River Ouse Bargeman

by Lewis, David;

  The tug Robie, one of the mainstays of BOCM’s river-based transport. (Laurie Dews)

  Letter of 1919 to Mr Prest concerning the state of the Robie and the other Ouse tugs. (Laurie Dews)

  Robie went on to work on the Ouse until scrappage in the 1950s.

  These tugs were coal-powered steam tugs, and normally had their bunkers filled at the railway jetty in Selby, from coal wagons proceeding directly across Ousegate from the goods station.

  Another tug, of unknown dates was the Enterprise. She became the fire barge in York. In the 1920s, Whitaker’s of Hull took over some of the towing duties and OCO provided their own tugs, one of which was the Robie.

  Following decommissioning of the fleet by BOCM, the eighteen motorised barges of the fleet have enjoyed various fates. As of May 2016, I understand these fates to be as follows:

  Barge Reported fate

  Charles

  Corrie

  Doris Possibly at Yorkshire Waterways Museum, Goole

  Elizabeth

  Ellen At Hermitage Community Moorings, Wapping, London, 2015

  Janet Seen in the livery of another company at wharves possibly in Nottingham in 1999

  Judith Tied up on River Hull by former BOCM works, 2004

  Linda Carrying aggregate for Humber Barges to Leeds in 1999 (along with Selby Ellen, both being ‘leased’ from BOCM)

  Margaret Reported as ‘in London’ in 2011

  Martin Waddington’s boatyard/scrap line Swinton, 2008

  Maurice Privately owned, moored in London, 2009

  Michael Reported tied up and disused in Nottingham, 2009. Moored at Hazleford Weir near Newark, 2015. Still there in March 2016

  Peter Awaiting scrapping at Waddington’s yard, 2013

  Philippa Possibly at Yorkshire Waterways Museum, Goole

  Richard Possibly in Canary Wharf, London, 2015, offered for sale at £375,000 as converted to a houseboat. Painted in colours of ‘Flixborough Shipping’

  Robin Reported in December 2012 as ‘laying in Yorkshire’ and available for sale for £50,000 - ‘can be cut and shut to your requirements’

  Sara

  Tony Hulk made watertight at Waddington’s, 2015. Taken up to be moored on the Foss at York to become the ‘York Artsbarge’

  Following the Second World War, two diesel-powered ‘TID’s were purchased for towing duties. These had been originally built for the war effort between 1943 and 1946. ‘TID’ might be an acronym for ‘Tug: Inshore and Dock’, although it is said that due to their work in readiness for D-Day, it stood for ‘Tug Invasion Duty’. They were 70 feet long, with a pulling power of just over 200 horsepower. Most of the vessels were built by Dunston’s at Thorne, and due to wartime demands they were made to a tight schedule and to a simplified design. It was stated that the Admiralty required ‘one tug per week, using in the process little or no shipyard labour’. The vessels were rapidly constructed from prefabricated sections supplied to the yard.

  Former TID, now BOCM tug OCO, having sunk at Swinefleet, January 1961. (Laurie Dews)

  ‘Spike Wadsworth told me those TIDs were death traps. A proper tug needs a rounded hull, so if she starts to list to one side the curve of the hull will right her. But the TIDs had angled hulls. So as soon as they started to list there was nothing to stop them and they’d roll right over.’

  This was quite possibly the cause of the sinking of the OCO in 1961.

  The tug OCO was originally TID 118 and part of the Navy’s active fleet in 1944/45. It was planned that she would be fitted out for ‘tropical work’ in the Far East, but instead was sold to the mill in 1947. When refloated after the 1961 incident, she was renamed Selby Olympia. The tug Ardol was originally TID 77, and came to the company in 1950. She was broken up at Paull on the Humber in 1960.

  In the early days of the mill, there were also two wooden barges, the Thermagene and Thermastat. They were both oil tankers and were taken out of service around 1938.

  Appendix 2

  MAKING YOUR OWN ENTERTAINMENT

  As was the case with many manual workers, Laurie and the bunch of bargemen in and around Hull Docks had plenty of songs they could sing whilst having a mash of tea together.

