The Shellbend is a wooden

folding boat A folding boat is usually a smaller boat, typically ranging from about 2 to nearly . Folding boats can be carried by one or two persons, and comfortably fit into a car trunk when packed. They come in several varieties. There are folding kaya ...

, designed in the late 19th century by the

Liverpool Liverpool is a port City status in the United Kingdom, city and metropolitan borough in Merseyside, England. It is situated on the eastern side of the River Mersey, Mersey Estuary, near the Irish Sea, north-west of London. With a population ...

architect and civil engineer Mellard Treleaven Reade. It is constructed out of

mahogany Mahogany is a straight- grained, reddish-brown timber of three tropical hardwood species of the genus ''Swietenia'', indigenous to the AmericasBridgewater, Samuel (2012). ''A Natural History of Belize: Inside the Maya Forest''. Austin: Universit ...

panels, which fold using

canvas Canvas is an extremely durable Plain weave, plain-woven Cloth, fabric used for making sails, tents, Tent#Marquees and larger tents, marquees, backpacks, Shelter (building), shelters, as a Support (art), support for oil painting and for other ite ...

hinges to a fifth of the boat's original size. The intent was to create a lightweight collapsible boat, lighter than a solid-hull boat, to be used as a

ship's tender A ship's tender, usually referred to as a tender, is a boat or ship used to service or support other boats or ships. This is generally done by transporting people or supplies to and from shore or another ship. A second and distinctly different ...

.Merseyside Maritime Museum: Shellbend folding boat, c1900
/ref> Treleaven Reade's company, the Shellbend Folding Boat Company of Liverpool, offered the Shellbend from the late 1890s, though most of the boats were actually built by W. Roberts and Co. of

Chester Chester is a cathedral city in Cheshire, England, on the River Dee, Wales, River Dee, close to the England–Wales border. With a built-up area population of 92,760 in 2021, it is the most populous settlement in the borough of Cheshire West an ...

References

Folding boats {{ship-type-stub