View allAll Photos Tagged Helmsman
(BEST SEEN LARGE IF YOU HAVE CLASS #THREE ALPHA SECURITY CLEARANCE OR HIGHER)
First appearance of the S.H.I.E.L.D Helicarrier “Thunder Child” (“The Mighty Avengers #1 May, 2007. Design/Dialogue by Brian Michael Bendis & Frank Cho)
MS. MARVEL: “Wow, Tony.”
TONY STARK: “I know.”
MS. MARVEL: “What was wrong with the old helicarrier exactly?”
TONY STARK: “It stunk. It actually smelled.”
MS. MARVEL: “Like cigars.”
TONY STARK: “And other things.”
MS. MARVEL: “You know, they invented carpet cleaners.”
TONY STARK: “I’m the new Director of S.H.I.E.L.D., so I get a new helicarrier.”
MS MARVEL: “Can I have the old one?”
TONY STARK: “I was thinking of tossing it up on Ebay.”
No fictional covert organisation worth its suicide capsules would be without a futuristic airborne headquarters and since 1965 Marvel Comics’ S.H.I.E.L.D (Strategic Hazard Intervention, Espionage and Logistics Directorate) has operated a succession of fantastic and fiscally outrageous ‘helicarriers’.
Former S.H.I.E.L.D Director Nick Fury was pretty hard on helicarriers and has written off a number of the expensive flying fortresses over the years. Since billionaire industrialist/inventor Tony Stark recently became the Director he has worked tirelessly to put his own distinctive stamp on the organisation. Previous helicarriers have been joint efforts, but this one is definitely all Stark’s own work, cheekily featuring a good helping of the streamlined styling and signature red and gold colour scheme made famous by his Iron Man armour.
I couldn’t wait for this beaut new beasty to show up as a collectible so thought I’d have a crack at tooling up my own.
My helicarrier is 16 centimetres long and is made from Super Sculpey, an oven fireable polymer clay. The ‘guns’ are made from 1.5 mm aluminium tube and can be swivelled on their mounts. They can rotate 360 degrees in the vertical plane, which means they can service targets in a range of envelopes from air-to-ground/air and even space. With barrels that size I’m assuming they must be something particularly chunky, maybe some kind of hypervelocity, variable load electromagnetic rail gun, but when Tony Stark is involved who knows? Maybe they’re part of some really humungous sound system that can blast out Black Sabbath on cue, or p’rhaps he’s going to build a couple of giant hands on the ends of the tubes! What they’re probably not is..a bluff! Though Stark’s rep would probably allow him to get away with that too. (Now, that WOULD be irony, man!)
I’ve interpreted the drawing as best I can with only the one admittedly cool drawing to work from.
Helicarriers traditionally loft their own squadrons of aircraft, often from flight decks that look very much like a standard sea borne carrier’s ‘flat top’. S.H.I.E.L.D has had Vertical and Short takeoff and Landing capable aircraft for some time so I reasoned that the flight decks are probably quite abbreviated and accessible by elevators. I’ve detailed the helicarrier with both paint and letraset rub on transfer as well as some very old stick on ‘line’ tape that I’ve had sitting around for decades and which remains handy for jobs like this.
Unless the typical helicarrier outrigger engine pods are meant to be added later the engines must be integral to the hull so I’ve placed six exhaust outlets along the keel to represent them. I mean, this is a Tony Stark invention and I doubt he’d just whack ginormous rotor blades on the thing. Probably some seriously humungous repulsors, I reckon.
For the picture I didn't mess with the model too much. Just dropped it onto a blue screen (okay, a scrap of blue fabric) on the outdoor table, photographed the hell out of it, pulled the ship element out in Photoshop, and dropped it into an Aussie sky plate I shot seperately. Fiddled with the lighting a little, painted some foreground cloud in, and did some general digital housekeeping to clean things up.
I’ve taken the liberty of christening her “Thunder Child” because...well, because I can!
H.G Wells fans will know why, though I dare say that the Thunder God Thor’s mighty brow might be a little puzzled by the name.
Other favourite ‘skyships’ include: Manta Station (Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow), Spectrum’s Cloudbase (Captain Scarlet and the Mysterons), and U.N.I.T’s Valiant (seen in the Doctor Who episode, The Sound of Drums).
Oh, and the rings painted on the business ends of the guns do NOT denote kills.
Probably.
They're, um, clearance markers so that the helmsman can get a visual check on his proximity to the dock when landing.....
Fair dinkum!
Ahhhhh, Red Hulk, you ruddy maggot. Only went and crashed the bloody thing! On the other hand, what a tax write off Stark's going to get! Wonder who will get the contract to build the new one....$$$$$!!
