I need to buy a stainless steel rigging screw and the prices I’ve seen have been enormous for such a small piece of engineering. Anyway, it occurred to me that Ebay might be a source I should check out. I might even be lucky, as the prices this outfit charges seem very reasonable by comparison!
Category: Boating, boats, ships and the sea
‘O hear us when we cry to thee, For those in peril on the sea’
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The Storm engraving by William Miller after Van de Velde, published in 1858.
From the Wikimedia
We’re in the midst of yet another storm here in the UK. I might have enjoyed them as a child, but now they set my mind racing, first to worrying about safety on the roads and to property such as houses and boats, and then I start thinking of those at sea, and finally the lifeboat crews who have to go to sea in a storm that’s already raging when they leave the land. It’s enough to stop me sleeping, but in the scheme of things that’s a minor irritation.
Last night I found myself thinking about grandeur and truth of the hymn For Those in Peril on the Sea.
Here are the lyrics complete with written-out music.
Here they are again with a playable midi sample.
Here The Daily Telegraph newspaper tells the hymn’s story.
For a little history, read a historical discussion of how Scottish fishermen coped with storms before the days of weather forecasts and also about how storms affected the fishing community at Polperro, Cornwall.
Again, here’s a 19th century story of heroism in the North-East of England.
I’ve also been thinking about the terror of going out onto a big sea in a small open without the benefit of a weather forecast. No doubt that spawned a host of superstitions and the slightly neurotic activity described in the song The Candlelight Fisherman. There’s a joke that some allegedly lazy fishermen wouldn’t go if the flame didn’t blow out, on the grounds that there would be no wind to carry them home, and like most jokes I’m sure it had some grain of truth.
Also, see Out on a Shout, the RNLI’s rescue activities as they happen. In case you’re wondering, there have been a lot of launches in the bad weather of this winter.
I started off by saying that we’re thinking about storms here in the UK, but I’d argue the weather is making many of us think of more than just the weather. Stay safe and stay alive, everyone.
PS – If you get a moment, print out the Miller engravings – on some nice paper, they could be just what you need to hang on your wall!
The Shipwreck engraving by William Miller after JMW Turner, published
as part of a series of 120engravings from Turner’s paintings.
From the Wikimedia
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1902 customs cutter Vigilant berthed at Faversham Creek
Pilot Cutter Vigilant, photographed at Faversham
Rescued by the Medway Maritime Trust, Vigilant sits in her berth at Faversham, cared for by the Vigilant Trust.
She was built in 1902, and working from Gravesend she was primarily used for control and clearance of ships using the Port of London, until she was sold out of the Admiralty service for use as a motor yacht. Since then her career has been pretty chequered, but it’s great to see her afloat, and apparently with a future to look forward to.
I spotted her and took the shot on my way to Oare, where I had an assignation with a dirty bottom. Lots of us have fouled boat bottoms to clean just now, and the race is on to get them clean and painted with antifouling ahead of the great day the man with the crane puts them all in the water.
It’s a dirty job but someone has to do it, and suffice it to say that I worked hard for the few hours available with the help of a power hose loaned to me by a kind gentleman who owns a nearby Colin Archer-type yacht, for which I’d like to record my thanks. Not for the first time, I found myself reflecting on the commitment and determination shown by those who own wooden boats, which generally require far more attention than our little pocket cruiser.
Late on, the sun burst through and lit up a bundle of masts, and a little later again a small storm thundered over the flats of North Kent.
While I worked, somewhere up the creek the good folks of the Hollowshore Cruising Club were celebrating opening their new premises – but I was too busy and probably too dirty to join them!
Dirty and clean bottoms at Oare; masts glinting in the low winter afternoon sun;
dark clouds rolling down on Oare Creek
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