intheboatshed.net

An oar, and a fine example of Australian bush carpentry, says Jeff Cole

Jeff Cole sails an Iain Oughtred MacGregor canoe and occasionally sends us photos from his wonderful and growing collection of yachting photos from the 19th and early 20th centuries. What’s less obvious is that he also has an interesting line in collecting items of old Australian bush carpentry.

Here’s what he says about the oar in the photo above:

‘This is a vernacular creation, bush carpentry at its most basic, an oar that seems old but it’s hard to tell - but very collectible.

‘I found it on the woodheap at a Mallee (sandy desert without water) clearing sale. The closest water is an irrigation channel, next to the Murray river. It’s six feet long, and made of wood, with iron spikes, some cotton sash cord, a little rubberised canvas, nails and red paint.

‘The roughly shaped triangular “blades” of the oar fixed by iron rod roughly peened over and in some cases using triangular galvanised “roves”. It’s absolutely out of balance, but a prize for my collection nevertheless!

‘Jeff’

Thanks Jeff - now that’ll give all those home boatbuilders something to think about!

For more of Jeff’s contributions, click here.

Victorian postcard taken at Tolverne on the Carrick Roads

The NMMC is offering an opportunity to travel back in time at the end of this month, when local historian Ralph Bird presents a talk at the museum that will take his audience down the River Fal.

Timed to coincide with this year’s Fal River Festival, the talk will start at 6.30pm on Wednesday 28 May, and will look back at how the Fal has changed over the past 100 years, during which it has gone from being predominantly a river of business to the river of pleasure we know today.

Starting in Truro and ending in Falmouth, Bird will reveal places of interest and highlight the different uses to which this once-bustling waterway has been put. He will also discuss some of the many ships that have been laid up in the furthest reaches of the river - there have been as many as 70 war and cargo ships laid up in the Fal’s creeks.

For more information go to the NMMC website.

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Intheboatshed.net as it approaches its 200,000th hit

200,000 seems like a big number for a weblog devoted a such a niche subject. It’s great that we’re reaching lots of people!

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The arrival of Napoleon III at Gênes in 1859, by Théodore Gudin, and details

Apart from Napoleon’s canot, another striking feature in the first room at the Paris Musée de la Marine is this painting of the arrival of Napoleon III at Gênes in 1859, by Théodore Gudin.

Many of the paintings of this era at the Musée seem to have been created to be read like a book - they are crammed with details each requiring the viewer’s attention. Almost every where I pointed my camera I found painterly details that seemed to be worth recording.

I’ll be putting more of these photos from our brief Paris holiday trip up over the next few days and weeks. Often they show interesting boat details, though in this case the interest lies in the individual characters and scenes. For example, the look on that poor bride’s face as Napoleon III steals the limelight on her wedding day is a picture, so to speak. And what about the boy climbing the rudder, and those characters in the water?

I’m not particularly proud to admit that as an Englishman I know little of French history, but I had heard of Napeoleon III - in fact, I lived for a while in Chislehurst, where he spent his final years in exile.

Just yards from my flat were two landmarks associated with him, the Imperial Arms pub named in his memory and a quiet lane called Susan Wood, where legend has it that he installed a mistress of the same name. I later became friendly with a family who lived in the house she was said to have lived in, and often looked at what is said to be a stained-glass portrait of the lady set into their 19th century kitchen door. I should perhaps explain that the family’s three sons are all music and sailing enthusiasts, so we had and still have a lot in common!

To read more about Napoleon III, check his Wikipedia entry. There’s no mention of Susan Wood, sadly.

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