Gavin Atkin's weblog for the sort of people who like looking inside boat sheds. It's about old boats, traditional boats, boat building, restoration, the sea and the North Kent Coast
Barges and wherries and other working boats originally for carrying cargoes
Tonight I thought you might like to see some more of my holiday snaps.
This time they’re of the barges Pudge, Wivenhoe and Xylonite, which I managed to photograph one afternoon and evening while sailing with my friend John Adams 18 months or so ago. I hope you like them… Let me know in the comment box below if you want to see more!
For more on barges and wherries https://intheboatshed.net/?cat=4
If you haven’t visited before, the National Register of Historic Ships is a real find, and is enough to keep any hardened boat nut busy for hours.
Rania was built in 1937 by the Rampart Boat Building works in Southampton. Just before delivery in 1939, however, she was requisitioned by the Royal Navy and took part in the evacuation of Dunkirk in 1940, when many small British craft sailed across the Channel to rescue the British Expeditionary Force – and army of 400,000 or so.
This astonishing exercise took place in perfect millpond conditions (see the images of this event at the Rania site, and see Wikipedia for more on the fighting and evacuation). She continued to serve in the ‘Mosquito navy’ for the duration of the war.
She is now in real need of help. Rania has been dismantled and is in urgent need of repair; she has been saved by the Dunkirk Little Ship Restoration Trust but unfortunately the funds are not available – nevertheless her supporters wish to restore her to her original condition and return her to Dunkirk in 2010 to celebrate the 70th anniversary of the Dunkirk evacuations.
For more on Rania, and some very evocative music:
http://www.rania.co.uk