TEIGN C Damen Stan 1405
IMO: - N/A
MMSI: 235082804
Call Sign: MWBM9
AIS Vessel Type: Dredger
GENERAL
DAMEN YARD NUMBER: 503705
Avelingen-West 20
4202 MS Gorinchem
The Netherlands
Phone: +31 (0)183 63 99 11
info@damen.com
DELIVERY DATE August 2001
BASIC FUNCTIONS Towing, mooring, pushing and dredging operations
FLAG United Kingdom [GB]
OWNED Teignmouth Harbour Commission
CASSCATION: Bureau Veritas 1 HULL MACH Seagoing Launch
DIMENSIONS
LENGTH 14.40 m
BEAM 4.73 m
DEPTH AT SIDES 205 m
DRAUGHT AFT 171 m
DISPLACEMENT 48 ton
TANK CAPACITIES
Fuel oil 6.9 m³
PERFORMANCES (TRIALS)
BOLLARD PULL AHEAD 8.0 ton
SPEED 9.8 knots
PROPULSION SYSTEM
MAIN ENGINE 2x Caterpillar 3406C TA/A
TOTAL POWER 477 bmW (640i hp) at 1800 rpm
GEARBOX 2x Twin Disc MG 5091/3.82:1
PROPELLERS Bronze fixed pitch propeller
KORT NOZZELS Van de Giessen 2x 1000 mm with stainless steel innerings
ENGINE CONTROL Kobelt
STEERING GEAR 2x 25 mm single plate Powered hydraulic 2x 45, rudder indicator
AUXILIARY EQUIPMENT
BILGE PUMP Sterling SIH 20, 32 m/hr
BATTERY SETS 2x 24V, 200 Ah + change over facility
COOLING SYSTEM Closed cooling system
ALARM SYSTEM Engines, gearboxes and bilge alarms
FRESH WATER PRESSURE SET Speck 24V
DECK LAY-OUT
ANCHORS 2x 48 kg Pool (HHP)
CHAIN 70 m, Ø 13mm, shortlink U2
ANCHOR WINCH Hand-operated
TOWING HOOK Mampaey, 15.3 ton SWL
COUPLING WINCH
PUSHBOW Cylindrical nubber fender Ø 380 mm
ACCOMMODATION
The wheelhouse ceiling and sides are insulated with mineral wool and
panelled. The wheelhouse floor is covered with rubber/synthetic floor
covering, make Bolidt, color blue The wheelhouse has one
helmsman seat, a bench and table with chair Below deck two berths, a
kitchen unit and a toilet space are arranged.
NAUTICAL AND COMMUNICATION EQUIPMENT
SEARCHLIGHT Den Haan 170 W 24 V
VHF RADIO Sailor RT 2048 25 W
NAVIGATION Navigation lights incl towing and pilot lights
Teignmouth Harbour Commission
The Harbour Commission is a Trust Port created by Statute.
The principal Order is the Teignmouth Harbour Order 1924
as amended by the Teignmouth Harbour Revision Order 2003
TEIGN C Damen Stan 1405
IMO: - N/A
MMSI: 235082804
Call Sign: MWBM9
AIS Vessel Type: Dredger
GENERAL
DAMEN YARD NUMBER: 503705
Avelingen-West 20
4202 MS Gorinchem
The Netherlands
Phone: +31 (0)183 63 99 11
info@damen.com
DELIVERY DATE August 2001
BASIC FUNCTIONS Towing, mooring, pushing and dredging operations
FLAG United Kingdom [GB]
OWNED Teignmouth Harbour Commission
CASSCATION: Bureau Veritas 1 HULL MACH Seagoing Launch
DIMENSIONS
LENGTH 14.40 m
BEAM 4.73 m
DEPTH AT SIDES 205 m
DRAUGHT AFT 171 m
DISPLACEMENT 48 ton
TANK CAPACITIES
Fuel oil 6.9 m³
PERFORMANCES (TRIALS)
BOLLARD PULL AHEAD 8.0 ton
SPEED 9.8 knots
PROPULSION SYSTEM
MAIN ENGINE 2x Caterpillar 3406C TA/A
TOTAL POWER 477 bmW (640i hp) at 1800 rpm
GEARBOX 2x Twin Disc MG 5091/3.82:1
PROPELLERS Bronze fixed pitch propeller
KORT NOZZELS Van de Giessen 2x 1000 mm with stainless steel innerings
ENGINE CONTROL Kobelt
STEERING GEAR 2x 25 mm single plate Powered hydraulic 2x 45, rudder indicator
AUXILIARY EQUIPMENT
BILGE PUMP Sterling SIH 20, 32 m/hr
BATTERY SETS 2x 24V, 200 Ah + change over facility
COOLING SYSTEM Closed cooling system
ALARM SYSTEM Engines, gearboxes and bilge alarms
FRESH WATER PRESSURE SET Speck 24V
DECK LAY-OUT
ANCHORS 2x 48 kg Pool (HHP)
CHAIN 70 m, Ø 13mm, shortlink U2
ANCHOR WINCH Hand-operated
TOWING HOOK Mampaey, 15.3 ton SWL
COUPLING WINCH
PUSHBOW Cylindrical nubber fender Ø 380 mm
ACCOMMODATION
The wheelhouse ceiling and sides are insulated with mineral wool and
panelled. The wheelhouse floor is covered with rubber/synthetic floor
covering, make Bolidt, color blue The wheelhouse has one
helmsman seat, a bench and table with chair Below deck two berths, a
kitchen unit and a toilet space are arranged.
