Tag: Phil Latham

Phil Latham Serial (Part 3)

November 11, 2014 / / 1 Comment

Ian Riffles on Gloriana

I loved this pic of ‘our’ Skipper, Ian Ruffles ‘playing away’. The pic, supplied by Maggs Casey Kelly has Ian, who you may know is also the full time Skipper of the historic vessel Havengore (she of the moving Winston Churchill’s coffin up river and the first ever boat with an on board computer) and here gets to play with the Queen’s rowing barge, Gloriana. I see he’s in his working garb, though, so must have just been sneaking her about privately. He scrubs up nice when he’s on official business!

…and so to our third and final part of the Phil (Ginger) Latham series so without further ado…

Phil writes:

“One of our first visitors to arrive was Anne Roberts for a pleasant chat which was followed by a gratifyingly large number of the public including Ron Turner, ex-Superintendent of the Thames division and a good friend of ours in the sixties, who presented a painting of SB Cambria off the Sunk to Cambria Trust, and I hope they find a good place for it: The painting was done for him by an ex-mate Jimmy Penn. Also visiting, was an old gentleman in his eighties, of the same name as Ron who was third hand on the Will Everard at the end of the war, very clear in his memories and interesting to talk to, convinced that his year or so on the Will had set him up for life, kill or cure I reckon but it certainly appeared to have worked in his case.

Another visitor was the son of a previous skipper of Cambria before Bob took her over. Altogether a successful day and we “stuck it out” to the press at every opportunity about the role of Cambria Trust in the re-construction although not much seems to have been published. All day long it went on with many a moan, “typical Norwich organisation, you only know about something when it’s about over”.

After all of this excitement we closed down until the arrival in the evening of the Flying Folk Association. These folks arranged themselves up forward and started singing, mostly un-accompanied, one after the other; though there was one man with a “squeeze box”. Bob would have been right at home. One of our casual, non-singing visitors mentioned that he lived in one of the flats opposite and Mark said that he hoped there would be no trouble about noise. “Don’t worry about that”, said our visitor, “I’m chairman of the residents association and I’ll soon sit on any nonsense of that sort”. There goes the effect again.
Now some people may object to my term “ditch crawling” but since the end of commercial use, the Wensum at Norwich has silted up somewhat, it never was deep and we used to slide most of the last mile or so up to the berth behind the tug who just stayed in the middle and let us elongate our arms heaving on the wheel.
Thursday night / Friday morning was designated for our re-negotiation of the rail bridge. Our muscular young bridge operator was once again on duty, so to our “green layby” until the Broads tug showed up at sparrow cough; the plan was to get down to Yarmouth in one day but this depended on a early start to save the last of the flood tide at Haven Bridge.

All went well to start, but picking Mark up in our boat at Brundall where he had left his tug proved to be a bit fraught but we captured Mark and importantly our boat too. Sorry Mark, but there are priorities in this life! We had been joined for the trip down river and the re-rig by Niel Goldie but had lost Stretch at Malden for several days. All went well until Reedham Approaches when the railway turned true to form and couldn’t swing for us as the trains were running behind time, whereupon traditional fault lines appeared in conversation on board; luckily not forwarded by the Skipper to the bridge operatives or we might still be up above Reedham. When eventually we got the swing we arrived at the same time as a fleet of traditional sailing cruisers, who unfortunately lost the draught in the bridge hole and the Skipper got his down river edition of the “Kiniptions” but no contact, just as well. On entering Breydon we lost the services of our escort launch and were again joined by the larger “ with attitude” vessel for our onward voyage.

Now came another delay for Breydon road bridge and time was getting tight for the flood tide, however the effect worked again and I swear the bridge opened wider this time , but who cared, we were still lowered flat and so to the Haven bridge and the last of the flood. I’ve seen coasters take the bridge on the ebb and it’s scary, just watching, especially if you are moored just below the bridge and worry about receiving the vessel, or what’s left of her as a result of wild steering. However, all was well and we moored up on our berth at Heritage Quay. So, up mainmast and topmast, what a jolly life it is ditch crawling! Serious thoughts about C4 explosives but calmed down by a visit to the headquarters bar.
Saturday was up mizzen day, which went very well and out bow-sprit which was a bit of a pig, especially the cat’s cradle of rigging now associated with it. Getting the bolt back in went very well, the alignment being perfect first time. The rigging took longer; it is a well-known fact, that rope left to itself will spontaneously knot and this lot had had the best part of a week. In my time it was much simpler its purpose not being to stop silly sailors, or in this case young beginner from falling into the “ogin”. OH No, it was there to stop expensive sails from going ogin-wards. In those more heroic days before risk assessment,’ elf and safety’ and duty of care any right-minded skippers regarded one as more or less expendable but a good sail as being harder and longer to replace! After assisting Tom in unravelling the mess I began to see the old boys’ point of view, as long as it wasn’t extended to me!
Sunday was re-dressing the mizzen and housekeeping generally. The wind was veering into the West with a half promise of North West, a sailorman’s dream in Yarmouth. I was really tempted but my rail ticket was paid for and my ferry return for Monday evening. I’d sailed in and out of Yarmouth several times but cannot recall freight when we had managed a double, so when the Skipper and Tom insisted on carrying my bags for me to the station a vision of Prison Governor and his Chief Warden escorting an unlamented inmate off the premises flashed across my mind, no pure imagination! But I’ll always regret not doing the passage back especially as I received a text from Niel confirming her arrival at Mersea on Tuesday morning.

