TV presenter, TV clown and old boat enthusiast Griff Rhys Jones’ series Rivers this week follows the River Lea.

If the Thames is also known as the London River and the Medway is often called London’s Other River, then the Lea must at least claim to be London’s Other Other River.

True to the form of the other programmes in the series it included some fabulous photography interspersed with some comical rubbernecking by GRJ and some interesting historical stuff – and I have to say it was easily the most interesting of the series so far.

I lived for years on the banks of the Lea and frequently used it to travel around – though by bicycle on the towpath in those days rather than by boat, but the programme makers introduced me to several aspects of the river that I hadn’t known anything about, including the large gunpowder works on its banks and the barges that used to carry the dangerous stuff away.

Anyway, the programme included a jolly sequence in which the last remaining gunpowder barge (and incidentally, the last sailing barge to be launched in the heyday of barge building), the Lady of the Lea, came up the river for the first time in a decade, and then had some trouble turning around in the river, which we learned is silting up slowly.

There are a couple of links to share one shows a nice photo of the old boat, while the other gives her main details.

If you’re in the UK, the River Lea episode will be available on the BBC iPlayer for some days to come.

It’s always nice to hear of people’s interest in building one of my designs, and very pleasing too when they go so far as to make a model. So I’m delighted Paul McGuire has made two of the Julie skiff rowing skiff – the first is the standard A4/letter paper size you’d get from a normal domestic printer, and the second he made by blowing the original download up so he could use a bigger piece of card.

Thanks Paul! Has anyone else made either a model or the real thing? We’d very much like to hear from you at gmatkin@gmail.com.

For more on the Julie skiff:
Sketches for a sailing 15ft Julie skiff

Complete free plans package for the intheboatshed.net flat-bottomed 15ft 6in skiff
Not forgetting the smaller versions:
Free plans for the intheboatshed.net Ella skiff now online and available to download
Sunny skiff 14ft plywood flattie plans
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I won’t be able to make the Thames Traditional Boat Rally this weekend but I’d like to make it one day – and no doubt Julie would love what looks like a rather genteel event.

In the meantime, I’ve been enjoying this fabulous gallery of photos. I recommend you just hit the ‘play’ button at the top right of the page and watch the boats go by for a few minutes.

Water Craft’s July/August edition is a cracker

The latest issue of Water Craft sounds like a real gem – probably the best I can recall.

For the first time, editor Peter Greenfield has included free plans for a 16ft pocket gaffer from boat designer Paul Gartside. I’m intrigued!

There’s also a piece about Honnor Marine’s Devon Scaffie, the final preparation and launching of the story of a newly built gaff-rigged pocket cruiser drawn by John Leather, and Water Craft staffer Jo Moran visits the UKs sailing schools.

Beyond that… In Newport, Rhode Island, Ian Scott finds students at the International Yacht Restoration School can start their two-year course on catboats and end it on the schooner Coronet, Kathy Mansfied meets the restored Sunbeams in The Med, and in a garden in Cornwall the editor has erected moulds originally made by Connie Mense as the first step towards building Phil Bolger’s lovely 20ft Chebacco Boat. Other good things to read are a review of the latest generation of epoxies, a feature on cooking in small boats, a review of Iain Oughtred’s new book, a preview of the Thames Trad Boat Rally, a feature on Francois Vivier’s ‘Folkboat of the future’, and of course an obituary of the great North American small boat designer Phil Bolger.

See the advert in the right-hand column of this weblog to subscribe to this splendid magazine. You won’t be disappointed!

Sailing yachts around Horning. Click on the images for much larger photos

Last Friday the weather was gorgeous and the yachtsmen of the Norfolk Broads were busy trying out their boats and skills to get ready for the famous Three Rivers Race – and here are some photos taken in and around Horning to prove it!

Naturally, I took many more than these during our visit, but I thought intheboatshed readers might  enjoy this taster. The Broads area of ancient man-made lakes, rivers and reed-filled marshy valleys is a wonderful place for a holiday, and for boat nuts like me the number of gorgeous traditional boats is astonishing.

For more Norfolk-related posts at intheboatshed.net, click here.

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Victoria of Bridlington

It’s high time we had some more photos from the Beale Park Thames Boat Show, as this year’s event isn’t too long away. If it isn’t already in your diary it takes place on the River Thames at Pangbourne, and the dates this year are the 5th-7th June.

