Almost a century after her mother launched the last wooden sailing ship to be built in the Tamar Valley, a Calstock woman was finally able to welcome the old vessel back home.

Dozens of people turned out to watch a short formal ceremony to recommission the Tamar ketch Garlandstone as a visitor attraction at Morwellham Quay. Among them was 77-year-old Joan Birch.

In 1909, her mother, Olive, launched the Garlandstone, which was built by Mrs Birch's grandfather, the celebrated local shipbuilder James Goss, on the Devon river bank opposite Calstock.

Garlandstone would go on to complete a half century of toil around the coasts of the British Isles before facing an ignominious fate on a Welsh beach.

But local enthusiasts towed her to Porthmadog to begin a restoration and after extensive negotiations with the National Museums and Galleries of Wales, which had acquired the vessel, she was towed to Morwellham and painstakingly restored by the trust during the last 12 years.

At the ceremony the Welsh museums authority formally handed over the ownership of the vessel to Morwellham Quay in recognition of the fine restoration they had accomplished.

The first time Mrs Birch saw the Garlandstone was in 1987 when the hulk was fetched from Porthmadog.

'It is wonderful to see this boat restored,' she said. 'When they towed it up the river in 1987 it was a bit of a wreck, but it looks brilliant now. My mother and grandfather would have been very pleased to see it as it is now.'

Mrs Birch lives in Calstock, but James was a Devon man who came from Barnstaple and lived in Gunnislake. He and his wife Ellen had four daughters and three sons and several of their descendants were at the ceremony, including two other grand-daughters — Phyllis Paige, almost 90, and Mary Rooke, 66 — her father did his apprenticeship on the Garlandstone.

Gary Emerson, the former director of Morwellham Quay who retired recently due to ill-health, was one of the driving forces behind the restoration.

'It's been a long haul, but I'm absolutely delighted to see her completed and so well looked after,' he said. 'Tremendous skill has gone into the restoration work. The trust has been very fortunate having Tommi Nielson and his company, probably the best in the world, and Alan Williams, a brilliant shipwright.'

Mr Emerson also paid tribute to Morwellham's engineering director Bob Le Marchant and the national heritage lottery fund, which enabled the restoration to be completed.

New director Peter Kenwright was delighted at the confidence shown by the museum in entrusting the vessel to Morwellham, where it was available for study by serious students of maritime history as well as visitors with an interest in their past.

'We have a full set of archives going right back to the construction of the Garlandstone — it's a unique record of a vessel's history,' he said.

Mr Le Marchant said: 'It's nice to see a project that has been running for 12 years come to fruition.'

He said many vessels were taken on as restoration projects, but ended up being abandoned once again as the magnitude and cost of the work overwhelmed enthusiasts.

'We are lucky here in having an ideal site to repair it and we are big enough to generate the necessary funding for the job — but not so big that the hands-on, personal approach was eroded. Everybody here feels personally involved,' he said.

Mr Le Marchant, in his turn praised Gary Emerson.

'He is the hero of the day. During those times when the rest of us had given up he never did. It was his sheer determination not to let it go,' he said.

Mr Le Marchant said the 'hands-on' approach even extended to Garlandstone's visitors.

'There are no "keep off" signs here. Everybody is welcome to look everywhere — including the loo, so long as they don't use it,' he joked.

It is here that the Times can be found fluttering on a small hook — reading matter for the ship's crew on those long voyages round the coast no doubt.

The Garlandstone is now largely restricted to her dock at Morwellham and the river much less a commercial thoroughfare than it was in its hey-day, but tourists are increasingly taking to the water to enjoy the natural and industrial heritage of the Tamar Valley.

The large pleasure steamers from Plymouth have been given clearance to berth at Morwellham and the Tamar Valley passenger ferry is looking to extend its operations to Morwellham as well as Calstock, Cotehele and James Goss' old boatyard at Ferry Farm.

Garlandstone can be viewed at Morwellham alongside the Tamar barge Lynher, also built by James Goss and recently restored.