Who's carrying the can?

A young Audrey Williams with her bike and her trusty Bucky can. Picture: LIFE MAGAZINE

HAVE you seen this bucket?

Otherwise known as a "Buckby can", these brightly painted pails were used as water buckets, wash basins and for a variety of other uses on board British canal boats.

Now the hunt is on to find the Buckby can once owned by Hobart resident Audrey Williams.

Mrs Williams used to be a river boat steerer during World War II, ferrying supplies to and from British factories at a time when most able-bodied men were away fighting.

She now lives in Hobart but prior to moving in to the Vaucluse Gardens retirement village in 2000 she held a garage sale and one of the items sold was her Buckby can.

The 91-year-old is the subject of an upcoming book by British writer Tim Coghlan and he hopes to find and buy the can so it can be placed in a museum.

The can and dipper (similar to a ladle) were sold at a garage sale in Lachlan Drive, Mt Nelson, in 2000 to an unknown woman.