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
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Portland boat builder and repairer, freelance writer and environmentalist Ian Baird (contact him here or here) has been finding out about this long wrecked lifeboat on the Fleet near Pirate’s Cove.
Which ship was it from? Did it save lives in doing so? How did it end here? Did it ever have a name of its own?
If anyone would like to chip in with information, please use the Comments link below!
Jonathan Griffiths has written to ask whether anyone knows where he can see drawings of the RYS Wanderer, which was built at Greenock by Robert Steele & Co 1878, and wondered if your subscribers might help in locating such drawings if
they still exist.
‘Her name was then then changed name to Vagus in 1889 and then to Consuelo while in the ownership of the Earl of Crawford in 1902 – so I do not think she is the same Consuelo that appeared in the Yachtsman in 1901, as this was a two masted steam yacht.
Please leave a note in the comments link, or write to me at gmatkin@gmail.com and I’ll forward your message to him.
This essay explains a useful point:
‘Forebitters were not work songs. They were songs of the sea that were sung for entertainment purposes only. Crew members would sing forebitters during the dog-watches: the times of the day when they were involved in solo deck duty, such as emergency lookouts. … such songs were called ‘fore-bitters’, because they were sung round the fore bitts [big strong fittings used to secure anchor and mooring lines – Ed], or they were called ‘come-all-ye’s’, because so many began with the words “come all ye sailormen.”
‘These songs were also sung in the forecastle, or as shellbacks referred to it as, the fo’c’sle which were the men’s living quarters below deck.
‘A simple clue that a song is a just a song of the sea and not a sea shanty is its length and lack of a short call and response form. “Although these [forebitters] are now often grouped together with shanties by enthusiasts, a sharp distinction existed between these leisure-time songs and sea shanties in the life and mind of a
sailor”.’
So: shanties are work songs, like agricultural and railroad building work songs. Forebitters are sung at leisure – and the ones I know (which are quite numerous!) have all sorts of functions and themes, such as warning about the way sailors get treated ashore or on particular ships.
I have to say I like a good story – and so forebitters are often more my thing!