intheboatshed.net

‘From the Nore to Dover, 1898′ Yachts unidentified, Photomezzotype, no photo credit. Supplement to the Yachtsman No. 381, August 1898

Once again we have another set of fine old photos kindly sent to us by Jeff Cole, who has just returned from some holiday.

Click on each image for a larger and clearer view.

Left to right: Satanita, Britannia and Meteor. ‘Start of the 1st class yachts’

This appears in a supplement to The Yachtsman, No 481, July 1900 . Photo credited to West & Son, Southsea

Britannia and Bona at Cowes. Published in a supplement to The Yachting World, May 1898. Photo by Kirk, Cowes

‘The Satanita making a record at the new Thames Yacht Race’

Engraving possibly by Ame from a sketch by Barlow More, NTYC. There are 25 men on the weather rail, two on the wheel, one in the spray on the bow, and one in the crosstrees. Note the spectator ferry.

‘Freda winning the Heligoland race’.

There is no information on this Photomezzotype. There’s a very early iron warship in the background that Jeff thinks may be flying the Imperial German Flag. Note tumblehome, pierced for cannon, ships boats in davits slung out, one in the water alongside. Double fighting top. Definitely a transition craft. And is that a spectator ship in background?

Dierdre

There is no other information with this badly foxed pic, but note the crew in natty striped jerseys and white trousers. There is a large yacht astern and a warship behind. It’s hard to see, but the warship may be the type where the gun disapears behind a casing vertically for re-loading, which Jeff says was favoured by the French.

This book from Amazon looks interesting, but I haven’t found anything relevant to these particular photos:
The Camera’s Coast: Historic Images of Ship and Shore; In New England

Dennis Connors’ history of the America’s Cup is available from Amazon:
The America’s Cup: The History of Sailing’s Greatest Competition in the Twentieth Century

For more intheboatshed.net posts of photos, Photomezzotypes  and engravings like these, follow this link:

http://intheboatshed.net/?s=cole

We’re moving house in a few days, and with some serious illness in the family also to contend with I’m not going to be able to maintain the usual range of posts over the next few days - so I thought I’d show you some pages of an extraordinary children’s book I picked up in a charity shop in Somerset recently.

Once again, it offers a glimpse into a very different era that wasn’t so very long ago. I hope you enjoy this material as much as I do.

Steam enthusiasts should look out for illustrations of steam-powered paddle-wheel tugs a little later, and also a smattering of shipyard tank engines.

As always, click on each image for a larger and clearer view.

Normal service will be resumed as soon as possible, I promise!

Gavin gmatkin@gmail.com

Follow this link for more Ships that Saved the Empire!

The paddle steamer Medway Queen’s future is now in doubt because of the way she was built in 1924. Click on the  image for a larger and clearer view

This worrying notice has appeared on the Medway Queen Preservation Society’s website: it seems the society and their gracious old ship may be in some trouble. If anyone out there thinks they can influence events, please do!

20th September 2007
On Monday 17th September Chairman, Vice Chairman and Treasurer of the Society, together with our Technical adviser Wyn Davies and Jonathan Shaw MP met with senior officers of the Heritage Lottery Fund (HLF). At the meeting HLF re-confirmed that they were committed to providing £1.861 million towards re-building ‘Medway Queen’s hull’ and that the reason for the delay in starting was to ensure the conservation issues had been addressed properly before contracts were signed.

As reported at the AGM, HLF’s technical advisers had asked MQPS to go back to the drawing board and seek quotations for a fully riveted hull to the original specifications. 11 shipyards were approached and four - three in the UK, one in Norway, were prepared to tender for the work. We also approached the UK Maritime and Coastguard Agency (MCA) and two classification Societies (Det Norske Veritas and Lloyds) to find out whether it would be possible for a ship built to 1924 standards of construction to eventually obtain a passenger certificate. We were able to report that, rather against initial expectations, it might well be possible to obtain a passenger certificate for a ship build to the 1924 standards, but further investigation revealed that even in 1924 ‘Medway Queen’ did not match the standards. A ship built to the dimensions of ‘Medway Queen’ and to the 1924 Lloyds standards would be around 20% heavier than ‘Medway Queen’ was and, given the very limited deadweight capacity of ‘Medway Queen’ as built, such a ship would be unable to carry passengers. So the only practicable solution to building a hull to match the Lloyds requirements will be to use modern welded construction.

HLF felt that to use modern construction for the hull, with limited use of rivets where they would have been visible on the old hull (generally, in machinery spaces not usually visible to the public) was a sufficiently large departure from our stated intention to re-build the ship using traditional methods wherever practicable, to require their Trustees approval before proceeding further. The relevant Trustees’ meeting is on 5th December, and our next task is to prepare the case for the Trustees approval and to have contracts ready for starting work early in the New Year.

In the process of reviewing the case for riveted construction we have learned much about the pros and cons of traditional steel shipbuilding methods - as indeed have the HLF. ‘Medway Queen’ continues to pioneer new territory in maritime preservation!

The Society are very grateful to Jonathan Shaw MP for taking time out from his ministerial duties to participate in this riveting discussions with the HLF.