Three Old Ladies - Explored!
Seen in 2015 in the modernised environment of St Katherine's Docks just east of the Tower of London are three old ladies of the Thames, all approaching their 100th birthdays.
SB Lady Daphne is a wooden Thames sailing barge, built in Rochester, England in 1923. She was used to carry various cargoes such as bricks and Portland stone on the River Thames and along the English Channel. Lady Daphne was commissioned in 1921 by David J Bradley of Thomas Watson (Shipping), a prominent barge owning company in Rochester, Kent. She was built by Short Bros. She was one of the last sailing barges to be built from wood, but was built from a plan, (from lines) rather than laying off a half-hull model. She is named after Bradley's new-born daughter, Daphne. She had two sister ships, the SB Lady Jean and the SB Lord Haig. On Boxing Day 1927, Lady Daphne's skipper was washed overboard and the two remaining crew members abandoned her off the Cornish coast. However Lady Daphne, with only the skipper's canary on board, sailed herself from the Lizard to Tresco in the Scilly Isles onto a few tens of yards of safe sand.
Xylonite and Adieu are the third and fifth of seven steel-hulled Thames barges built between 1924 and 1930 for F W Horlock of Mistley. One, Blue Mermaid, was lost to a mine during World War II but the remainder are all still afloat.
Xylonite is 26.5m long, with a beam of 5.64m and a draught of 0.91m. She is assessed at 68 grt. Built of steel, and perhaps lacking the romance of a wooden ship, she has a greater cargo-carrying capacity, and is lighter and cheaper to operate. The name Xylonite derives from the original 1869 name for celluloid.
Xylonite appeared in the 2017 film Dunkirk and Lady Daphne has at least one TV appearance to her name; six of her sisters went to Dunkirk in 1940.
Three Old Ladies - Explored!
Seen in 2015 in the modernised environment of St Katherine's Docks just east of the Tower of London are three old ladies of the Thames, all approaching their 100th birthdays.
SB Lady Daphne is a wooden Thames sailing barge, built in Rochester, England in 1923. She was used to carry various cargoes such as bricks and Portland stone on the River Thames and along the English Channel. Lady Daphne was commissioned in 1921 by David J Bradley of Thomas Watson (Shipping), a prominent barge owning company in Rochester, Kent. She was built by Short Bros. She was one of the last sailing barges to be built from wood, but was built from a plan, (from lines) rather than laying off a half-hull model. She is named after Bradley's new-born daughter, Daphne. She had two sister ships, the SB Lady Jean and the SB Lord Haig. On Boxing Day 1927, Lady Daphne's skipper was washed overboard and the two remaining crew members abandoned her off the Cornish coast. However Lady Daphne, with only the skipper's canary on board, sailed herself from the Lizard to Tresco in the Scilly Isles onto a few tens of yards of safe sand.
Xylonite and Adieu are the third and fifth of seven steel-hulled Thames barges built between 1924 and 1930 for F W Horlock of Mistley. One, Blue Mermaid, was lost to a mine during World War II but the remainder are all still afloat.
Xylonite is 26.5m long, with a beam of 5.64m and a draught of 0.91m. She is assessed at 68 grt. Built of steel, and perhaps lacking the romance of a wooden ship, she has a greater cargo-carrying capacity, and is lighter and cheaper to operate. The name Xylonite derives from the original 1869 name for celluloid.
Xylonite appeared in the 2017 film Dunkirk and Lady Daphne has at least one TV appearance to her name; six of her sisters went to Dunkirk in 1940.