Victoria of Bridlington is a Bridlington rowing boat built by the Siddalls, a Bridlington boatbuilding family – read all about them at the website of the Bridlington Sailing Coble Preservation Society. Nowadays, she’s apparently one of two similar boats kept on the Thames, and there’s even a small website including photos of Victoria and an even cuter dog.

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Fowey River Class Dinghy number 53 was launched this weekend

This Saturday saw the launch of another local racing class classic at Fowey - a new Fowey River Class Dinghy made by Marcus Lewis for the local vicar and his family.

Built with a distinctive combination of spruce planking with thwarts and top planks of mahogany, the boat was launched at the Fowey Gallants Sailing Club and is number 53 in the class.

Marcus tells me that the Fowey River Dinghy is based on the Yachting World 15ft dinghy designed by Reg Freeman in the late 1940s with the aim encouraging people to build their own boats. Hunkins’ Boatyard at Polruan built one for a local dentist and they caught on, for by 1957 there were 15 boats in the fleet. Numbers continued to grow with other local boat builders betting involved, and the fleet reached 36 boats in 1965.

Interest in racing the wooden boats then dwindled, but over the last 15 years or so interest has returned with 15 new boats, several of which Marcus has built, and a number of restorations of the older craft. Five or six are seen sailing in regular Wednesday and Saturday racing, and the fleet swells to 15 or 18 in regatta week.

There are photos at http://jonbarkerpics.co.uk – the Fowey River Dinghies can be identified by their multi-coloured mainsails and jibs.

Marcus Lewis is based at Fowey and can be contacted on 07973 420 568.

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The launch of Troy number 28 at Fowey

Red Beryl is a new Troy class yacht, built at Fowey in Cornwall by Marcus Lewis for a customer on the other side of the river in Polruan.

Marcus has been boatbuilding in Fowey since he left school 25 years ago, and has been working in his own own workshop for six years, during which time he has built four Troys – hull numbers 23, 25, 27, and now number 28 has been named  Red Beryl.

The 18ft Troys are an important part of local sailing in Fowey, and this year they celebrate their 80th anniversary as a class. There’s a nice gallery of photos by Phil Egerton at the foweyphotos.com website, and also a history of the boats. It seems the first Troys were built for racing on Fowey Harbour in the very late 1920s and that most of the early boats are still kept in racing condition. I gather also that Troys can often be seen racing on Wednesday evenings and Saturday afternoons in the season.

The Troy name comes from Sir Arthur Quiller-Couch’s Troy Town series of novels, which are based on Fowey. Built using traditional carvel construction, they have 30ft masts supporting nearly 300sqft of sail intended to catch light winds on the estuary, which is surrounding by sheltering hills. They must to be built on the estuary in order to conform to class rules.

Marcus Lewis is based at Fowey and can be contacted on 07973 420 568.

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Ella skiff, panel plotting, sheet 1

Tonight, I’ve finally managed to find some time to make a little more progress on the plans for the stitch and glue flat bottomed Ella rowing skiff. We now have four drawings to show where the panels that make up this stitch and glue-built boat fit on three 8 by 4ft sheets and one 4ft by 4ft sheet of ply; and we have four tables of coordinates to enable builders to markout and finally cut out their material, create the necessary taped or butt-strapped joints  before beginning assembly.

I won’t explain how stitch and glue works here as there’s a lot of material available on this both on the Internet and in books such as my Ultrasimple Boatbuilding – the only thing I’d say is please don’t try the process without reading about it properly first. That way lies sticky madness, strange-shaped boats and epoxy glop that won’t go off, as at least some people have found in the past. Just check the forums…

Here are the drawings files you’ll need: Ella skiff plans.

A few warnings are required here.

Prospective builders should be aware that I am not a qualified naval architect and that my plans are amateur and experimental. I accept no responsibility for any injury or loss arising from building or using this boat and I urge builders and users of this boat to do so with care.

This boat is not for use on the sea or in any hazardous conditions. It is a small boat suitable for rowing on small lakes and slow-flowing rivers. It may be rowed but should not be used with an outboard of any kind unless the stern is doubled and otherwise reinforced. Even if that were done, it would be dangerous to use an outboard of more than 1hp. This boat is not designed to hydroplane and should not be made to do so – far too many fatal accidents occur each year beause some bozo thought it was fun or safe to put a large engine on a boat for which it was not designed.

I would also ask builders that if any coordinate creates a line that does not appear as it does in the drawings to contact me immediately. You may have found an error, and will need corrected measurements to be able to go forward. Also, I will want to correct anything that is wrong for the sake of future builders. In general, if you build this boat, please contact me at gmatkin@gmail.com. Especially with the first few boats built, I will want to be in close touch in order to ensure the boats are successful and the plans cause no problems.

