Tag: Richard Walsh

Richard Walsh new book news!

September 22, 2014 /

This just in from Richard Walsh

On the Blocks at Pinmill

“A new book which covers barges, steam coasters and the motor ships of Cambria’s builder F T Everard, which were served aboard by Charlie Fielder ‘between the wars’ publishes later this month. A collaborative venture between SSBR and Chaffcutter Books, the book, entitled The Prowess of Charlie Fielder, has half a dozen short mentions of Cambria and a couple of pictures of her. The level of trade of Everard barges in the River Yare, at Gt Yarmouth and Norwich is prominent within this account. Full details of the book are on Chaffcutter Books new website which went live today! If you are a member of the Society for Sailing Barge Research, do not rush to order it as members will be getting it free in a few weeks time. Hardback, 192 pages and 135 photos – that’s what I call good value. For the rest of you Cambria supporters, hurry and join SSBR, or order and pay £16 (inc p+p) for it online now at www.chaffcutter.com.”

Thanks for that, Richard!

Centre Fold

April 21, 2013 / / 2 Comments

Thank you to both Skipper Ian Ruffles and barge book author Nick Ardley for your clarifications on the role of the long-stay in barge rigging. Thanks too, Ian for today’s beautiful picture of Cambria moored off Gillingham in the Medway, at sunset. Our new 3rd-hand, Reggie put this one up on Facebook (from where I nabbed it!) and promises to look out and take more for us.

Cambria moored in a Medway sunset; picture by Skipper Ian Ruffles.

Onto the doormat this morning plops the latest edition of ‘Mainsheet’, periodical magazine from the Society for Sailing Barge Research (SSBR, see also http://www.sailingbargeresearch.org.uk/ ) This is their Spring 2013 publication, Issue No 93 and marks their 50th Anniversary Year, so it is a bit special.

Most strikingly the cover picture runs across the whole front and back cover like a centre-fold. It is a gorgeous shot of Maldon waterfront taken by Geoff Tyrell in 2010. In the foreground are the hulks of SB Oxygen and SB Scotia with assorted ‘live’ barges dipped down between the saltings banks on the low tide, all overlooked by the lovely old tower and spire of Maldon Church.

The mag is, as ever, a FEAST of pictures, letters, well researched articles, reviews and comment. It includes, in full, Richard Walsh’s eulogy on the late Mark (Nozz) Boyle and momories of Catherine de Bont. It has a good few responses to an earlier piece on Mauretania, an item on the 1953 floods at Whitstable, an item called “A Winter’s Passage” about SB Colonia which is full of first hand memories, and another “A Voyage Round My Father” (in this case, old Skipper ‘Jack’ Josh). Another item summaries some of the stories our friend Tricia Gurnett has posted in “The Barge Blog”. There is much much more – this magazine and it’s hammock partner “Topsail” are reason enough alone to pay your subs and join SSBR. It finishes with a nice piece by Charles Traill who was ‘dragged off’ (OK, probably quite willingly!) on a holiday away from barges, to get all cultured by looking at an exhibition of Pre-Raphaelite art in the Tate, and came upon a picture of an auburn haired ‘lady of negotiable affection’. This picture, by John Rodden Stanhope in 1858 called “Thoughts of the Past” shows ‘your wan’ gazing out of a window upon the River Thames where, in the background are… you guessed it…. spritsail rig barges quite clearly unloading at a wharf and a stumpie out in mid stream. “Salvation!” says Charles. Nice one.

Thanks for that, the Team at SSBR.

More on Mark

January 22, 2013 / / 1 Comment

Dave and Tony Brooks’s Westmoreland Model as at Jan 2013; Photo by Dave B.

Model makers Dave and Tony Brooks send me an update on the progress on the Westmoreland model saying, “We did a little work on the model last week having had a break over Christmas due to family commitments. I have to say the weather was freezing but we did manage to complete a lot of the detail for the cabin top. We also made the mast case for the mizzen and attached our mini chaff cutter wheel. The picture shows the model with lee-boards temporarily attached and the masts in position but not fixed”. Nice one, Dave (and Tony)

In another unashamed ‘borrow’ from “The Barge Blog”, Tricia Gurnett’s on-line diary from the Society for Sailing Barge Research (SSBR) I also have some more detail about the Late Mark (Nozz) Boyle written by Richard Walsh. Fascinating stuff about a fascinating bloke, plenty of which I did not know even though I counted him as a friend and a colleague-volunteer.

Richard Walsh writes, “The sailing barge world was stunned by the recent news of the death at age 55 of Capt Mark Boyle, the organising secretary of the Thames Sailing Barge Match, since it was revived by him to celebrate the 50th anniversary of V.E. Day in 1995.

Mark’s love of sailing barges was kindled by the gift of a model kit when he was a child. He built the model and was later taken to Maldon, Essex to see the real thing. To his disappointment he realised that his model was full of inaccuracies, and on returning home he set about putting it right!

Mark was a gifted historian with a wealth of knowledge on subjects as diverse as sailing barges and the Spanish Peninsular War. He was also a talented author, writing articles for magazines about the sailing barges and his experiences afloat, having ‘gone to sea’ in his teens in the coasting trade aboard ex. ‘sailormen’ by then trading under power alone. Through later years he crewed aboard the charter and hospitality barges that plied the coast, gaining his Sailing Barge Master’s ticket in 1987.

