Couta boats racing in the Australian sun

Dale Appleton sent us these photos of some almost absurdly good looking Couta boats racing in the warmth of the Australian summer off Queenscliff, Victoria.

(By the way, let me assure anyone who may be wondering – up here in deepest, darkest rural Kent we’ve been snowed in good and proper for the first time in years.)

He says that the Coutas are now highly sought after as a pleasure and racing boat, and even as a status symbol to some, and adds that there is a traditional builder making them to order. I think that’s seriously good news. See the class website.

Dale also pointed out that there’s a hidden treasure on the Couta Boat Club’s website, by the way. Readers may remember that Pete Goss’s Spirit of Mystery expedition recently had a nasty experience when their recreated Cornish fishing lugger suffered a knockdown as they approached Australia. One crew member on deck at the time broke his leg and their boat lost its clinker-built dinghy made from off-cuts from the Mystery herself.

Well, in an amazing coincidence it seems that dinghy has turned up on a beach at King Island, part way between mainland Australia and Tasmania, and I gather it is being fixed up by local boatbuilder Jeremy Clowes, who sailed with the Mystery crew after she reached King Island – I gather he has replaced the upper planks and various other bits and pieces using parts donated by local wooden boat enthusiasts. As Dale says, it’s a story to warm any boat builder’s heart. See the story here.

Surrounded by unaccustomed ice, I’ve been reflecting on how grateful I am that people like Dale and many others are so willing to send in their photos and stories. Thanks Dale and the rest – your efforts are greatly appreciated, and I hope you know how much you add to the sum of human happiness in the boating world.

The City of Adelaide again. Photo courtesy of Paula Palmer of
the National Historic Ships

Rather late in the day, I’ve just received news of the last chance to save the other’ last clipper, the City of Adelaide from the Australian group trying to preserve her.

There’s more information on the history of the ship and their campaign and appeal here, and also a gut-wrenching open letter to the people of the UK and our political leaders. It seems unthinkable to let a clipper from the middle of the 19th century go now after surviving so long.

This is the message I’ve received:

‘On the 22nd October, the Scottish Maritime Museum issued a tender for the demolition of the City of Adelaide. Tenders close on Monday 23rd November.

‘We are preparing an offer to submit by the deadline on Monday. Our offer will be based on removing the City of Adelaide whole and thus save her from being permanently lost to future generations.

‘We urgently seek your help to raise an additional A$200,000 to enable us to bid a lower price for our tender submission. This will improve our competitiveness against the cheaper chainsaw and bulldozer options.

‘We already have offers of in-kind support from industry for labour and materials that will be needed in Scotland and Australia but we need more industrial in-kind help. If you are in a heavy engineering industry and believe that you could supply labour, steel and/or equipment for use either in Australia or Scotland then we are most keen for you to contact us This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it .

‘At this time we would like to acknowledge the support of the Royal Institution of Naval Architects (London) commemorating their 150th year 1860-2010, and Aztec Analysis (Adelaide) heavy lift engineers.

‘We do need more support. Would you please consider supporting our cause to save the City of Adelaide clipper through a financial contribution?’

In publicising the Australian claim to rescuing the dear old City of Adelaide, I’m in danger of forgetting another aspect of the story – the fact that there are people in Sunderland, where she was built, who would also dearly love to retrieve her and care for her. In fact, one of that illustrious town’s councillors recently camped on board the old ship to draw attention to her plight. See the BBC’s news story here.

The moment of truth

Some time ago Australian surf rower Bill ‘Woofa’ Barnett wrote a manual explaining the facts of life for new sweeps – the people who steer surfboats.

Being a sweep is a highly skilled activity in which experience counts for a lot, and I gather good sweeps continue in the role for many decades.

However, for most boat users, the manual  will be an extraordinary, jaw-dropping document. It’s divided into two main sections covering coping with surf and competing in races. The first section is the one that caught my attention. Here’s a couple of quotes:

‘Going over a big greenie

‘This is spine chilling and the boat will land with a thud on the other side of this wall of water. Your job is to land well balanced, on your feet controlling the sweep oar, so that it does not slam down on the quarter bar or stroke’s head. Calm your crew and get them going again at top speed… Remember you are never safely through surf until you are atleast 100m past the regular break line.’