These plans aren’t entirely complete – for example, they don’t show where the oarlocks need to go, or specify the gunwales or inwales – and I haven’t written my usual short essay yet. All of that will come.

Finally, if after all this you are still interested in building this small, simple and perhaps elegant little boat, I would strongly suggest that you build a model first! Read all about making a model here and here. There is also more on the Ella skiff design including the preliminary drawings here.

PS – It’s become clear that depending on your build, some folks will find the thwart a little high – if that could be you, it will be a very simple job to make the seat lower if you do so at an early stage.

Complete plans will follow, so why not subscribe to intheboatshed.net?

Planking Louise: Nick uses an on-the-spot steaming
device for the garboards

Hampshire-based boatbuilder Nick Smith is currently planking up a new project, Louise. She’s  a 16ft loa, 6ft beam and will draw about 14in, and built with khaya mahogany planking.

She’s destined for customers in Newton Ferrers,  and won’t be kept on a mooring but will be dry sailed on estuaries and rivers. Her internal layout will be identical to  Nick’s last project Lisa but compared with that boat she will be smaller and more lightly built for ease of launching and recovery, and with finer ends and a flatter sheer.

She’ll have an 11hp Vetus twin diesel installed.

Nick has kindly sent us these photos illustrating his method of steaming garboards and often the first couple of planks in situ using a piece of old inner tube.

The arrangement here looks a bit Heath Robinson - it uses an old thinners tin with an old style kettle element in it – but Nick says it’s very effective and he also uses it to steam frames.

My suggestion, gentle reader, is that it might be a bit scary for most of us to try at home, unless you happen to have the skills of an electical engineer! I’d guess that a big, stable two-ring camping stove would be safer.

However, steaming on the spot is obviously a very neat trick. Nick says: ‘I can’t think who invented this method but I’ve not seen anyone else do it. It’s very effective, however: in the old days the boy would run with the hot plank from the steam box to the boat, but by the time he got there the board was almost cold. But this way the plank is in place already: you just slide the inner tube off, and cramp the hood end up in place.’

The Hudson River has been in the news across lately due to the cool-nerved heroism of a pilot who saved lives in the air and on land by successfully crash-landing a stricken airliner on its chilly surface.

In times past, however, it was also known for ice yachting. The old river freezes less often these days, but the ice yacht sailers still go out on the thin ice to travel at speeds that would make most water-borne sailers blink.

See some instructions and plans on building ice yachts from Charles H Farnham and published by Cornell University Library, this article from the New York Times and – probably best of all – these wonderful photos of old-style ice-yachting.

PS – I won’t put up a post on Saturday the 14th, as Julie and I are getting married.

Colour on the Thames – footage from the Thames dating back to 1935

Here’s a sweet piece of film of the River Thames years ago spotted by ‘Carl’, who belongs to the Dinghy Cruising Association’s splendid Openboat YahooGroup. If you’re a small boat sailor I recommend it for all sorts of practical reasons, and this kind of thing is a real bonus.

But back to the film, which has been put up by the British Film Institute. Check it out for steam ships and tugs, busy bridges, some nice old footage of sailing barges motoring and under canvas in the Pool of London, and some very coolly-dressed up-stream watermen in suits and hats working some small steam boats.

PS - Do have a look this splendid footage of oyster fishing at Whitstable in 1920 that I’ve just found: http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=v8pFfqfL4D8 Isn’t YouTube fun? It’s certainly better than the telly is most evenngs.

Scenes from the river, December 2008. As usual, click on the thumbnails for larger images

The mediaeval bridge at Farleigh – the handsome Egyptian-style waterworks is for sale
as a dwelling, should any reader be in the market for a new home

A favourite family winter outing in for us Atkins and Arnotts is a walk along the River Medway, which is at its most attractive between Maidstone and Tonbridge.

There weren’t too many boats worth photographing on the river this week – it is midwinter, after all – but we had only arrived on its banks a few moments when we resolved to spend some time rowing on it in the dory this summer.

For more intheboatshed.net posts about the Medway, click here; there’s more good stuff at the Wikipedia and at the local council’s website.

We’re just back from a few days on the Lizard Peninsula in Cornwall, where we saw the start of the Tall Ships race to Funchal, visited the National Maritime Museum Cornwall, explored the lovely Helford River – and took lots of pictures. I’ve hardly had time to breathe since arriving home last night, but as a taster I thought I’d show you this shot of one of the race contestants as she turned away from the Helford River towards the starting line.