That’s it for the coastal cruise this year. All good healthy exercise if you don’t weaken.

All the best and may the effect be with you.
Phil Latham

“June 28th / 29th 1966: 150 tons of mustard seed in bulk, ex-Loch Garth, Royal Victoria Dock, for Coleman’s Wharf Norwich. Sailed June 30th from Erith arrived Yarmouth July 2nd, arrived Norwich July 6th and discharged July 7th. Sailed light from Norwich on July 12th.”

This piece of information has been copied from Bob Robert’s Cargo Book, and appears to be the last trip SB Cambria made to Norwich. BJB

Phil Latham Serial (Part 2)

November 8, 2014 /

Prowess book

Fair play to the SSBR who this year gave to all subscribers (Yes, even overseas me!) a free hardback book. This “The Prowess of Charlie Fielder” is by David G Wood and Richard J Walsh is nominally worth £13.50, so the Society is giving you most of your subscription back. That has got to count as generosity indeed. The book, latest publication from the Chaffcutter stable was born out of an amazing find/save by family members of Charlie, a suitcase full of papers and logs, photographs and so on detailing Charlie Fielder’s sailing career from the 20’s starting on sailing barges such as Agnes Mary (when he was 18) and then on through powered craft, small tankers and so on, especially the eponymous “Prowess”. I have not had time to read the whole book yet but I have dipped in and it is a fascinating story. Well done and Thank You very much, the team at SSBR.

Prowess 2

But what of young Phil (Ginger) Latham, last heard of firmly moored outside and adjourned to the Ferry pub by Reedham as part of their adventure up to Great Yarmouth. Phil picks up the story in part 2 of our serial.

”

Next on the programme was celebrating Mark’s 60th birthday for which he had obtained the services of a local group called the “Cleaving Heavages” the group consisted of a three girl front line, supported by two guys on guitars. Now you have to understand that this wasn’t your classic folk group but I can imagine my old skipper trying to insinuate himself into the line-up! All went well as Mark had arranged for plenty of food plus an “open bar”. I even managed a dance with a press lady who promised advance publicity in Norwich. She survived unmaimed and my knees lasted out so we’ll call that a win-win, for me at least! So after the groups second set we settled into the back bar and commenced our own concert with a repertoire more suited to Bob, this ditch crawling can be hell!!
The next day being Monday we lowered down the main and topmasts ready for the road bridge. It’s a fact that on this road trip I was often asked if it was difficult to lower the masts down? “No”, I’d reply, “that is mostly gravity. It is getting the pesky things back up that causes the agro”. The slow recognition was comic to observe. Anyway, our tug turned up complete with brains-trust and we proceeded through afore mentioned bridge which I feel could benefit from four moderate cakes of C4 explosive, after all , what’s wrong with a lifting span on a by-pass road? It could be restricted to open between 2 am – 5 am like Norwich rail bridge which leads me to our next stop. Said Rail Bridge has seldom opened since close of commercial navigation which engendered some justified anxiety on the railway.