  ‘Back then we didn’t have a radio or anything like that – but we got together and made our own amusement. One bloke’d have a mouth organ, maybe another with a Jew’s harp and everyone else would stamp their feet to get the rhythm and we’d have a good sing-song.’

  Here are five songs that Laurie still croons, and as you might expect, they are a mix of lyrics from the folk tradition and more modern musical-hall type songs. There were also songs from the military tradition from when many of the bargemen were signed up to work on landing craft. Laurie talks about some of the songs being from a ‘sod’s opera’ – where some of the squaddies cross-dressed in the panto tradition.

  1. Big Strong Man or My Brother Sylveste

  This song with Irish connections is well known in folk circles. The reference to having ‘lived in a caravan’ might link to the Irish Traveller community, well-known for both bare-knuckle and professional (gloved) boxers. It was also a song that was sung in the music halls.

  Have you heard about the big strong man?

  He lives in a caravan

  He plays the organ in the belfry

  And he wants to fight Jack Dempsey

  CHORUS

  O that’s my brother Sylvest (shout - What’s he got?)

  He’s got a row of forty medals on his chest (shout - Big Chest!)

  He fought the forty darkies in the west

  He takes no rest, think of a man,

  Hells fire, son of a gun

  Don’t push, just shove, plenty of room for me and you.

  He’s got an arm like a leg (shout - a lady’s leg!)

  And a punch that’ll sink a battle ship (shout - Big Ship!)

  It takes all the army and the navy to put the wind up Sylveste

  O he thought he’d take a trip by the sea

  So he took himself a trip to New York

  he jumped in the harbour in New York

  and swam like a man made of Cork

  CHORUS

  He saw the good ship Lusitania in distress (What’d he do?)

  He swallowed all the water in the sea (big swallow!)

  He put the Lusitania on his chest (big chest!)

  And took the lot to Italy

  CHORUS

  Well he thought he’d take a trip to old Japan

  And they turned out the whole big brass band

  He played every instrument they had

  He broke the whole darn lot

  CHORUS

  References to early twentieth century cultural heroes place the hey-day of the song a little before the time Laurie started on the barges in the 1930s. The RMS Lusitania was a British-built ocean liner, launched in 1906 for Cunard. She held the Blue Riband for the fastest maritime crossing of the Atlantic. She was sunk after an infamous torpedo attack in 1915, killing almost 1,200 passengers and crew.

  Jack Dempsey was World Heavyweight Champion from 1919–26, famed for the power of his punching. Originally named William, he changed his name to Jack as a tribute to an Irish fighter of that name from an earlier generation.

  As with all songs like this, they are remembered slightly differently. Other published versions talk about a fight with Jack Johnson – another hard-punching heavyweight champ a little before Dempsey. In the last line, some versions replace ‘wind up Sylveste’ with the cheekier ‘bra off Mae West’; Mae West, being a femme fatale from the 1920s, famous for the invitation to ‘come up and see me some time’.

  Sometimes there are not forty but fifty medals on his chest, and a wide variety of foes are fought ‘in the west’.

  The song remains active in the folk tradition. Little and Large included their version in a stage show and on a 1990s album. There is even a racehorse that shares the name of the song! A recent version changes the boxer reference to George Foreman, with the coupl
et

  ‘He used to work here as a doorman

  Now he wants to fight George Foreman’

  The Tyson Fury version can’t be far off!

  2. Drury Lane

  When I was just a parlourmaid down in Drury Lane

  Oh the mistress was so kind to me and the master was the same

  Till up came a sailor boy just got home from sea

  And that was the start of my misery

  He asked for a candle to light his way to bed

  And he asked for a pillow to rest his weary head

  Now silly girl me not thinking it no harm

  I jumped into bed just to keep that sailor warm

  Early next morning, the sailor he arose

  And pulled out his pocket a five pound note

  Take that my darling for the damage I have done

  I’m leaving you in charge of a daughter or a son

  If it be a daughter then bounce her on your knee

  And if it be a son send the young lad off to sea

  With bell bottom trousers and a suit of navy blue

  Just let him climb the rigging as all sailors do

  Now take a tip you parlour maids - and take a tip from me

  Never let a sailor get an inch above your knee

  For if you do he will never never stop

  Till he’s climbing up the rigging to the old crows’ nest

  Laurie freely adapts the old song Rosemary Lane, a folk song dating back to around 1810.

