Category: Medway, Swale and the Kent coast

Medway, Swale and the Kent coast

Medway Queen to return to the Medway shortly

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Paddlesteamer Medway Queen is now afloat at her Bristol shipyard following major repair and restoration work, and preparations are being made to return her to the River Medway – when this will be depends on the availability of the tug to be used and then the state of tides and the weather.

The tug Christine, operated by AJ & Pratt of Rainham has been contracted for the tow.

This is great news – it will be wonderful once again to have a paddlesteamer on the Medway following the lovely Kingswear Castle’s move to the Dart.

I’ve asked the Medway Queen folks to add me to their press list so that I will be able to let readers know when she makes her big trip.

The plan, according to the MQ website is that she will berth at Gillingham Pier and that there will be a celebration event with the visitor centre will be open – although visitors will not be able to board the Medway Queen at this stage.

An escort of suitable vessels would be very attractive to mark the arrival of the paddlesteamer, but boats are asked to make their own arrangements and to avoid impeding the smooth running of the towing operation.

The Medway Queen folks need funds to carry out the completion work at Gillingham – why not take a look at their website and see what you can do!

Read more about the Medway Queen on the National Historic Ships website.

The Liquid Highway – a proper boaty weblog about the Thames

The Liquid Highway

As a boat nut who for many years worked in an office overlooking the Thames and with a soft spot for the river that goes back to my boyhood, I’m greatly enjoying the weblog The Liquid Highway.

I think the new weblog fills an important gap – a great many people work near the Thames and recognise its regular vessels and also anything new that arrives, yet up to now there has been no easy way for them to learn more about what is going on or about the vessels themselves.

In recent weeks it has included a film and an audio recording of the Thames Festival Ships Opera, a trailer for the film Last of the Watermen made by David Kew following the work of Peter Duggan of General Marine.

There’s also a post about the steam tug Challenge returning to London (I believe she left again through lack of space at St Katherine’s) and another providing including a pictorial history of the tug. This includes a smashing photo of her towing one of the World War II Maunsell forts.

There’s also a piece about the 1936 tosher and dock tug Charlight, currently in use at Oare Creek near Faversham, and which I gather is up for sale.

Stangate Creek. It makes you think about times past…

These days Stangate Creek on the south side of the Medway is a popular stop for cruising sailors and motorboaters – it’s sheltered, and visitors are surrounded by low-lying land and islands and saltings, and some impressive bird life.

But this peaceful spot has a heck of a past, and was frequently a less than happy place.

With the Naval dockyards at Chatham just a few miles away up the Medway, the Navy has at times used it intensively as a place to moor ships when necessary.

From 1712-1896 it was used for quarantining ships. For example, there’s a story that in 1832, the barque Katherine Stewart Forbes set out from Woolwich with a complement of male convicts for Australia but then anchored in Plymouth Sound after cholera broke out. She was sent back to Stangate Creek for many months – of 222 convicts aboard, 30 men developed cholera and 13 died.

There’s an account of how the quarantining started here.

During the Napoleonic era, French prisoners of war were coonfined in prison hulks on the River Medway, where they were subject to cholera, smallpox and typhoid, and many of those who died were buried on Deadmans Island on the eastern side of the Creek.

And of course it was close at hand in 1667 when the Dutch captured Sheerness, invaded the Medway and threatened Chatham. The Wikipedia has the story, including a wonderful painting.

In the early part of the 19th century Turner depicted it in one of his watercolours of English rivers, and much more recently, the extraordinary cruising film-maker Dylan Winter visited Stangate and seemed to fall in love with the place.

Most of the photos of Stangate Creek above including the Finesse class small yacht, the  smack, Buccaneer and the barge yacht Whippet above are mainly Julie Atkin’s shots. Only the shots showing the flooded saltings are mine…