NAUTICAL AND COMMUNICATION EQUIPMENT
SEARCHLIGHT Den Haan 170 W 24 V
VHF RADIO Sailor RT 2048 25 W
NAVIGATION Navigation lights incl towing and pilot lights
Teignmouth Harbour Commission
The Harbour Commission is a Trust Port created by Statute.
The principal Order is the Teignmouth Harbour Order 1924
as amended by the Teignmouth Harbour Revision Order 2003
TEIGN C Damen Stan 1405
IMO: - N/A
MMSI: 235082804
Call Sign: MWBM9
AIS Vessel Type: Dredger
GENERAL
DAMEN YARD NUMBER: 503705
Avelingen-West 20
4202 MS Gorinchem
The Netherlands
Phone: +31 (0)183 63 99 11
info@damen.com
DELIVERY DATE August 2001
BASIC FUNCTIONS Towing, mooring, pushing and dredging operations
FLAG United Kingdom [GB]
OWNED Teignmouth Harbour Commission
CASSCATION: Bureau Veritas 1 HULL MACH Seagoing Launch
DIMENSIONS
LENGTH 14.40 m
BEAM 4.73 m
DEPTH AT SIDES 205 m
DRAUGHT AFT 171 m
DISPLACEMENT 48 ton
TANK CAPACITIES
Fuel oil 6.9 m³
PERFORMANCES (TRIALS)
BOLLARD PULL AHEAD 8.0 ton
SPEED 9.8 knots
PROPULSION SYSTEM
MAIN ENGINE 2x Caterpillar 3406C TA/A
TOTAL POWER 477 bmW (640i hp) at 1800 rpm
GEARBOX 2x Twin Disc MG 5091/3.82:1
PROPELLERS Bronze fixed pitch propeller
KORT NOZZELS Van de Giessen 2x 1000 mm with stainless steel innerings
ENGINE CONTROL Kobelt
STEERING GEAR 2x 25 mm single plate Powered hydraulic 2x 45, rudder indicator
AUXILIARY EQUIPMENT
BILGE PUMP Sterling SIH 20, 32 m/hr
BATTERY SETS 2x 24V, 200 Ah + change over facility
COOLING SYSTEM Closed cooling system
ALARM SYSTEM Engines, gearboxes and bilge alarms
FRESH WATER PRESSURE SET Speck 24V
DECK LAY-OUT
ANCHORS 2x 48 kg Pool (HHP)
CHAIN 70 m, Ø 13mm, shortlink U2
ANCHOR WINCH Hand-operated
TOWING HOOK Mampaey, 15.3 ton SWL
COUPLING WINCH
PUSHBOW Cylindrical nubber fender Ø 380 mm
ACCOMMODATION
The wheelhouse ceiling and sides are insulated with mineral wool and
panelled. The wheelhouse floor is covered with rubber/synthetic floor
covering, make Bolidt, color blue The wheelhouse has one
helmsman seat, a bench and table with chair Below deck two berths, a
kitchen unit and a toilet space are arranged.
NAUTICAL AND COMMUNICATION EQUIPMENT
SEARCHLIGHT Den Haan 170 W 24 V
VHF RADIO Sailor RT 2048 25 W
NAVIGATION Navigation lights incl towing and pilot lights
Teignmouth Harbour Commission
The Harbour Commission is a Trust Port created by Statute.