Not content with working aboard the last of the trading barges, Mark developed his shipwrighting skills which have left their mark on many of the genre. These include the Cabby, Dawn and, most recently, the magnificently restored Cambria to which he applied his talent and satisfied his barge preservation aspirations at the same time. He recognised that for the restoration movement to have lasting relevance, it is equally important to preserve the environment of the sailing barge. Sadly, the wharves and bargeyards have fallen prey to much questionable re-development, but Mark realised the equal importance of the ‘on the water’ activities, and saw an opportunity to contest the Championship of the London River again through the conduit of a revived Thames Sailing Barge Match.

The enormity of the task before him in restoring this, the original barge match, to its rightful place in the sailing barge calendar would have scuppered many a capable organiser. In the wake of the success of the 1995 race, there was an appetite for more. Mark sought out the families which had played their part 100 and more years ago, with the result that the iconic names of sailing barge owners Everard, Clarabut and Goldsmith became associated with the Match once again. The outcome of his effort and commitment is evidenced by the current series being the longest ever continuous revival of the race since its founding by Henry Dodd in 1863.

The sailing barge fraternity has lost one of its stalwart supporters and his passing will have a significant impact in many ways. The Thames Match committee has met and decided to continue with the organising of this year’s event, the 150th anniversary of the first, which will take place on Saturday 13th July and be known as The Mark Boyle Memorial Thames Sailing Barge Match in honour of his vision and dedication to a sailing contest almost as old as the America’s Cup”.

Thank you very much for that, Tricia Gurnett, Richard Walsh and the Society for Sailing Barge Research. Links to SSBR and The Barge Blog are available in our links page.

The Compendium is Here

October 31, 2012 / / 3 Comments

SSBR Compendium, photo by Matt Care

Yay! By the miracle of the Irish postal system (which is, let me add, streets ahead of the UK in terms of rapidity, I was amazed to find) I have received my copy of “The Thames Sailing Barge Compendium” (Compiled by John White, Ed by Richard Walsh and pub Society for Sailing Barge Research, ISBN 978-0-9500515-7-4, 2012). At £20 a go, this is not cheap, but it is a hefty tome crammed with facts and figures, the result of easily a huge amount of research, cross checking and compilation. It is A4 size and spiral bound in wire, contains approx 150 pages (they are not numbered and I have not counted them!). It describes approx 2400 barges ( 50% more than the previous work, ‘Last Berth of the Sailormen’) and for each, where possible, quotes name and previous names, port of registry, official number, tonnage, where built, builder, when built, PLA number, dimensions, registration changes, rig/hull-form, owners in order of ownership, history, fate, location (incl OS grid ref) if hulked. It does this in logical sections and indexes including listings by location for the hulks and wrecks, loss date if lost at sea and then barges by stage of commission or rebuild; i.e. ‘in commission’, being rebuilt, laid up / static and ‘new built’. It finishes with an alphabetical index of craft.

Not light, entertaining bedtime reading, maybe but surely a must for any barge-nut’s library and not a bad Christmas present.

Richard Walsh’s SB Dorcas Fire

September 18, 2012 /

I mentioned before that among my surprise gifts from a friend who had finished with them, were the 2006/7 editions (40 and 41) of the magazine “Topsail” of the Society for Sailing Barge Research. Those of you who were members of SSBR back in 2006 may recall edition 40 for being jammed full of articles and items about fire. There is “The Night the Thames Caught Fire” by Richard Walsh, “Burning Ambition” and “Before and After the Fire” (both these two are photo features) and “Some Old Flames” by Capt. Mark Boyle, to name but a few.

Lady of the Lea and Cambria in the Thames Match 2012; photo by Phillip Barnes Warden

It was the Thames piece which caught my eye and then had me gripped. It is the amazing story of the Sailing Barge Dorcas, in 1900 a hoy barge making regular runs to Sandwich for the Sandwich Hoy Company and on this occasion loaded above and below decks with barrels of petrol. The lack of attention to safety, says Richard Walsh, was “incomprehensible”. The coal range was alight in the aft cabin for cooking, there was a stove for’d, navigation lamps were lit, there was “probably a binnacle oil lamp” and cabin lights; “collectively enough naked flame to create an enormous risk for barge, cargo and crew” but they had been transporting petrol this way for 20 years without incident.

With 20/20 hindsight it seems almost inevitable that there was a huge explosion, a massive fire and many more blasts as the cargo started to go up. The barge had been heading downstream and now, with skipper and crew blown overboard or having abandoned ship in a bit of a hurry went drifting off down the Thames on a strong ebb with a tailwind, burning furiously like a fire ship in the days of the old ‘Man of War’ naval battles. It bounced off Woolwich Ferry landing stage setting fire to a steam ferry, a sailing barge, 7 dumb barges and drove on surrounded by burning river towards Woolwich Arsenal wharf setting fire to ten fire engines, 2 warehouses a stationery store and various railway trucks. It took just over an hour to sink. It’s an amazing story and well worth either a read if you can get hold of it, or a re-read if it’s sitting gathering dust on your book shelves. Well done to Richard Walsh, the SSBR and the editorship of Topsail.