Watch out for more photos of the Tall Ships over the next few days.

The Dovenby

This summer the Port of London Authority and Wessex Archaeology is clearing a collection of shipwrecks from the Thames Estuary as part of a continuing programme to ensure that the river channel remains open to the world’s largest ships.

TV company Touch Productions has been on hand to capture the events as they happen, and the first of two Thames shipwrecks: a race against time programmes was shown on BBC a few days ago. For those who missed it I thought it would be good to mention some of the material here at intheboatshed.net.

The first programme focused on how the Thames has been fought over for centuries, and some of the ship wrecks that these struggles have left behind. In Programme Two, the TV company turned to the story of the British Empire, trade and shipping, with the Thames packed with thousands of ships and working boats.

The Dovenby

The Dovenby was sunk on her way back to London carrying guano. She was one of thousands of trading ships that made Britain the greatest trading nation the world had ever known. She and her self-made shipowner captain travelled the world, from Peru to Australia, San Francisco to Canada, at a time when 80 per cent of ships launched worldwide were built in British yards.

The programme examined the geophysics of the wreck, examined parts of her lifted from the sea bed, and showed the programme-makers having some fun sailing a Dovenby-like sailing barque.

Unknown Wreck 5051

This is a mystery ship, and one of hundreds that lie beneath the Thames. Various finds suggest that she sank in the mid-Victorian era, but what she was, what she was used for and who manned her remain unknown, although it is established that she had strong ties to the port of Woolwich.

The brick barge

The Thames barge is an icon famous in literature and paintings. For centuries, the barge was the main way of moving material from London to the smaller towns along the river. There were so many of these vessels that it was sometimes possible to walk across the Thames by stepping from barge to barge.

The programme looked at the lives of the people who lived and worked on these ships, the lightermen, the wherrymen and the thousands of others who lived on the river, and also the archaelogy of barges in general.

All that is known about the brick barge is that she sank on her way into London at the turn of the century, but the programme-makers took the opportunity to explore the history of barges on the Thames, for which we have some classic archaeological examples, including the 2nd century Blackfriars barge from the Roman era, a 15th century barge also found on the Thames, and the 17th century Shakespeare barge, which was also carrying bricks on the day she sank – although in her case the bricks were to be used in the rebuilding of London after the Great Fire of 1666.

Probable mezzotint postcard showing Abbotsford on the Tweed

Jeff Cole has sent us this image of an old postcard of Abbotsford on the River Tweed. Here’s what he says about it:

‘This rather rough looking dinghy on the Tweed is probably the photographers’ transport. Originally from the patchy quality I suspect a photomezotype.

‘Note the broad stern and gunwale level thwart, single thole pins and basic oars made from a virtually flat blade attatched to a round pole. Seems to be a pad and cord to attach to thole pin, muffled oars?. Interesting lines forward and a quite heavy piece of chain. Maybe it’s a hire boat?’

Thanks Jeff. The boat is a salmon coble from rivers and estuaries of the far North East of England and the East Coast of Scotland. They’re curious looking boats with wide, flat-cut sterns, I guess to support salmon fishermen working over their sterns, and I think their odd shape may be the reason there hasn’t been a huge amount of interest interest in them. See the picture on this page: http://www.salmonboats.co.uk. It’s interesting to take a look at what the Wikipedia says about these boats compared with what it has to say about cobles in general – to my mind it rather reflects attitudes to these boats generally.

The house is author Sir Walter Scott’s impressive pile near Melrose.

Nick Smith is making progress on a 17ft launch Lisa
built to a set of lines from an Admiralty lifeboat of
100 years ago. Moeity was built to the same lines but
is a few inches shorter. Click on the images for much
bigger photos

It’s always good to hear about new projects and to receive photos. On Friday, Nick Smith sent me this message:

Hi Gavin,

As promised a nice photo of Lisa, a 17ft, clnker-built khaya mahogany hull to be framed with green New Forest oak.

The design is as per Moiety (lines taken off an Admiralty lifeboat of about 100 years old), but while Moietyis 16ft 4in, Lisa has been stretched a further 8in. The second photo shows Moiety on her launch day in  1996 on the river Medina, Cowes – see the landmark of J S White’s crane in the background.

Lisa will have a 15hp Yanmar twin fitted, and the owner who lives in Noss Mayo wants to explore the estuary and on good day go around the coast to Cawsand and maybe Plymouth too.