The principal Order is the Teignmouth Harbour Order 1924
as amended by the Teignmouth Harbour Revision Order 2003
TEIGN C Damen Stan 1405
IMO: - N/A
MMSI: 235082804
Call Sign: MWBM9
AIS Vessel Type: Dredger
GENERAL
DAMEN YARD NUMBER: 503705
Avelingen-West 20
4202 MS Gorinchem
The Netherlands
Phone: +31 (0)183 63 99 11
info@damen.com
DELIVERY DATE August 2001
BASIC FUNCTIONS Towing, mooring, pushing and dredging operations
FLAG United Kingdom [GB]
OWNED Teignmouth Harbour Commission
CASSCATION: Bureau Veritas 1 HULL MACH Seagoing Launch
DIMENSIONS
LENGTH 14.40 m
BEAM 4.73 m
DEPTH AT SIDES 205 m
DRAUGHT AFT 171 m
DISPLACEMENT 48 ton
TANK CAPACITIES
Fuel oil 6.9 m³
PERFORMANCES (TRIALS)
BOLLARD PULL AHEAD 8.0 ton
SPEED 9.8 knots
PROPULSION SYSTEM
MAIN ENGINE 2x Caterpillar 3406C TA/A
TOTAL POWER 477 bmW (640i hp) at 1800 rpm
GEARBOX 2x Twin Disc MG 5091/3.82:1
PROPELLERS Bronze fixed pitch propeller
KORT NOZZELS Van de Giessen 2x 1000 mm with stainless steel innerings
ENGINE CONTROL Kobelt
STEERING GEAR 2x 25 mm single plate Powered hydraulic 2x 45, rudder indicator
AUXILIARY EQUIPMENT
BILGE PUMP Sterling SIH 20, 32 m/hr
BATTERY SETS 2x 24V, 200 Ah + change over facility
COOLING SYSTEM Closed cooling system
ALARM SYSTEM Engines, gearboxes and bilge alarms
FRESH WATER PRESSURE SET Speck 24V
DECK LAY-OUT
ANCHORS 2x 48 kg Pool (HHP)
CHAIN 70 m, Ø 13mm, shortlink U2
ANCHOR WINCH Hand-operated
TOWING HOOK Mampaey, 15.3 ton SWL
COUPLING WINCH
PUSHBOW Cylindrical nubber fender Ø 380 mm
ACCOMMODATION
The wheelhouse ceiling and sides are insulated with mineral wool and
panelled. The wheelhouse floor is covered with rubber/synthetic floor
covering, make Bolidt, color blue The wheelhouse has one
helmsman seat, a bench and table with chair Below deck two berths, a
kitchen unit and a toilet space are arranged.
NAUTICAL AND COMMUNICATION EQUIPMENT
SEARCHLIGHT Den Haan 170 W 24 V
VHF RADIO Sailor RT 2048 25 W
NAVIGATION Navigation lights incl towing and pilot lights
Teignmouth Harbour Commission
The Harbour Commission is a Trust Port created by Statute.
The principal Order is the Teignmouth Harbour Order 1924
as amended by the Teignmouth Harbour Revision Order 2003
TEIGN C Damen Stan 1405
IMO: - N/A
MMSI: 235082804
Call Sign: MWBM9
AIS Vessel Type: Dredger
GENERAL
DAMEN YARD NUMBER: 503705
Avelingen-West 20
4202 MS Gorinchem
The Netherlands
Phone: +31 (0)183 63 99 11
info@damen.com
DELIVERY DATE August 2001
BASIC FUNCTIONS Towing, mooring, pushing and dredging operations
FLAG United Kingdom [GB]
OWNED Teignmouth Harbour Commission
CASSCATION: Bureau Veritas 1 HULL MACH Seagoing Launch
DIMENSIONS
LENGTH 14.40 m
BEAM 4.73 m
DEPTH AT SIDES 205 m
DRAUGHT AFT 171 m
DISPLACEMENT 48 ton
TANK CAPACITIES
Fuel oil 6.9 m³
PERFORMANCES (TRIALS)
BOLLARD PULL AHEAD 8.0 ton
SPEED 9.8 knots
PROPULSION SYSTEM
MAIN ENGINE 2x Caterpillar 3406C TA/A
TOTAL POWER 477 bmW (640i hp) at 1800 rpm
GEARBOX 2x Twin Disc MG 5091/3.82:1
PROPELLERS Bronze fixed pitch propeller
KORT NOZZELS Van de Giessen 2x 1000 mm with stainless steel innerings
ENGINE CONTROL Kobelt
STEERING GEAR 2x 25 mm single plate Powered hydraulic 2x 45, rudder indicator
AUXILIARY EQUIPMENT
BILGE PUMP Sterling SIH 20, 32 m/hr
BATTERY SETS 2x 24V, 200 Ah + change over facility
COOLING SYSTEM Closed cooling system
ALARM SYSTEM Engines, gearboxes and bilge alarms
FRESH WATER PRESSURE SET Speck 24V
DECK LAY-OUT
ANCHORS 2x 48 kg Pool (HHP)
CHAIN 70 m, Ø 13mm, shortlink U2
ANCHOR WINCH Hand-operated
TOWING HOOK Mampaey, 15.3 ton SWL
COUPLING WINCH
PUSHBOW Cylindrical nubber fender Ø 380 mm
ACCOMMODATION
The wheelhouse ceiling and sides are insulated with mineral wool and
panelled. The wheelhouse floor is covered with rubber/synthetic floor
covering, make Bolidt, color blue The wheelhouse has one
helmsman seat, a bench and table with chair Below deck two berths, a
kitchen unit and a toilet space are arranged.