And:

‘Surf sense

‘Some of the greatest sweeps of all time could not swim, had no original surf sense, broke many boats and nearly killed themselves, many times. They succeeded with pure guts and determination.’

Read more at the Australian Surf Rowers League website: Sweeps Manual

After reading some of this manual, it comes as no surprise that the publishers accept no responsibility for anything that might go wrong when following these instructions. You only have to see a few photos to understand why!

My thanks to Dale for pointing this out!

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These photos are samples from David Thibodeau’s charming Flickr collection of 19th and 20th century photos depicting mainly model boats and children.

He has assembled over 500 images including trade cards, postcards, photos, paintings, drawings, advertisements and pictures from old newspapers, books and magazines, so be warned – you could be in there for some time!

Thomas Patterson’s lovely tumble-home iron hull

The life-size model of the propeller-lifting frame at the SS Great Britain museum; a replica of the original screw (photo by Mike Peel taken from the Wikipedia)

My great pal Jim Van Den Bos recently took a trip to Bristol with his son, and took time out to visit one of the city’s most important historical attractions, and has kindly written us a report. Thanks Jim!

‘One of the joys of having an outboard instead of an inboard motor on a sailing boat is the ability to lift the propeller clear of the water when underway, thus reducing drag… but what about devices fitted to inboard motors to do the same thing?

‘Surprisingly, the first ever big ship fitted with a screw propeller could also do just that: take a bow SS Great Britain.

‘She was also the first ocean-going ship to have an iron hull and, when launched in 1843, was the largest vessel afloat. So large, projects leader and engineer Mr Isambard Kingdom Brunel, that you had to demolish the dry dock walls to get her out. Ooops!

‘On a visit to the excellent SS Great Britain Museum at Bristol Harbour, the visitor begins to realise that this wonderful ship is a monument to innovation as much as invention.

‘Although she was originally conceived as a paddle steamer, IKB hastily changed the design in 1840 to accommodate a screw propeller after seeing the success of the screw on another ship, the Archimedes, when it visited Bristol.

‘The original concept of the SS Great Britain was that she should be a sail-assisted steam ship large enough to carry passengers to New York, along with the coal necessary to steam them there. Her six masts were configured by Thomas Guppy to use the extra assistance of the wind when possible, but by 1852, more efficient steam engined ships were plying the Atlantic Route, and her new owners Gibbs Bright & Co, set about reducing the original six masts to four, and adding larger square-rigged sails for a new passenger route down to Australia.

‘She couldn’t carry enough coal to steam her all the way to Australia, but the steam-powered screw could give her the edge when the wind wasn’t blowing or in the wrong direction – so now instead of being a sail-assisted steamer she became a steam-assisted sailing clipper. In line with her new purpose, in 1857 a huge lifting frame, the height of the hull, was added to enable the propeller to be lifted inboard, so that there was no drag as the canvas aloft carried her along.

‘Inside the SS Great Britain Museum at Bristol, there’s a life-size winch-powered model that enables the visitor to stow the propeller inside the hull.

‘After many years on the England-Australia Route, carrying among many others the first All-England Cricket Team to tour the Antipodes, SS Great Britain’s remit changed again. The engine was completely removed to make more room for cargo, and she became a windjammer, with three extended masts, sailing from Wales to San Francisco and back.

‘The secret of her adaptability has to be her iron hull, designed by Thomas Patterson. But the greatest test for the hull was yet to come: badly damaged off Cape Horn in 1886, she was then anchored off the Falkland Islands and began a new life as a floating warehouse, which continued for the next 47 years.

‘When she became unsafe to use, she was taken out and beached in Sparrow Cove, and left to the mercy of the waves.

‘Amazingly, however, the ship continued to survive – her iron plates were even scavenged to repair the HMS Exeter after the naval cruiser was damaged in the Battle of the River Plate during World War II. Then in 1969 Ewan Corlett began an epic salvage operation that saw the rusted but unbroken hull brought back halfway around the world to Bristol and restored to her former glory in the dry dock where the SS Great Britain was originally built.

