Pilots in the Bristol Channel: 1930s
The tidal range of the Bristol Channel has always been a challenge to shipping approaching from the Atlantic, and conditions were hard for the pilots… Read More »Pilots in the Bristol Channel: 1930s
Workboats
Posts relating to the work and subsequent leisure use of traditional workboats powered by sail, steam or diesel
Through Jack Sound with ‘Vivian’, 1886
After a detailed description of the sail plan for the Swansea Bay pilot boats, Eden Northmore-Jones tells the tale of a spring cruise in ‘Vivian’,… Read More »Through Jack Sound with ‘Vivian’, 1886
Last of the Severn sailing coasters
This is an extract from a fascinating memoir of the days of the sailing coasters in and around the Severn Estuary. Edmund Eglinton, born in… Read More »Last of the Severn sailing coasters
‘Out punt!’: the Bristol pilot’s call
Captain George Buck recollects two night watches, five miles southwest of the Wolf Rock, waiting for an expected ship from Gibraltar. Despite the regulations over… Read More »‘Out punt!’: the Bristol pilot’s call
Newsreels of Newlyn, Cornwall: 1937 and 1946
In these two short snippets from the Pathé film archive, we see nine Newlyn fishermen petition the Minister of Health at Westminster and a post-war… Read More »Newsreels of Newlyn, Cornwall: 1937 and 1946
Red Trawlers of Brixham, 1933
This Pathé archive footage of the Brixham Regatta, 1933 opens with a title screen ‘The Red Trawlers of Brixham – famed in song and story… Read More »Red Trawlers of Brixham, 1933
‘Sir William Priestley’ lifeboat & replicas
The Morecambe Fishermen’s Association provided their own lifeboats. The first was ‘Gyakhan’, a large rowing boat built in 1895, the year following the capsizing of the… Read More »‘Sir William Priestley’ lifeboat & replicas
The approaching storm, 1874
The North Sea is renowned for its storms, which could spring up from nowhere, leaving few safe havens along the north east coast for the… Read More »The approaching storm, 1874
200 colliers lost at sea, 1692
Daniel Defoe describes a terrible disaster when 200 sailing colliers were lost off the east coast of England in 1692. About the year 1692, (I… Read More »200 colliers lost at sea, 1692