NAUTICAL AND COMMUNICATION EQUIPMENT
SEARCHLIGHT Den Haan 170 W 24 V
VHF RADIO Sailor RT 2048 25 W
NAVIGATION Navigation lights incl towing and pilot lights
Teignmouth Harbour Commission
The Harbour Commission is a Trust Port created by Statute.
The principal Order is the Teignmouth Harbour Order 1924
as amended by the Teignmouth Harbour Revision Order 2003
TEIGN C Damen Stan 1405
IMO: - N/A
MMSI: 235082804
Call Sign: MWBM9
AIS Vessel Type: Dredger
GENERAL
DAMEN YARD NUMBER: 503705
Avelingen-West 20
4202 MS Gorinchem
The Netherlands
Phone: +31 (0)183 63 99 11
info@damen.com
DELIVERY DATE August 2001
BASIC FUNCTIONS Towing, mooring, pushing and dredging operations
FLAG United Kingdom [GB]
OWNED Teignmouth Harbour Commission
CASSCATION: Bureau Veritas 1 HULL MACH Seagoing Launch
DIMENSIONS
LENGTH 14.40 m
BEAM 4.73 m
DEPTH AT SIDES 205 m
DRAUGHT AFT 171 m
DISPLACEMENT 48 ton
TANK CAPACITIES
Fuel oil 6.9 m³
PERFORMANCES (TRIALS)
BOLLARD PULL AHEAD 8.0 ton
SPEED 9.8 knots
PROPULSION SYSTEM
MAIN ENGINE 2x Caterpillar 3406C TA/A
TOTAL POWER 477 bmW (640i hp) at 1800 rpm
GEARBOX 2x Twin Disc MG 5091/3.82:1
PROPELLERS Bronze fixed pitch propeller
KORT NOZZELS Van de Giessen 2x 1000 mm with stainless steel innerings
ENGINE CONTROL Kobelt
STEERING GEAR 2x 25 mm single plate Powered hydraulic 2x 45, rudder indicator
AUXILIARY EQUIPMENT
BILGE PUMP Sterling SIH 20, 32 m/hr
BATTERY SETS 2x 24V, 200 Ah + change over facility
COOLING SYSTEM Closed cooling system
ALARM SYSTEM Engines, gearboxes and bilge alarms
FRESH WATER PRESSURE SET Speck 24V
DECK LAY-OUT
ANCHORS 2x 48 kg Pool (HHP)
CHAIN 70 m, Ø 13mm, shortlink U2
ANCHOR WINCH Hand-operated
TOWING HOOK Mampaey, 15.3 ton SWL
COUPLING WINCH
PUSHBOW Cylindrical nubber fender Ø 380 mm
ACCOMMODATION
The wheelhouse ceiling and sides are insulated with mineral wool and
panelled. The wheelhouse floor is covered with rubber/synthetic floor
covering, make Bolidt, color blue The wheelhouse has one
helmsman seat, a bench and table with chair Below deck two berths, a
kitchen unit and a toilet space are arranged.
NAUTICAL AND COMMUNICATION EQUIPMENT
SEARCHLIGHT Den Haan 170 W 24 V
VHF RADIO Sailor RT 2048 25 W
NAVIGATION Navigation lights incl towing and pilot lights
Teignmouth Harbour Commission
The Harbour Commission is a Trust Port created by Statute.
The principal Order is the Teignmouth Harbour Order 1924
as amended by the Teignmouth Harbour Revision Order 2003
We joined the crowds on the riverbank for the Duan Wu (Opening of the Fifth [month]) Festival, with Zongzi and Dragon-boat racing.
