Epitaph boat in the Essex marshes (11 photos)

Near the picturesque town of Leigh-on-Sea in Essex, England, among broken masts and steering wheels, rests an unusual boat.





Its sides are covered with words - epitaphs for vanished species, people, crafts and even urban legends. This is the "Souvenir", which has become a man-made monument to everything that time has swallowed up.

A boat that became a museum of loss



In 2014, the Critical Art Ensemble group interviewed local residents - fishermen, old-timers, those whose lives are inextricably linked to the sea. They collected stories about all kinds of extinct species, from ancient dialects to forgotten trades, to carve them on the sides of an old fishing boat, "Souvenir", built in 1935.





And so began her second life. The boat became an art installation dedicated to everything at once, from witch trials to rusty carts and chip bags thrown into the sea.



You can get to the "Souvenir" along the path through the reserve. Once its mast stood proudly above the marshes, but now it is broken by fierce winds, and the hull is gradually swallowed by the silt.



At low tide you can approach the boat, but one side is already inaccessible - the shifting marshes suck in everything that dares to step into them. The tide turns this place into a mirror-like surface, where the cries of seagulls and the distant roar of the ship's engines echo.

Disappearing Words



On the sides of the Souvenir, poetic lines were once carved - epitaphs for the disappeared:

The estuary is indifferent to us and to everything that happens within its borders.



But over the course of eight years, the tides and mud washed away the inscriptions. Boards with the names of missing fishermen, forgotten shops, and even references to legends (like Richard Parker, the one from Life of Pi) are now broken and scattered around the boat. Some fragments have been washed away by the sea, others have become bridges for desperate explorers.

The Last Days of the Souvenir



Over the years, the boat has become a ghostly hulk. Its words have jumbled, its wood has crumbled, but it still reminds the world that memories are as fragile as boards eaten away by salt water, stories fade if not told, and nature will eventually take its toll.



"Souvenir" will soon disappear completely, but for now it is still here - the last witness of legends, lost between the past and eternity.