measuring little more than 57'6" overall, with a beam of l8' and a depth hold of 5'6".

In her working days her regular cargoes up and down the Tamar would have included limestone, sea-sand, dock-dung (sweepings from the streets of Devonport, or Dock as it used to be known, to enrich the soil), coal, timber, grain, copper ore, arsenic and soft fruit (notably cherries and strawberries) and vegetables from the garden parish of St Dominic.