TEIGN C Damen Stan 1405
IMO: - N/A
MMSI: 235082804
Call Sign: MWBM9
AIS Vessel Type: Dredger
GENERAL
DAMEN YARD NUMBER: 503705
Avelingen-West 20
4202 MS Gorinchem
The Netherlands
Phone: +31 (0)183 63 99 11
info@damen.com
DELIVERY DATE August 2001
BASIC FUNCTIONS Towing, mooring, pushing and dredging operations
FLAG United Kingdom [GB]
OWNED Teignmouth Harbour Commission
CASSCATION: Bureau Veritas 1 HULL MACH Seagoing Launch
DIMENSIONS
LENGTH 14.40 m
BEAM 4.73 m
DEPTH AT SIDES 205 m
DRAUGHT AFT 171 m
DISPLACEMENT 48 ton
TANK CAPACITIES
Fuel oil 6.9 m³
PERFORMANCES (TRIALS)
BOLLARD PULL AHEAD 8.0 ton
SPEED 9.8 knots
PROPULSION SYSTEM
MAIN ENGINE 2x Caterpillar 3406C TA/A
TOTAL POWER 477 bmW (640i hp) at 1800 rpm
GEARBOX 2x Twin Disc MG 5091/3.82:1
PROPELLERS Bronze fixed pitch propeller
KORT NOZZELS Van de Giessen 2x 1000 mm with stainless steel innerings
ENGINE CONTROL Kobelt
STEERING GEAR 2x 25 mm single plate Powered hydraulic 2x 45, rudder indicator
AUXILIARY EQUIPMENT
BILGE PUMP Sterling SIH 20, 32 m/hr
BATTERY SETS 2x 24V, 200 Ah + change over facility
COOLING SYSTEM Closed cooling system
ALARM SYSTEM Engines, gearboxes and bilge alarms
FRESH WATER PRESSURE SET Speck 24V
DECK LAY-OUT
ANCHORS 2x 48 kg Pool (HHP)
CHAIN 70 m, Ø 13mm, shortlink U2
ANCHOR WINCH Hand-operated
TOWING HOOK Mampaey, 15.3 ton SWL
COUPLING WINCH
PUSHBOW Cylindrical nubber fender Ø 380 mm
ACCOMMODATION
The wheelhouse ceiling and sides are insulated with mineral wool and
panelled. The wheelhouse floor is covered with rubber/synthetic floor
covering, make Bolidt, color blue The wheelhouse has one
helmsman seat, a bench and table with chair Below deck two berths, a
kitchen unit and a toilet space are arranged.
NAUTICAL AND COMMUNICATION EQUIPMENT
SEARCHLIGHT Den Haan 170 W 24 V
VHF RADIO Sailor RT 2048 25 W
NAVIGATION Navigation lights incl towing and pilot lights
Teignmouth Harbour Commission
The Harbour Commission is a Trust Port created by Statute.
The principal Order is the Teignmouth Harbour Order 1924
as amended by the Teignmouth Harbour Revision Order 2003
Jake Mallia MLT85 is 2020 Malta National Optimist Champion,
and also Helmsman Of The Year 2020. Congratulations Jake
TEIGN C Damen Stan 1405
IMO: - N/A
MMSI: 235082804
Call Sign: MWBM9
AIS Vessel Type: Dredger
GENERAL
DAMEN YARD NUMBER: 503705
Avelingen-West 20
4202 MS Gorinchem
The Netherlands
Phone: +31 (0)183 63 99 11
info@damen.com
DELIVERY DATE August 2001
BASIC FUNCTIONS Towing, mooring, pushing and dredging operations
FLAG United Kingdom [GB]
OWNED Teignmouth Harbour Commission
CASSCATION: Bureau Veritas 1 HULL MACH Seagoing Launch
DIMENSIONS
LENGTH 14.40 m
BEAM 4.73 m
DEPTH AT SIDES 205 m
DRAUGHT AFT 171 m
DISPLACEMENT 48 ton
TANK CAPACITIES
Fuel oil 6.9 m³
PERFORMANCES (TRIALS)
BOLLARD PULL AHEAD 8.0 ton
SPEED 9.8 knots
PROPULSION SYSTEM
MAIN ENGINE 2x Caterpillar 3406C TA/A
TOTAL POWER 477 bmW (640i hp) at 1800 rpm
GEARBOX 2x Twin Disc MG 5091/3.82:1
PROPELLERS Bronze fixed pitch propeller
KORT NOZZELS Van de Giessen 2x 1000 mm with stainless steel innerings
ENGINE CONTROL Kobelt
STEERING GEAR 2x 25 mm single plate Powered hydraulic 2x 45, rudder indicator
AUXILIARY EQUIPMENT
BILGE PUMP Sterling SIH 20, 32 m/hr
BATTERY SETS 2x 24V, 200 Ah + change over facility
COOLING SYSTEM Closed cooling system
ALARM SYSTEM Engines, gearboxes and bilge alarms
FRESH WATER PRESSURE SET Speck 24V
DECK LAY-OUT
ANCHORS 2x 48 kg Pool (HHP)
CHAIN 70 m, Ø 13mm, shortlink U2
ANCHOR WINCH Hand-operated
TOWING HOOK Mampaey, 15.3 ton SWL
COUPLING WINCH
PUSHBOW Cylindrical nubber fender Ø 380 mm
ACCOMMODATION
The wheelhouse ceiling and sides are insulated with mineral wool and
panelled. The wheelhouse floor is covered with rubber/synthetic floor
covering, make Bolidt, color blue The wheelhouse has one
helmsman seat, a bench and table with chair Below deck two berths, a
kitchen unit and a toilet space are arranged.