‘Fifty years ago most people probably looked at those early Victorian steamers sporting sails and funnels and thought of them as a quaint half–way stop on the road to progress. Today with global warming and sky-high fuel costs, with their hybrid, adaptable approach to design and construction they seem to know more about progress than we do.’

The crew of the Mounts Bay lugger Spirit Mystery
wave as they set sail for Australia – presumably
before the underpants crisis hit home

West Country sailor and adventurer Pete Goss and the crew of Spirit of Mystery have begun their epic voyage to Australia via the Atlantic and Southern Oceans. Taking advantage of a change in the wind, they slipped lines on Monday evening, waved goodbye to the gathered crowd and set sail after a series of strong westerlies, the wind finally swung around to the north west, giving the little wooden lugger a push on the long journey south and into the Bay of Biscay.

Satellite tracking will allow the rest of us to monitor their progress via Pete’s website at http://petegoss.com.

The news today, however, is that their friend and PR guru Stuart Elford has distributed a news release announcing that the sailing heroes left their most of their underpants in a launderette in Newlyn before they commenced their voyage to Australia via Cape Town.

Flying enthusiast Elford had hoped to drop packs of replacement undergarments to the little ship from his private aeroplane, but has apparently been defeated by the strong winds and poor visibility.

‘By the time the weather clears they will be out of range of light aircraft from the UK,’ he said.

In any case, it’s unclear whether it would be right to use modern technology to deliver a large consignment of underpants to the crew. ‘The crew of the original Mystery would not have had this sort of support, so perhaps it is fitting that we didn’t make the air-drop,’ he added.

So there we have it. Captain Goss and fearless crew of commandos are going down under without their underwear. Thank God they’re British!

I only hope the Sheilas of Australia will throng the dockside for the Mystery’s eventual arrival and show their appreciation by slinging a few pairs of Marks & Spencer’s best across to the blushing and only slightly forgetful crew.

Underpants or not and even in poor weather, at this time of year I’m prepared to bet many of intheboatshed.net’s UK-based readers will wish they were also sailing south towards the sun. For their sake, I trust this is the worst thing that goes wrong.

I’ve got a bundle of close-up photos taken when we dropped in at the National Maritime Museum Cornwall to share some time, so look out for that if you’re interested in the Spirit of Mystery.

Follow the link for earlier posts on Pete Goss and the Spirit of Mystery.

Spirit of Mystery in less inclement weather – and presumably
better supplied with underwear

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Pete Goss’s new boat, Spirit of Mystery – click on the photos for a much
larger image. All photos by Mark Lloyd of Lloyd Images

Pete Goss has been putting his new lugger Spirit of Mystery through sea trials, and It seems he’s positively ecstatic about her. ‘She is a thing of beauty; an organic living object that is everything I dreamed of and more,’ he says. ‘She sails well and is safe, fun, simple and kind. I couldn’t be happier.’

I’d say that he could have been describing many traditional style craft, but it’s great news that he’s so pleased with the new Mystery.

The crew including Pete, younger brother Andy; 14-year old son Eliot, and brother-in-law Mark Maidment is to undertake a two-week sea passage to prepare for their epic journey to Australia in October.

See this earlier post on the Spirit of Mystery including more of Mark Lloyd’s great photos.

Jeff Cole’s been busy moving house, and turned up this splendid painting of a junk. Here’s what he said about it:

‘Hi Gavin, my house move(s) are going along, a very exhausting process mate! Here’s a pic that might interest the viewers of your site.

‘My maternal great grandfather was an officer in the British Merchant Marine and had learnt Japanese which he taught to my grandmother. In the early 1920s she taught english to Japanese naval officers training at Portsmouth and some embassy officials. One of those men, Takeo Fukuda, became Foreign Minister and Prime Minister in post war Japan. One day in the 1950s he turned up at my grandparents house in the Australian bush (they had migrated in 1928) with gifts including needlework from his mother and this painting of a junk. The artist’s signature symbol is under the mask. It’s one of the family heirlooms now.’

Inspired by some of my shots of the Swale recently, Jeff also sent over some photos of some local sunsets in his part of Australia.