We moored to a short quay (Cambria 50%) after Tom had pruned some greenery overhanging the quarters (there’s a lot of fun attached to ditch crawling)! Our daytime tug disappeared to Brundall and Mark went down with it to pick up a low powered launch with towing post for our nocturnal endeavours. We, in the meantime occupied ourselves by applying a mixture known as Tom’s patent gunk to all the servings now easily accessible with the gear down. Some wires showing signs of distress were also treated. I cannot of course, reveal the recipe for said gunk but believe it was the child of necessity concocted with the Skippers approval and proved very successful if only in the fact of a short drying time. You really wouldn’t want to appear in Norwich with a wet coat of Tom’s gunk on your person, but servings clearly loved it. So at 2 pm we put our shore bosun crew, Niel, ashore by powered whaler to tend ropes and proceeded to the closed rail bridge.
In casual 2.00 o’clock in the morning type conversation we learned that a team of good old Essex boys from Colchester had been working on the (expletive!) rail bridge had deleted the controls for several days but had only managed to jack the bridge up to swing after which everything went pear-shaped so they attached a wire to the bridge and told the youngest member of the team that he now had a God given chance to find out how Grandad used to do it!! So he wound like a hero and a handraulic barge was towed through a handraulic bridge at 02 15 hrs with mutual satisfaction and on to Carrow Road Bridge which opened promptly. The Bridge master called to say that the first new bridge was open and that they’d be down to open the second. Right, time for a cup of tea, we thought, WRONG! As we towed at walking pace we were overtaken by two MUNICIPAL bridge men RUNNING and SMILING! “KEEP HER COMING SKIP WE’LL HAVE IT OPEN for YOU”!! And they did. Mark showed hidden talent as a tug skipper and with help from a check-rope handled by Niel, we were round in one. Bridge promptly closed behind us and our athletic bridge team overtook us ready to close the second bridge just above our berth, a cheery wave as they passed on the way back to Carrow Road the effect is really strong in Norwich! We decided not to heave the mainmast up at 3 am as old Reed and Colman mills have now been converted to , or replaced by “bijou” flats and the merry tinkle of windlass pawls might have annoyed, also Mark was swearing because our berth had lain fallow for eight years, however it was now covered with heavy machinery and peace and quiet seemed unlikely!!
At sparrow cough we turned out to the roar of earth movers etc. and the sight of a B.B.C. sound car from local radio to do an item on us for the morning edition. After conferring with the Skipper he asked the site boss for some quiet and received it. That effect again – the Guy had come over for a “fill-in” on Cambria and her visit so was very co-operative. This courtesy was extended to the afternoon visit from Anglia T.V. and a local commercial radio. No one heard our windlass pawls as we didn’t ask for a pause. Next day we were joined by the Albion wherry and did an open day. Visiting the wherry was a mixed affair. Her hold, to us a minute affair and the annoying habit of her skipper to boast about being able to send his mast up by the pushing with a figure was not very diplomatic, but the beautifully simplistic blacksmith ironwork was a joy. Anyway, her mast wouldn’t do her any good around Orford-Ness, even if it is sour grapes, so there.”

Thanks once again for this, Phil. Part 3 soon.

Phil Latham Serial (1)

November 2, 2014 / / 2 Comments

Gear-drop Volunteers October 2014 resting after a successful bit of mast-wrangling.

I am delighted to have received a contribution to the blog and website for former Mate in Trade, Phil (Ginger) Latham. Phil got himself talked into helping out when Sea Change, in the Summer, made their heroic, 7-bridges trip up to Great Yarmouth and, even better, agreed to do us a write up. This write up is so generous and fulsome that I have decided to split it across three posts and ‘serialise’ it. I think it needs no further introduction.

Ditch Crawling

and the Cambria Effect

by Phil Latham (Part 1)

“I got pretty short notice from Richard Titchener about the planned trip to Norwich but quickly accepted his invitation. We only went there once when I was aboard in the sixties so it was going to be interesting to see the changes on the river. I arranged to leave the car at Maldon, but was then informed that we were leaving from Pin Mill! So with help from Neil Goldie I left it at Guss’s yard; found that my phone and Richard’s phone wouldn’t talk to each other so I did what any sailorman would have done and repaired to the Butt and Oyster for a pint and a sandwich: then down the hard to thumb a lift off, only to see Stretch arriving with the barge boat to pick up Mark Wakelin, ex-chief navigation officer for the Broads Authority and sponsor of the voyage. So, on board to meet the crew, youngsters Rachael and Simon, Jordan and his school mentor Neil plus the Zeberdees, black and blond, this may seem excessive, but if one Zeb is good then why not two?
In the port watch were Stretch and Tom, to starboard Richard and Hils plus one of their top- notch third hands Anna, bringing up the rear were Mark and myself (the embarked antique) making the stalwart crew for the voyage and so up anchor on the last of the ebb, but the wind died and we had to anchor on the guard as the flood came in. However, this is Cambria’s coastal passage so the wind, due no doubt, to the effect freshened and freed and she was off. We anchored south of Yarmouth Piers at the end of the afternoon, our marine genius (see last year’s report) was not available for 24 hours but the effect kicked in and the sea breeze came in light SE’ly so up anchor, light sail and gybe over to lay the piers and gybe back through Brush Bend and so gently up the harbour over the last of the ebb and land water to chuck round alongside in our designated berth, with the help of a convenient passer-by, on the first drain of flood. That seemed enough for one day so we renewed acquaintance with our old headquarters pub.
Next morning down to serious work; since I was last in Norwich they have added two swing bridges in the old port area and a low, for Cambria, fixed By-pass Bridge!! Passed by some non-marine town planner! So, to get right up we had to lower down flat. “You know”, said Richard, “the great thing about having you along this trip is that you can show us how to lower the mizzen; I’ve never done it”. Er neither had I actually, though I did have a good idea of the procedure. In the sixties it was taken out by crane for the Moll Flanders filming and ripped out by an illegally moored German coaster at Ipswich locks. Not a lot of use in the present circumstances but all went well to the Skipper’s plan and mizzen lowered with boltsprit housed across the fore deck that evening saw us recovering in the appropriate watering hole.

