[1] Blue Mermaid is 87 feet (27 m) long and has a hold that can carry 84 pallettes or 150 short tons (140 t) of loose cargo.

[2][3] Blue Mermaid was built at Toms shipyard in Polruan, near Fowey in Cornwall, and launched from there as a bare hull on 28 May 2016.

Richard Titchener with his partner Hilary Halajko, runs both the barge and Sea Change Sailing Trust.

[citation needed] Blue Mermaid was one of seven Thames barges built between 1925 and 1930 for F W Horlock, Mistley.

Six of these 'seven sisters' are still afloat: Blue Mermaid was lost to a mine in World War II.