Category: Small boats

A boatshed at Botley

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Boatshed at Botton, on the Hamble. Photographed by Chris Partridge

Boatshed at Botton, on the Hamble

I came back from Paris late this evening to find this photo in my inbox, with a note from the photographer:

‘Hi Gavin

‘I rowed up the Hamble today with the DCA and came across this boatshed in Botley, where the river is almost too narrow to swing an oar. You can’t imagine a prettier location.

‘All best,

‘Chris’

Thanks Chris Partridge – it’s nice to have another shed to celebrate! Paris museum photos and more to come shortly.

I should explain that the DCA is the Dinghy Cruising Association – a splendid club of individuals who often sail and camp in small open boats, and who occasionally find time to meet together to sail in company. Find out about them here.

Julie, who grew up in the area, tells me that a restaurant in Botton was a family favourite when she was a child.

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The sad deaths of Just Buisson and a young helper by exploding rocket boat, Paris 1886

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Buisson and his assistant’s sad death by exploding rocket boat, 1886

The rocket boat explodes into a thousand pieces

It’s clearly French Week at intheboatshed.net, as we limber up for a lightning trip to Paris on Friday. This engraving depicts the explosion that killed the rocket power experimenter Just Buisson and a young helper, and badly burned his assistant Al Ciurcu a little way downstream from the Pont de Clichy bridge in 1886. Ciurcu recovered and continued with his rocket development work, by the way. I’d never for a second imagined that I might see a rocket engine in a clinker-built boat!

The basic boat was designed and built with displacement for a crew of six oarsmen.

The engraving below shows what the boat looked like before the explosion. For more on Buisson, a photo of his boat and a discussion of early rocket development generally, click here.

Just Buisson’s sad death by exploding rocket boat, 1886

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British Sea-Fishermen, by Anson – part II, from Buchan to Grimsby

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Anson British Sea-Fishermen

‘Most of the apprentices had been brought up in orphanages and
reformatory schools… The system produced splendid fishermen,
but the evils were many.’

The quotation comes from Anson himself, and he’s talking about the Grimsby fishing fleet. As a North Lincolnshire boy who grew up with the sons and daughters of at least a few fishing skippers, I’ve always had a bit of an interest in fishing communities, their boats and their songs, even though I have no interest at all in trying their difficult and dangerous trade myself. But I’ll say one thing – after reading Anson, I’ll forever think about the favourite hymns and songs that came out of fishing in the 19th century in a completely different way, for among other things they were the songs of boys who had no choice about the trade they had entered. Think of a bunch of pressed boys singing the words of Eternal Father Strong to Save, Three Score and Ten and Heave Away the Trawl Warp for a while, and you may see what I mean.

For a little more on Three Score and Ten, start here.

Anson British Sea-Fishermen Anson British Sea-Fishermen Anson British Sea-Fishermen

Anson British Sea-Fishermen Anson British Sea-Fishermen Anson British Sea-Fishermen

Anson British Sea-Fishermen Anson British Sea-Fishermen


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