I have an another order to follow – a 16ft motor launch for customer who also lives on the river Yealm.

Will send you some more photos during Lisa’ s fit out.

Regards Nick

Thanks Nick! As usual, clicking on the photos will bring up a bigger and better image in each case.

For more photos click here: intheboatshed posts showing Nick Smith’s work.

Mersea oyster smacks from Hervey Benham’s Last Stronghold of Sail

In The Last Stronghold of Sail, Hervey Benham writes in fine, persuasive style about sailing a smack:

‘In a comparatively few years, it will  be impossible to experience at first hand the glory of a work-boat under sail, and the yachtsmen who really hear the message the sea has for them will look wistfully back at the old books and wonder what it all amounted to.

‘When I bought my eleven-ton Mersea smack Charlotte I did not know. I had at that time a pretty six-ton cutter built around the turn of the century at Cowes, as sweet a model as ever you saw but too small to be manly. I got sick of trailing my boom end in the water on a quartering breeze and felt the Charlotte would be fun to amble majestically about in.  I pictured myself pushing half Burnham River in front of me and bringing up with my tarry topsides vexing the eyes of the diners in the Royal Corinthian Clubhouse. I had not the faintest idea I was becoming master of  something which, besides wide decks spacious enough to take a real stroll on, posessed the spirit of a terrior, the nimbleness of a polo pony, and the heart of a lion.

‘Sailing her was essentially different from handling any yacht I have known, chiefly because of her true flush deck, without a cockpit of any kind, and the way it enabled her gear to be spread about. There was a deliberate certainty about all she did. One could move about her and set up her gear unencumbered by anything obstructing action or vision. What a different job it was walking along beside her long boom, reefing her heavy, docile, loose-footed flax mainsail, to the struggle to roll up the fluttering folds  of a laced yacht sail, one leg in the cockpit, the other seeking a hold on a rounded cabin-top. She had hardly a shackle about her rigging, which was all rope strops and easy-fitting iron hooks. She had not a wire splice anywhere, the main shrouds being simply seized round dead-eyes. She had hefty wooden cleats to supplement the friendly fife-rail. It was all as ample and comfortable as an old tweed jacket.

‘Though I sailed her often by myself, I never led her jib-sheets aft.  In the narrowest of creeks one could always down-helm and leave the tiller in charge of the tiller-line, while one sauntered forward and tended the headsail. Hurry? Not a bit of it! Round she came, shooting ahead a smack’s length, and you could stop up by the bitts as long as you liked and let her settle down on the new tack. A  lee shore amused the Charlotte. I well remember being caught at Queenborough and fearing I should drag ashore there, of all unattractive spots. The reefed mainsail and small jib were set, and she tacked her way up to the anchor as I got in the chain. She broke it out herself when she felt like it and went trundling away up the Medway, while I sat on the windlass and let her sort it out.

‘Then there were the days trawling. Running her off before the wind, we streamed the net, and then, as the helm went down, she swept around in a great arc as if to have a look at her trawl now spread out in the water to windward of her like a duchesses train. When we thought she had inspected it sufficiently we tipped the beam over, took the foresail off, and left her to tow where the soles lay thickest. She liked us to lay the tiller on deck as a gesture of handing over to her. I would this moment as soon be sitting on her weather quarter holding the trawl warp and feeling the iron heads bumping and grunting along over the Beach Head below me as anywhere in the whole wide world – though in actual fact I generally soon hopped down into the cabin to put the kettle on.’

‘Of course there was a price… ‘

Great stuff – Last Stronghold of Sail is a super book, if you can find it – however there are copies at very reasonable prices listed at ABE Books.

There’s something very affecting about this engraving, which Craig O’Donnell of the splendid The Cheap Pages emailed over a few days ago. I know several old songs that seem to apply, and I gather Craig spotted this engraving in an antique shop.

From a practical point of view, I wonder why that stern – or bows, if you prefer – is as it is? Why would anyone build the end of a punt this way? My suggestion is that it’s a chain or rope ferry boat, but if you agree or disagree, please feel free say so in the comment link below!

Back to the songs: I think the Waters of Tyne seems particularly appropriate:

I cannot get tae my love if I would dee
For the waters of Tyne run between him and me
And here I maun stand wi a tear in my ee
All sighin and sobbin, my true love to see

Oh where is the boatman, my bonny hinney
Oh where is the boatman, go bring him to me
For to ferry me over the Tyne to my honey
Or speed him across the rough waters to me

For a fuller, singable set of lyrics and a sample of the tune, go here.