NAUTICAL AND COMMUNICATION EQUIPMENT
SEARCHLIGHT Den Haan 170 W 24 V
VHF RADIO Sailor RT 2048 25 W
NAVIGATION Navigation lights incl towing and pilot lights
Teignmouth Harbour Commission
The Harbour Commission is a Trust Port created by Statute.
The principal Order is the Teignmouth Harbour Order 1924
as amended by the Teignmouth Harbour Revision Order 2003
TEIGN C Damen Stan 1405
IMO: - N/A
MMSI: 235082804
Call Sign: MWBM9
AIS Vessel Type: Dredger
GENERAL
DAMEN YARD NUMBER: 503705
Avelingen-West 20
4202 MS Gorinchem
The Netherlands
Phone: +31 (0)183 63 99 11
info@damen.com
DELIVERY DATE August 2001
BASIC FUNCTIONS Towing, mooring, pushing and dredging operations
FLAG United Kingdom [GB]
OWNED Teignmouth Harbour Commission
CASSCATION: Bureau Veritas 1 HULL MACH Seagoing Launch
DIMENSIONS
LENGTH 14.40 m
BEAM 4.73 m
DEPTH AT SIDES 205 m
DRAUGHT AFT 171 m
DISPLACEMENT 48 ton
TANK CAPACITIES
Fuel oil 6.9 m³
PERFORMANCES (TRIALS)
BOLLARD PULL AHEAD 8.0 ton
SPEED 9.8 knots
PROPULSION SYSTEM
MAIN ENGINE 2x Caterpillar 3406C TA/A
TOTAL POWER 477 bmW (640i hp) at 1800 rpm
GEARBOX 2x Twin Disc MG 5091/3.82:1
PROPELLERS Bronze fixed pitch propeller
KORT NOZZELS Van de Giessen 2x 1000 mm with stainless steel innerings
ENGINE CONTROL Kobelt
STEERING GEAR 2x 25 mm single plate Powered hydraulic 2x 45, rudder indicator
AUXILIARY EQUIPMENT
BILGE PUMP Sterling SIH 20, 32 m/hr
BATTERY SETS 2x 24V, 200 Ah + change over facility
COOLING SYSTEM Closed cooling system
ALARM SYSTEM Engines, gearboxes and bilge alarms
FRESH WATER PRESSURE SET Speck 24V
DECK LAY-OUT
ANCHORS 2x 48 kg Pool (HHP)
CHAIN 70 m, Ø 13mm, shortlink U2
ANCHOR WINCH Hand-operated
TOWING HOOK Mampaey, 15.3 ton SWL
COUPLING WINCH
PUSHBOW Cylindrical nubber fender Ø 380 mm
ACCOMMODATION
The wheelhouse ceiling and sides are insulated with mineral wool and
panelled. The wheelhouse floor is covered with rubber/synthetic floor
covering, make Bolidt, color blue The wheelhouse has one
helmsman seat, a bench and table with chair Below deck two berths, a
kitchen unit and a toilet space are arranged.
NAUTICAL AND COMMUNICATION EQUIPMENT
SEARCHLIGHT Den Haan 170 W 24 V
VHF RADIO Sailor RT 2048 25 W
NAVIGATION Navigation lights incl towing and pilot lights
Teignmouth Harbour Commission
The Harbour Commission is a Trust Port created by Statute.
The principal Order is the Teignmouth Harbour Order 1924
as amended by the Teignmouth Harbour Revision Order 2003
Wednesday is my regular day as a volunteer helmsman with Nancy Oldfield Trust, taking disabled and disadvantaged folk out boating on the Norfolk Broads. Today however Barton Broad was frozen over so all trips were cancelled. I took the chance first thing to get out early with my camera and took this shot from the Barton Boardwalk looking across the Broad. With the fog it was impossible to differentiate sky from ice but a line of buoys at least gave me something to photograph.
The great master of the small bronze in the early Renaissance, Andrea Briosco, called Riccio, trained first as a goldsmith in the workshop of his father, Ambrogio Briosco. He owes his renown to the bronze statuettes and functional objects he cast for a small circle of clients, particularly in his native Padua. Many of them were made in homage to the art of antiquity; Riccio borrowed motifs from ancient sources and combined them in novel ways to give them fresh meaning for his humanist patrons in that university town. Although members of his workshop and his followers issued, on a level of mass production, bronze oil lamps as well as inkwells and candlesticks, Riccio himself produced only a handful of them, including some unique oil lamps, which transcend utility to become masterpieces. Long in the collection of the Rothschild family, this is one of three superlative examples of its kind; the others are the Morgan Lamp, in the Frick Collection, New York, and the Cadogan Lamp, in the Victoria and Albert Museum, London. The three share many motifs, but with a fertile imagination Riccio incorporated them into each lamp in such a way that they seem to be in a constant state of flux, changing their guise from one object to the other before our eyes.
