by Geoff Body
In addition to the achievements in the preservation of these typical cargo sailing vessels, recent years have also featured a good deal of restoration work and the building of new craft to traditional designs. Fittingly, Bristol is the scene of a lot of this type of work which, in its way perpetuates the spirit that built the SS Great Britain there in the first place and then returned it to its original resplendent condition, a feat that many who saw the rotting hulk arrive home from the Falklands must have thought well-nigh impossible.
This same regard for its maritime heritage saw work started in 1994 on a replica of the caravel Matthew, the vessel that John Cabot commanded on his epic voyage to Newfoundland. Built to celebrate the 500th anniversary of that achievement, the vessel was designed by the naval architect Colin Mudie and was built by Storm Sail Services, precursor to the Bristol Classic Boat Company. She was launched into Bristol’s floating harbour in time to take part in the first International Festival of the Sea held there in 1996 and in the same year made a trip across the Atlantic to Newfoundland and back. Her route on this momentous recreation of an important historic event took the Matthew down the Bristol Channel and along the course on which so many Somerset vessels had plied their trade in earlier times. The vessel is still based in Bristol, but actively sails to many European ports.
The Bristol Classic Boat Company, R.B. Boatbuilders and Tim Loftus Boatbuilding are three Bristol firms building and restoring classical sailing vessel types in the city’s floating harbour. In this process they are using traditional methods, skills and materials, including locally sourced timber, larch planking and copper fastenings. A design prominent in this activity due to its superb and well proven sailing qualities is that of the Bristol Channel pilot cutter.
The Bristol Channel pilot cutters were replaced by steam cutters in 1912 and most of them were sold on as yachts. Their excellent sea-keeping qualities and speed made them ideal conversions. Some of these original vessels are still active; Mascotte, Olga and Carriad are still sailing. Another original is the Peggy, owned by Mr Diccon Pridie, based in Bristol docks and still doing annual cruises. She was built by the well-known Pill shipwright Edwin Rowles in 1903 for the pilot Arthur Case and converted to a yacht in the 1920s. Peggy’s original name was Wave and she carried the number ten on her mainsail.
So well regarded is this pilot cutter design that there have been a number of new builds in Bristol in recent years. A notable example of these was the Pegasus which was completed at the yard of the Bristol Classic Boat Company for the Island Sailing Trust, a charity which has a small fleet of well-tried sailing vessels for the sail training of young people. With oak frames and larch planking, Pegasus is 74ft long, has a beam of 14ft 9in and a draught of 8ft 6in. Based in Plymouth she takes a proud part in the Tall Ships Race.
An example of the renaissance of the traditional small sailing vessel, the grace of the old Bristol Channel pilot cutters is very evident in this new build being undertaken in the Underfall Yard at Bristol in 2005. (Roy Gallop)
At the Underfall Yard in Bristol City Docks R.B. Boatbuilders have, in the last ten years, built a further three pilot cutters for sailing charter work. Edith Gray is 38ft 6in long, with a beam of 11ft 6in and a draught of 7ft 6in. Using larch on oak with a transom stern she is with Wild Sailing. The slightly larger Morwenna is 45ft long, has the same beam width and a draught the smaller by just an inch. The third member of the trio, Mischief, is of similar construction and is based on the lines of the vessel made famous by the writer and explorer W.H. Tilman who used former pilot cutters in his voyages to extreme locations in the Arctic and Antarctic regions.
Another new-build to a traditional design, this hull in the Bristol Yard of Tim Loftus Boatbuilding shows the fine transom stern, and the build-up from the keel of larch planking on oak frames fixed with copper nails. (Roy Gallop)
In the same yard at the time of writing is the old pilot cutter Breeze which was built by Coopers of Pill for the Cardiff pilot Albert Cope in 1887–88. After starting work out of Cardiff in that year she was then owned by the same family until the steam cutters took over around 1912. Breeze is probably the second-oldest vessel of her type still in existence and the only remaining example of one built by Coopers of Pill. With a deck length of 38ft and a 12ft beam she was surveyed in Porlock Weir back in 1992 and was then afloat and in commission, but by 2006 she was on the quay and in poor condition. Seven years later Breeze was housed in R.B. Boatbuilders’ yard undergoing a careful restoration which paid the maximum regard to her traditional construction based on sawn oak frames with larch planking, wooden trenails and iron dumps.
The predecessors of these preserved and restored vessels had long and active lives and with good care and maintenance these recent additions could last until the twenty-second century. So all is not lost. The honourable tradition of cargo carrying in wooden sailing vessels that enriched and shaped the communities around the Severn and the Bristol Channel has a superb and tangible memorial in these preserved, restored and new-build vessels and designs. They have become part of a rich heritage of the many older vessels preserved at ports and harbours all around Great Britain.
