Tag: Stone Heaps

A Nice Chat.

Gay Archer at speed

MTB Gay Archer at speed, photo from David Archer who served on a sister vessel.

I have been enjoying a nice old ‘chin-wag’ via e-mail with friend of Cambria and occasional contributor, David Rye who turns out to have his own strong connections with the MTBs we mentioned yesterday. David sent me the attached picture of the ‘Gay class’ MTB Gay Archer and attaches the following notes.

Says David, “Nice shot of 102.

I was on MTB’s in the 50’s – the Gay class, Gay Fencer actually – good job we did not have cap tallies with the names on!
The Archer is down at Watchett, N.Devon.
Fully restored – the owner sold his house to do it!
Plenty of info on the internet all about her.”
Thanks for that, David. Perhaps we should say for the benefit of younger readers, that “Gay” has only fairly recently come to have the association with same-sex relationships. Prior to the 70’s ‘gay’ just meant happy,bright, exuberant and colourful. I love an ‘at speed’ photo of an MTB. Shows that beautiful hull off to best advantage.
David has also given me some more on the ‘Stone Heaps’ discussion from a few weeks back. Hilary Halajko had mentioned that Cambria had moored there overnight and Nick Ardley had entered a comment about the location and the origin of the name (see earlier posts). David now advises us to “take a look at the link, http://bernardoconnor.org.uk/Coprolites/Suffcops/SHOTLEY.htm , which says that “The earliest evidence of coprolite diggings in Shotley was in 1858. It was included in a list of nine Suffolk villages exporting the raw material for conversion into superphosphate in factories in Ipswich and Harwich…………Apart from digging fossils another unusual occupation that employed many in the parish was described in the local trade directory,  “Sea Boats are employed here in collecting stone for the manufacture of Roman Cement.” (White’s Directory 1874) This involved nodules of “septaria“, lumps of clay, which were dredged along the mouth of the estuary. Along with the local clay they formed the basis of a small cement industry. In 1871 Lucas C. King was described in the census as a “Farmer of 76 acres employing 4 labourers and 2 boys, Cement Stone Merchant employing 6 men.” This had been going on at least since the 1850s when many men described themselves as cement stone dredgers and loaders. By 1874 the Shotley Brick, Lime and Cement Works had started with Edward Gibbons as the manager. etc etc”  Feel free to go off and read more.
Thanks for that, too David.
Lastly (today) I must just say that I am going on “shore leave” for a few days now and may or may not be able to post. I will actually be based on the Cambria (Ah! Sigh!) at Gravesend, finally able to see her, walk her decks and re-new my acquaintance with all her timbers and tackle, not having seen her since Dec 9th last year. A group of volunteers, including me, will have her moored alongside St Andrew’s Wharf in Gravesend and, all being well, open to the public so please do feel free to come down and say ‘Hello’ to the old girl. After all, if you’ve ever bought a Lottery ticket she is, in a sense, your barge. We are just privileged to mind her for you! Look after yourselves and I will be back posting in a short few days.

 

 

 

Ipswich Wet Dock

While the website is briefly distracted by the Swale Match, Cambria is out there working hard for a living and we receive the latest three ‘Cambria Watch’ reports from Hilary Halajko.

“This week has flown by”, she reports. “After our fast passage to Stone heaps we had a short sail to the clamp house and the following day a sail up to Ipswich wet dock. A tow through from the harbour launch and the Dock master playing “Red Sails In The Sunset” over the p.a. system! Made us feel really special. We unloaded our concrete and aggregate and then had a massive clean up on deck and down below as everything seemed to be covered in fine concrete dust. There was then a need for essential shopping to get the dongle working again and a visit to the swimming pool. Last night we had a celebration supper at the local Chinese and today we say goodbye to Rachel and Katherine. Yesterday’s reception for the IMT went well, more from Don on that later. We are washing and shopping today and off tomorrow, Blackwater bound”.

“We had a busy Saturday (11th Aug) in Ipswich Wet Dock”, she goes on. “The morning saw our load of cement go to two good causes, one via the Rotary Club, the other rather aptly towards work on Pin Mill Hard. During the afternoon the Ipswich Maritime Trust held a well attended reception aboard, under their vice chairman Des Pawson. We were also visited by groups interested in coming away with us next year and by Brett Aggregates, who had kindly donated aggregate samples to complement the cargo”.

Cattle Cake

Cattle Cake picture by Sea Change Sailing Trust

Then at Midday Monday “To commemorate Cambria’s last trading passage, which carried produce for making cattle cake, we made an edible cattle cake. It looked a lot tastier than the original!
During the afternoon we were pleased to welcome Bob Roberts’ daughters Gill and Ann, who had many reminiscences about their time aboard as youngsters when their father was skipper”.

A further piece at 6pm Monday says “We locked out of Ipswich wet dock at 11 am. The small harbour launch gave us a tow but her engine over heated so we dropped the tow just before the Orwell bridge. Short tacking all the way to Harwich, having to drop and reset the foresail at times and at one point having to quickly anchor as there was not enough room for us and a coaster. Cambria is fabulous, we were sometimes having to tack as soon as she had way on but she did it!! We are now anchored at Wrabness in the river Stour, very pretty place. I think we may be Crouch bound tomorrow”.

Thank you for all those, Hilary. It gives us ‘out here’ a real flavour of what the Cambria is up to and the good work you are doing.

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