This motorboat is one of the few in the collection to have no name, so is known by the date it was built. It is thought to have been made in the eastern USA around 1898 but the maker has never been identified.

It is claimed the boat was exhibited at the Paris World Fair in 1900; which celebrated international achievements of science, engineering and industry. The motorboat was brought to Windermere soon after the exhibition and was bought by a Mr Tomlinson in 1903 whose family used the boat for leisure purposes.

The motorboat was found by George Pattinson in 1955 lying in a compost heap at the end of a garden in Windermere. Fortunately the engine had been removed from the vessel and kept safe and dry in a shed.

The boat has a vertical bow and counter stern. The early form of internal combustion engine is particularly interesting and appears to have been converted from a two stroke into a four stroke. A variable pitch propeller enables the boat to be reversed, this is worked by hand from a mechanism on the shaft which pulls the blades over gear wheels to alter the pitch for forward or astern.

The interior lining in this boat is original, this will be carefully stripped back in order to thoroughly inspect the hull, and then re-painted and the interior re-varnished. Now restored, the 1898 motorboat is featured in the main exhibition space at the museum.