Pete Goss’s new boat, Spirit of Mystery. All photos by
Mark Lloyd of Lloyd Images

Solo ocean racer Pete Goss’s latest project is to build a lugger to follow in the wake of the Mystery, which sailed from Cornwall to Australia to join the goldrush in 1854.

The Mystery was an open Mounts Bay lugger built in Newlyn. Times were hard and the seven Cornishmen, all related by either blood or marriage and shareholders in the boat, made the decision to try their luck in the goldrush over a pint in Newlyn’s Star Inn. It was suggested that the Mystery be sold to cover the passage, but being in good spirits after a couple of drinks Captain Richard Nicholls made an announcement. ‘I’ll take you in the Mystery,’ he said – and so the story began.

The Mystery measured 37ft in length with a beam of 11 feet 6 inches, and weighed 16 tons. Skipper and crew beached the boat to sheath her hull with zinc, decked her fore and aft, and set off.

The new Spirit of Mystery was launched a few days ago at Millbrook, near Torpoint in south east Cornwall, and was built by local craftsmen under designer and shipwright Chris Rees.

Goss’s intention is to research the original voyage, draw attention to the achievements of the original Mystery’s crew of seven Cornishmen, and to provide a vehicle to support the educational charity Cornwall Playing for Success.

But Pete also makes it clear that he has always wanted to build a wooden boat. And what a boat he has built! I’m sure we all hope the voyage is successful – but also that she comes back to the UK and finds a useful long-term purpose, as it would be nice to see her sailing around our shores.

Boats at the Armfield slip, close to Goolwa

This picture came from our very good friend and supporter Jeff Cole. Here’s what he said about it:

‘This is Armfield Slip, the base of a volunteer wooden boat restoration organisation in the original buildings of the Armfield family of boatbuilders.

‘The organisation teaches techniques and builds and restores boats. The example under the lean-to is a station supply and ‘picnic’ boat from a property on the River Murray. She’s now restored and fully operational, and I rode in her at the last Goolwa Wooden Boat Festival.

‘The open boat in the foreground is a ships boat from HMSAS Protector of 1884, the only ship in the South Australian Colonial Navy. She had a long history including deployment to China with the Aussie contingent to the Boxer Rebellion. (see link below) There are plans to replicate the ships boat as it is beyond restoration.

‘There are several boats on the lake that the Armfield group have restored, and a local schools boatbuilding programme is very active, financed in part by raffling a boat they build at each festival. The current project is a large yacht.

‘The lower Murray Lakes face permanent acidification because of the long-term drying of the Murray catchment and the over-allocation of what water there is. The resulting ecological disaster overtaking the Murray’s drought-ravaged lower lakes has hit home, and it was recently confirmed that they could be deliberately flooded with seawater: South Australian Water Security Minister Karlene Maywald said opening barriers to let in the sea was an option that could be considered this year.

‘That fact that the action is even being thought about Lake Alexandrina and Lake Albert underlines the severity of the crisis in the Murray’s lower reaches.’ Read more here. The river will probably look totally different at the next Festival, if it goes ahead.’

Thanks Jeff – as always we’re grateful for your photos and explanations.

Venus, a well-travelled Thames-style skiff spotted in Australia by Jeff Cole

Lest we get too doomy, and serious I’ve decided to post this photo of an 1880s single-scull Thames-style skiff hanging in a country nursery at Victoria, Australia. Jeff Cole, who spotted and photographed Venus for us, says the story is that she was imported from Scotland, and was built by the nursery owner’s great-grandfather.

It’s clearly very well-travelled for a small river boat. I wonder what the rest of the story may be – did a River Thames boatbuilder move to Scotland? Did a Scot learn boatbuilding on the banks of the Thames? Or was great-grandfather an amateur who worked from a book? Or were skiffs of this kind far more widespread in the last 19th century than we tend to think?

Whatever the answer, the boat in the photo looks very much like the one shown in this earlier intheboatshed.net post.

Once again, my thanks go to Jeff Cole. To see some earlier material he has sent us, including some mouthwatering shots of early 20th century racing yachts, click here.

For some photos of later skiffs with rather more sheer at Ruswarp on the River Esk in Yorkshire, click here.