  According to Roud & Bishop in their New Penguin Book of Folk Songs it is:

  ‘An extremely widespread song, in Britain and America. Its potential for bawdy means that it was popular in male-centred contexts such as rugby clubs, army barracks and particularly in the navy, where it can still be heard, but traditional versions were often collected from women as well as men.’

  Although Laurie doesn’t sing it to this tune, it does fit Rock-a-Bye Baby. I’ve recorded the last line as Laurie sang it, but a substitution of something like ‘until he reaches to the top’ would rhyme and still be a suitable double entendre, although missing out on the nautical reference to a crow’s nest lookout. The song was recorded in 1969 by well-known folk singer Bert Jansch, and is also apparently the marching song of the United States Army 10th Mountain Division where the lyrics are altered to tell the young lad to go ‘off to ski’.

  The song is also known as Bell Bottom Trousers – a reference to the flared service trousers worn by sailors. The sum of money changes with the times, and the young lad is often appropriately referred to as a ‘bastard’.

  3. Dujardin’s Navy

  This was sung to the tune of John Brown’s Body.

  We are the jolly lighter lads, the lighter lads are we

  We do not sail the ocean and we don’t go down to sea

  We are the jolly lighter lads of SW&T

  In Dujardin’s navy

  When we’re towing out the lock. our vessel’s shipped to sea

  The icy cold water comes swimming round about our knees

  When we’re towed by Riverside Quay we cannot see the clock

  In Dujardin’s Navy

  We have ourselves a skipper in the job, his name is Joseph Plug

  He wasn’t going fast enough so he bought himself a tug

  Now he doing two trips a week and most of them are snug

  In Dujardin’s Navy

  ‘SW&T’ stood for Selby Warehousing and Transport, a subsidiary part of the OCO enterprise, the early name for Watson’s barge fleet, and Mr Dujardin was the General Manager in Selby around the turn of the 1930s.

  It would be implausibly quick to make two trips a week, but if you could, it would make the skipper a good profit. Joseph Plug was the nickname for one of the barge skippers who was keen to make as much money as possible.

  ‘That skipper was always after cargoes that weighed heavy like linseed, ground nuts, maize, barley or palm kernels. We called these running seed because they filled the cargo space easily and fitted nicely under the hatches. Cargoes like Copra, locust bean, cotton seed or material in sacks was more trouble and took more time to load and unload. These cargoes weighed light so we had to put on pestering boards inside the combings to make the hold higher to take more cargo.’

  The clock tower was built on the south side of Albert Dock with a clock face on either side. Damaged in the Hull Blitz, it was demolished after the war.

  4. Maggie May

  Oh well do I recall

  When I first met Maggie May

  Cruising up and down old Canning Place

  Oh she had a figure finer

  Than the finest ocean liner

  And unto her did I give chase

  Next morning I awoke

  My heart all torn and broke

  No coat nor trousers could I find

  But the judge he guilty found her

  Cos she robbed a homeward-bounder

  And she won’t be down in Lime Street any more

  Oh Maggie Maggie May

  You won’t be down in Lime Street any more

  Cos she robbed so many sailors

  And skint so many whalers

  That she won’t be down on Lime Street any more

  This is a truncated version of the classic sailor’s song of being robbed by a prostitute on returning to Blighty. Laurie says he learnt ditties like this from his time in the forces from 1942. Roud and Burton state that the song is first reported around the Mersey in 1757. A homeward-bounder is a sailor coming home from a long trip. Lime Street is in central Liverpool. In longer versions of the song other streets around the then-red-light district of Liverpool are mentioned. ‘Canning Place’ was a huge, Victorian sailors’ lodging in Liverpool where the unfortunate matelot is presumably living and had received his pay for the voyage before meeting up with Maggie. The Beatles recorded a version of Maggie May on Let it Be.