At the Underfall Yard of R.B. Boatbuilders, the former pilot cutter Breeze awaits the restoration that will give her a new lease of life. (Roy Gallop)
An old ketch lies on the mud at Bideford Quay, nursing a broken bowsprit but still looking as if she might one day put to sea again. (Roy Gallop)
Proudly showing just what can be achieved the ketch Irene, now beautifully restored, is pictured here in the floating harbour at Bristol.
APPENDIX 1
Ship Arrivals at Dunball Wharf December 1904
Date
Vessels
1st
Charles, Mary, Galley
2nd
Caroline, Ring Dove
3rd
Champion, Fanny Jane
4th
Flora, Robin Hood, Theodore
5th
A-1 Steamship
6th
Victory
7th
Conquest
8th
Mary, Caroline, Sarah
9th
Shepherd
10th
Champion, Charles, William
11th
Eley
12th
Rival
13th
Ring Dove, Two Brothers
18th
Mary, Champion, Caroline, Victory
19th
Martin Luther
20th
Sarah, Charles, Fame
21st
Jonadab
24th
Champion, William, Palace
25th
Longrey Lass
29th
Charles
Multiple Visits:-
Two
William
10th and 24th
Ring Dove
2nd and 13th
Sarah
8th and 20th
Three
Mary
1st, 8th and 18th
Caroline
2nd, 8th and 18th
Charles
10th, 20th and 29th
Four
Champion
3rd, 8th, 10th and 24th
GLOSSARY
Adze
Axe-like tool with curved blade used for shaping wood.
Bath Bricks
Renowned scouring blocks manufactured from silica sediment found in the River Parrett at Bridgwater.
Boom
Pivoted spar fixed to the mast at one end and to which the foot of the sail is attached.
Carvel-built
Wooden vessels constructed with the hull planks fitted edge-to-edge to create a smooth surface.
Clinker-built
Wooden vessels with hull planks overlapping, resulting in a much lighter construction than when carvel-built.
Coamings
The raised sides of the hatches onto which the hatch covers a
re fitted, also increasing longitudinal strength.
Counter stern
The after part of the hull projecting beyond the stern post.
Culm
Low grade, small coal, usually anthracite.
Dumps
Large iron nails of square section, nowadays galvanised.
Eroder
Boat with pumps for removing sediment and vegetation from rivers, docks and harbours.
Flatner
Simple, planked, flat-bottomed boat for use in shallow waters.
Gaff
Spar to which the head of a fore and aft sail is attached.
Gunwale
Raised deck edging around the hull.
Halyards
Ropes for hauling up or lowering sails.
Hard
Man-made sloped, even surface for loading or landing cargo to wheeled vehicles.
Keel
Barge with square sail found mainly in the Humber and connected waters.
Keelage
Fee charged by some ports to permit vessels to dock.
Knees
Bracket supports between frames and deck.
Land Waiter
Shore-based customs official responsible for enforcing import and export regulations and collecting import duties.
Letpass
Authority for British vessels and seamen to load or land at any creek or port in England and Wales.
Pill
Secondary waterway off a river or creek.
Rhyne
(pronounced rhine or rheen) Minor drainage channel.
Sheets
The ropes attached to and used for controlling the sails.
Shrouds
Ropes or wires from the ship’s sides to the head of the mast to provide lateral support.
Slime batches
Collecting areas for the sediment used for Bath Bricks.
Smack
Ketch or cutter used mainly for fishing.
Spar
Yard or mast of a ship.
Strakes
The hull planking of a vessel.
Transom
Flat stern.
Warp
Move a vessel by hauling on a fixed rope.
Warps
Ropes used for mooring.
Yawl
Two-masted sailing vessel with small mizzen mast set behind the rudder post.
Cover illustration: Highbridge Wharf pictured in late Victorian years.
COPYRIGHT
First published in 2015
The History Press
The Mill, Brimscombe Port
Stroud, Gloucestershire, GL5 2QG
www.thehistorypress.co.uk
This ebook edition first published in 2015
All rights reserved
© Geoff Body and Roy Gallop, 2014
The right of Geoff Body and Roy Gallop to be identified as the Authors of this work has been asserted in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.
This ebook is copyright material and must not be copied, reproduced, transferred, distributed, leased, licensed or publicly performed or used in any way except as specifically permitted in writing by the publishers, as allowed under the terms and conditions under which it was purchased or as strictly permitted by applicable copyright law. Any unauthorised distribution or use of this text may be a direct infringement of the author’s and publisher’s rights, and those responsible may be liable in law accordingly.
ISBN 978 0 7509 6411 1
Original typesetting by The History Press
Ebook compilation by RefineCatch Limited, Bungay, Suffolk