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Pete Goss to sail to Australia in a newly-built 36ft wooden Mount’s Bay lugger fishing boat. Click here and here

Jon Moore restores Spray replica. Click here

Jack Zuraw restores Chesapeake three-sail bateau. Click here

Tim Clayton and True’s Yard Museum Trust mount effort to restore King’s Lynn fishing boat Baden Powell. Click here

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The Lowlands of Holland is from his latest CD on the Wildgoose label Songs from the Derbyshire Coast; it’s not a shanty, but a forebitter and designed for a much more contemplative purpose.

The second, South Australia from the album All Tied Up puts us straight back into shanty territory. Keith sings here with the singing trio Three Sheets to the Wind, a top-drawer example of how to perform maritime music for entertainment without betraying the authenticity of the genre. Their approach is raucous yet harmonious and with lashings of zany humour – and, like Keith himself, they are in demand for concerts all over the world.

Lowlands of Holland.mp3
South Australia.mp3

Songs from the Derbyshire Coast and All Tied Up are available from Keith’s CD site:
http://www.guestlistwebarts.co.uk/eyup/cds.htm

Photo by Andrew D C Basford (2006)

sea songs, chanties, chanteys, forebitters

Ironically, Keith is a land-lubber by birth, originally hailing from the English county of Derbyshire and still living there today. Despite this, he did live on the East Kent coast for eight years where he was able to nurture more effectively an already strong leaning towards all things maritime. He has a long established and well documented history of performing and recording all kinds of music of the sea worldwide both solo and with various collaborations over forty years!

Keith is clearly passion-driven in his performance of sea shanties, fore-bitters and various other maritime related material including dance tunes on the English and Anglo concertinas.

He draws his influence from the old sailors and source singers of the material like: Stan Hugill (the last real shanty man), Bob Roberts and Cyril Tawney to name just three.

All of these three great singing heroes are now sadly gone and singers who have really studied their singing styles and songs, such as Keith, play an important role in carrying their legacy forward.

Listen in particular for the breaks and turns in his voice in the shanty set, for example – they’re one of the keys to real shanty singing.

Here are two tracks from his latest CD on the Wildgoose label Songs from the Derbyshire Coast. The first is the shanty Bold Riley (I’ve read somewhere that it’s a halyard shanty) and a set of three shanties, A Hundred Years Ago, Essiquibo River, and Rolling Down the Bay to Juliana. The files will take a moment to download but I can assure you that they’re well worth the short wait – this is shanty singing with real class.

Bold Riley is a windlass shanty that started life making the sugar run from the West Indies to the UK. Who ‘Riley’ was, unfortunately, is anybody’s guess.

A Hundred Years Ago is to one of two melodies commonly associated with this halyard Shanty from the USA – the other one is English in origin and both can be found in Stan Hugill’s seminal book, ‘Shanties From The Seven Seas’. Two other shanties: ‘A Long Time Ago’ and ‘Leave Her Johnny Leave Her’, share the same metre and are likely its two closest relatives.

The name of the Essiquibo River gives away the West Indian origins of this song – it would likely have been used originally inland for heavy shifting work and would have been lead by a Negro ‘shantyman’ eventually finding it’s inevitable way to sea where it’s use would need little adaptation. I take this at a slightly faster lick than it would have been sung in a working context.

Among the shanty set, I guess Rolling Down the Bay to Juliana, sometimes called Emma, is probably the least well known. It’s nevertheless one of the best halyard shanties around, and Keith tells me he believes it was collected in the early 1950s by folklorist A L Lloyd from ex-sailor Ted Howard. Ted, it is said, was on his death bed in a sailors’ hospital surrounded by all his shipmates when he sang this to Mr Lloyd. Apparently, his dying words were ‘Strike up South Australia and let me die happy!’

Bold Riley

Shanty set

Songs from the Derbyshire coast is available here:
http://www.guestlistwebarts.co.uk/eyup/cds.htm

More songs from Keith and friends:
http://intheboatshed.net/?p=78

A song from me:
http://intheboatshed.net/?p=609

Photo by Andrew D C Basford (2006)