A legend in it's own right, the Spaceboat is one of the longest
operating attractions to have appeared at the park, whilst at the same
time spending less then one season actually at Alton Towers, making it
the park's shortest lived attraction.
It premiered at the park after the start of the 1983, opening in a
previously unused corner of the Ingestre Centre, where the entrance
waterfall for Katanga Canyon sits these days. Due to it's late opening
date it didn't make it onto the 1983 park map and as it was removed at
the end of the season, never seems to have appeared in any of the
park's publicity material.
It was replaced by the Octopus for the 1984 season and is widely
believed to have been the first victim of the park's infamous "tree
height rule", despite the fact it actually received retrospective
planning permission.
These days it is a very well travelled attraction. After setting sale
from the Towers, the Spaceboat weighed anchor at both Dreamland
Margate and Pleasure Island, before making it's way to Loudoun Castle.
Since the start of 2011 the Spaceboat can now be found at Lightwater
Valley as the Black Pearl and will hopefully be thrilling guests for
many more years to come.