  5. Goodbye Old Ship of Mine

  Laurie remembers this maudlin song being crooned by the old skippers on cold winter’s days on the dumb barges. When he was acting as mate, for part of the journey Laurie was on deck holding hard to the tiller and getting as close to the chimney from the stove in the cabin for warmth. The skipper was down below in that snug cabin getting warm and eating some grub. When it came time for Laurie to go below for his food and warmth, and the skipper took his turn at the helm, this was one of the tunes that came down through the cabin hatch. First published in 1935, it has been recorded being sung before that in Gloucestershire as well as Yorkshire. The first verse is not always sung.

  One day by the docks I was straying

  By the quayside I happened to be

  When I overheard someone saying

  To an old ship just in from the sea

  Goodbye old ship of mine

  For no more we’ll cross the line

  Now your days are through

  Sailing on the blue

  So goodbye old ship of mine

  When they break you up at dawn

  In the yard where you were born

  Oh they’ll break a part

  Of a poor sailor’s heart

  So goodbye old ship of mine

  Your log book I’ll keep as a token

  In memory of you Mary Ann

  I’d give the world to keep you

  But I’m just a poor sailor man

  So goodbye old ship of mine

  And for the sake of Auld Lang Syne

  Your name will still live on

  Till the day that I am gone

  So goodbye old ship of mine

  Appendix 3

  GLOSSARY OF TERMS

  Term Meaning

  Athwart Across; normally used to describe a craft that has become stranded across the opening section of a bridge.

  Battin’ iron, lug, wedge All used to make sure that the covers over the barge’s hold are watertight. That’s battening down.

  Bed ‘ole/bed side Compartment above the cabin of the barge where the skipper slept. Usually on the sta
rboard side.

  Bight A sharp bend in a river, or loop in a rope. Scott’s Bight was one well-known example, lying between Selby Toll Bridge and the BOCM wharves.

  Boathook A long pole – around 20 foot – with a hook at one end and a pommel or pad for your shoulder at the other, used to manoeuvre a dumb barge around the docks.

  Bucket elevator A conveyor belt with grabs on the belt like a JCB’s bucket. Used at BOCM to transfer loose seed or nuts from the barge’s hold to the BOCM works. The cargo had to be shovelled into the buckets in the hold.

  Bunker up Fill with coal.

  Clough Pronounced in the Hull area as ‘clew’. In other places it rhymes with ‘plough’. A general term for openings in a lock such as paddles or sluices that are controlled to keep water at the desired level or to allow water to flow in or out.

  Cob, cog or coggie boat Small boat tied to the barge’s stern, often used for sculling around the docks.

  Cover Weatherproof tarpaulin that went over the barge’s holds. Often had to be battened down against the wind.

  Derrick Small crane either on-board or at a jetty or wharf to lift cargo between barge and dry land.

  Dropping down A term used at Selby when an empty dumb barge drifts, in a controlled way downstream on the ebb tide from the BOCM wharves at Barlby to the jetties in the centre of Selby.

  Dujardin’s Navy Mr Dujardin was the general manager at the Selby mills in the 1930’s. His ‘navy’ was the fleet of tugs and barges working between Hull and Selby. He’s mentioned in the chorus of the ‘SW&T’ song.

  Dumb barge An unpowered cargo barge that had to be pulled up river by a tug, or moved around the docks with a boat hook.

  Ebb tide The flow of the river under gravity from Selby towards Hull. When the ebb is running and there is no ‘fresh’, the river level gradually gets shallower.

  Flood tide The surge of water upriver as the tide came in up the Humber. The ‘flood’ could travel at up to 8 knots, and reached as far inland as Naburn Lock. The flood rapidly increased the depth of water in the river.

  Fore and afters Supports running the length of the barge under the hatches.

  Freeboard The height of the barge deck above water.

  Fresh Extra water in the river on the ebb tide as a result of rainfall or snow melt in the upper part of the river catchment.