Thanks Craig!

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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The maiden outing for Dan Noble’s Expedition Mouse seems to have been a little more exciting than anyone intended, but even with two grown men aboard she seems to have coped pretty well. Sailing nearby the Statue of Liberty seems rather exotic from my perspective in Kent, England

I’ve said it before, but boat designers love a builder who follows the plans, builds the boat well and makes good use of it. But even those of us who are lucky in our builders have at least a little nervousness before a launch, for there’s always the danger that something about the boat might not work quite as expected.

Well, Dan Noble’s done a nice job of building the Expedition Mouse, and I seem to have got away with it – as once again one of my little boats has proved to work the way it should. Thanks Dan!

The Expedition Mouse is a stretched 14ft variant of my Mouseboat series of easy and cheap to build designs, but instead of being intended for the pond or river at the end of the road, this one is intended for real trips, perhaps involving camping. Many people would say that she’s an unusual looking craft with a surprisingly large sail are, but there is method in my madness. Her scow shape and hard chine makes her stable enough to stand up to quite a lot of sail, but her entry and exit are sufficiently easy that she’s easy to paddle much like a conventional cruising kayak. Her builder has reported that she while she sails well, she paddles ‘like a dream’.

The plans for the Expedition Mouse are available for free and can be downloaded at the Yahoogroup Mouseboats.

http://www.evansboatwork.co.uk

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)

Here are my shots from 2005:

http://www.duckworksmagazine.com/05/gatherings/beale1/index.cfm

Here are my friend Chris Partridge’s from the same year. His eye was caught as much as mine was by Mike Smylie’s River Severn salmon punt :

http://www.duckworksmagazine.com/05/gatherings/beale2/index.cfm

And here’s Chris’s set from this year:

http://www.duckworksmagazine.com/06/gatherings/beale/index.htm

Back in 2005, why the photo of a shed at a show full of elegant boats? It’s Mike Smylie’s shed for smoking fish in his role as The Kipperman, his alter ego on a mission to convert us all to eating hand-smoked fish. They taste so good he might even win the battle one day.

I’m sure you’ll agree that it’s no ordinary shed. And don’t miss the coracle in the background casually trying to upstage it…

Mike’s website is at:
www.kipperman.co.uk

Perhaps she is above all else a magnificent piece of nautical history, as the sole survivor of the Big Class racing yachts from the 1920s, which included Lulworth, the Prince of Wales’ yacht Britannia, Westward, White Heather II and Shamrock.
The Big Class races were spectacular to watch: the boats had deep keels, long overhanging booms and powerful rigs. Around 45 races were organised in the regatta season from late May to early September, and the highlight came in early August when the fleet headed to the Solent for Cowes Week. Wherever they were held around the British Isles, however, Big Class events attracted huge crowds.

Seventy years after her last Big Class race, she was taken to Italy from a mud berth on the River Hamble and brought back to life during five years of restoration aimed at returning the yacht as far as possible to her original condition, based on a set of drawings dating from 1926.

For more on Lulworth and her restoration:
http://www.lulworth.nl

Large posters, framed photos and calendars of Lulworth and other classics from the early 20th century:
http://www.beken.co.uk

The painting of Lulworth battling it out with Britannia below is by marine artist Roger Davies. Roger sells prints of his splendid paintings from his site:
http://homepage.ntlworld.com/john.davies3290/index.htm

So as we face up to winter arriving here in the UK, I’d very much like to take this opportunity to take www.intheboatshed.net readers back to the river for a few minutes to the often sunny world of rowing skiffs.

A history, and a restoration:

http://www.users.zetnet.co.uk/leopold/mark/rowena/rowena.html

An excursion:

http://www.users.zetnet.co.uk/leopold/mark/edward/edward.html

Clubs devoted to racing skiffs:

http://www.theskiffclub.org.uk/
http://www.dittons.org.uk/
http://www.tvsc.co.uk/

Hire a skiff:
http://myweb.tiscali.co.uk/skiffhire/boats.html

The traditional Swan Upping event, during which skiffs and other boats are used to mark swans to show who owns them:
http://www.thamesweb.co.uk/swans/upping_photos2000.html

Traditional boat rallies on the Thames:
http://www.tradboatrally.com/

For more on the restoration of Consuta:
www.consuta.org.uk

If you can add to this story, please email us at gmatkin@gmail.com .