That night, however, serious amounts of midnight and early hours oil was burned by Mark, the Skipper and the Broads Authority on the need /or not for additional clauses in the towing contract. Luckily all was resolved with fifteen minutes to spare so that our tug, the Canonbrook,, an ex-P.L.A. dock tosher could take our rope. Apart from the crew she had the official Norwich pilot on board one Robbo of Sully fame (sully as in G.F.barge owners but more properly Sully Brothers or ‘SUBRO’ given the time that Robbo & Cyril worked there) plus his official understudy, Thalatta Cyril who had been his partner in crime for most of their respective careers. Now Robbo can hold forth on any subject under the sun, in great detail, short of the real meaning of the universe and female psychology (ask his wife), sandwiched between this pair in the wheelhouse was the highly competent skipper. Now I’m not knocking Robbo, he doesn’t beat about the bush, you get the true strength on all these subjects, there are just a lot of them!

So off we started and the Haven Bridge was no problem, but the Skipper got a severe attack of the “Kiniptions” at the Breydon Road Bridge which only opens on the thin side of half-way leaving little wriggle room between whipping the mainmast out of her or clouting the starboard pier fendering; he managed to avoid ,just, on both counts; once through the bridge we were met by a large, new Authority launch with “attitude” and a flashing blue light to proceed a few hundred yards ahead to warn any broads cruisers who hadn’t seen our towering mast over the reed beds that we were coming; we didn’t think this was necessary, but were proved wrong! We successfully negotiated the “apex” at the top of Breydon and avoided going to “Loostoft” eventually to arrive at Reedham with its famous rail bridge, which in the past has witnessed heroic feats of ship-handling and in in depth discussions between coaster skippers and sailormen on one side and railway employees on the other, including in depth discussions of family trees!

However, on this occasion all was well, the bridge already opened, with an electric sign informing us that it would remain so for a further ten minutes!! Broads authority tugs do not operate at night or over week-ends so we had to go to a lay-by a mile or so above Reedham, on approaching a port hand bend we saw a broads cruiser on our port bow who, at the last moment before passing us, went hard –a starboard into the reed beds for a third of its length, the lady conning it showing signs of distress; we continued up to our berth around a bend to starboard and were later informed by tug skipper that the lady feeling in need of a rest and recuperation had tried to moor on Reedham front but making a miss-fetch, stemmed the quay! You can’t always account for the Cambria effect but that must go down as unusual.

Meantime, it kicked in for us because our week-end lay-by was the river frontage of a PUB, called the Ferry as our bow was just short of the berth for the chain-ferry across the Yare. Faced with this dilemma – two and a half days moored alongside a pub – your stalwart crew didn’t flinch but explored the terrain, which included a friendly landlady, two barmaids, a phalanx of beer pumps and a launderette at the adjacent caravan park; work out our priorities! We set too on various jobs round the lowered gear and explored the choice of beer. We were after all occupying their river frontage for several days so “ambassing” was called for. We also received a visit from a reporter from the Eastern Daily Press who knew nothing about barges, river navigation or any other important topic so it was a pleasant surprise to read her “piece” which was largely correct.”

To be continued……

All this talk of lowering the gear makes a nice coincidence with the posting on Facebook by Maggs Casey-Kelly of pictures of the volunteers who heroically turned out over the last week to lower our gear down for the end of season, all snugged down in Faversham Creek and now able to put our poly-tunnel cover over . My pic is one such, showing the gang of volunteers resting after completing the task. Thank you Phil for the post and thank you Maggs and all those volunteers for the pic.