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
The BBC is reporting that the Coastguards are going on strike this Bank Holiday weekend, so if you’re going out please take care.
I’d just like to say I hope the dispute is over as soon as possible both for our sakes and theirs – if the Coasties feel they have to strike, they must be very angry indeed.
Stay safe, everyone.
[ad name=”intheboatshed-post”]
A happy, healthy and prosperous New Year to all our readers!
As I write, we’ve just watched an excellent segment of the BBC series Coast covering the West Coast of Ireland, including some great stuff about curraghs and an interview with Tim Severin of Brendan Voyage fame.
I’m telling you all this because you can see it too via the BBC’s new BBCi Player feature. Follow this link http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/, go to the A-Z listing, click through the programmes beginning with C, and there it is. But be quick – it’ll only be there for seven days.
PS – I notice that old pal Chris Partridge of Rowing for Pleasure is saying the same thing, so it must be true!
For more on curraghs at intheboatshed.net, click here.
Share this with a friend using the Share this link below.
Like many Brits I’ve been enjoying the BBC television series Coast, which is made up of interesting segments about various stretches of our coastline. It’s been good stuff most of the time, and has covered areas of our coast most people never get near, such as Spurn Point, and it has often been illuminating and informative.
If I was to make a complaint it would be that at times I have felt the influence of middle-class London youngsters laughing just a little too hard at people who live or holiday at Northern seaside resorts. Directed largely from London as it is, I suppose we should not be surprised that the BBC should be like this from time to time.
Watching this otherwise very enjoyable piece of television couple of weeks ago, I noticed a segment on the Hebridean boatbuilder John MacAulay, and was inspired to use Google to see what I could discover about him.
Here are the BBC’s notes from the programme:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/coast/programmes2/07-outer-hebrides.shtml
Here’s what I found when I Googled for John Macaulay. First, here’s a picture of his yard:
http://www.pbase.com/dwerner/image/50645025
Here’s a scrap of video from the film Am Baile in which he talks about boatbuilding and his ambition to pass his skills on to a younger generation:
http://www.ambaile.org.uk/en/item/item_videofilm.jsp?item_id=18182
The way that Google can broaden one’s perspective of people can be wonderful. Here’s a review of MacAulay’s book making the plausible argument that all those songs, stories and legends about seal people were based on real encounters with a kayak-using people who used to be seen along the Scottish coast:
Seal-folk and Ocean Paddlers: Sliochd Nan Ron
I’m reminded of all those Australian Aboriginal stories about giant creatures that seem to be supported by fossil evidence – or was it that the fossils were the source of the stories?
Anyway, in case you’re wondering what the hell I’m talking about, here are some sites that may give some insight:
http://www.orkneyjar.com/folklore/selkiefolk/index.html
There are lots of these stories and ballads. Here’s one recorded by the Oxford book of ballads of 1910:
http://www.bartleby.com/243/31.html
And here’s the Child Ballads version:
http://www.sacred-texts.com/neu/eng/child/ch113.htm