While its owners may have prized it too highly to use it for lighting, this is a functioning oil lamp. The hinged lid opens by means of the handle topped with a grotesque head — its upward movement limited by the ram’s head spiraling behind — and reveals two connecting reservoirs for oil. When the lid is closed, the grotesque head appears to be blowing on a wick that rose from a tongue protruding from the opening below. Curling tendrils above and below serve to suspend the lamp from hooks or to support it as struts on a table. Overall, the lamp takes the form of a fanciful ancient ship or galley. Its prow is like a nautical battering ram; the Cadogan Lamp has a spike that refers to this function and a proper poop deck behind.[1] By curling the spike into a continuous element with two loops, Riccio found a more elegant solution for the Museum’s lamp. The tendrils buoy up the body of the lamp, lending lightness and a sense of mobility to the otherwise dense bronze mass. Of the three superb lamps mentioned here, this is the only complete example, and it demonstrates how lid, handles, and loops were intended to work.
On the lid a pair of putti perch, embracing swanlike creatures that emerge from the swelling bronze surface and tuck their necks back into it. The Cadogan Lamp lid supports a single putto astride a dolphin that swims in the opposite direction from the boat; a hole in the poop may indicate where a second figure once stood, possibly the helmsman, as Anthony Radcliffe hypothesized.[2] An engraving of the Morgan Lamp, made in 1652, when it was already missing its lid, shows a lyre-playing putto seated against the rear handle; the remains of a foot on the forward lip suggest that another putto stood facing the wick.[3] Therefore, all of the lamps originally had figures of children riding on top. The Morgan Lamp is in the shape of a classical boot, not a ship. But these fantastic objects were not meant to be taken literally: they make reference to ancient prototypes of lamps,[4] and with their riding figures they also suggest both the richly decorated floats that Renaissance artists created for triumphal processions and illustrations of such elaborate chariots in works like Francesco Colonna’s Hypnerotomachia Poliphili (1499).
Encrusted with shells, bucrania, harpies, garlands, and other classical decorative motifs, the body of each lamp is also decorated with friezes of putti. The Museum’s lamp displays a dozen in the relief on one side and eleven on the other. In the first, the twelve naked children dance, play with a ram, step over an ewer, and blow on a horn; in the second, some dance, one plays a pipe on the far right, and a kneeling group sit in a circle around a ram at the left. These friezes become narrower at one end, and as they taper, each child remains clearly delineated, but the poses shift from upright to crouching to seated.
The three lamps are closely related to Riccio’s most substantial work in bronze, the Paschal candlestick in the basilica of San Antonio (Il Santo) in Padua, since similar motifs are present on all. He began the colossal liturgical object in 1507, was apparently interrupted in 1509, and completed it only in 1516. Although the dating of the various parts of the candlestick is conjectural, most scholars place the three lamps within the period of its making or shortly afterward.
Il grande maestro del piccolo bronzo nel primo Rinascimento, Andrea Briosco, detto Riccio, si formò prima come orafo nella bottega del padre, Ambrogio Briosco. Deve la sua fama alle statuette in bronzo e agli oggetti funzionali che fonde per una ristretta cerchia di clienti, in particolare nella sua natia Padova. Molte di esse furono fatte in omaggio all'arte dell'antichità; Riccio ha preso in prestito motivi da fonti antiche e li ha combinati in modi nuovi per dare loro un nuovo significato per i suoi mecenati umanisti in quella città universitaria. Sebbene i membri della sua bottega e i suoi seguaci produssero, a livello di produzione di massa, lampade a olio in bronzo, calamai e candelieri, lo stesso Riccio ne produsse solo una manciata, comprese alcune lampade a olio uniche, che trascendono l'utilità per diventare capolavori. A lungo nella collezione della famiglia Rothschild, questo è uno dei tre esempi superlativi del suo genere; le altre sono la Morgan Lamp, nella Frick Collection, New York, e la Cadogan Lamp, nel Victoria and Albert Museum, Londra. I tre condividono molti motivi, ma con una fertile immaginazione Riccio li ha incorporati in ogni lampada in modo tale che sembrano essere in un continuo stato di flusso, cambiando la loro forma da un oggetto all'altro davanti ai nostri occhi.
Mentre i suoi proprietari potrebbero averlo apprezzato troppo per usarlo per l'illuminazione, questa è una lampada a olio funzionante. Il coperchio a cerniera si apre per mezzo del manico sormontato da una testa grottesca — il suo movimento verso l'alto limitato dalla testa dell'ariete che si attorciglia a spirale dietro — e rivela due serbatoi di collegamento per l'olio. Quando il coperchio è chiuso, la testa grottesca sembra soffiare su uno stoppino che si levava da una lingua che sporgeva dall'apertura sottostante. I viticci arricciati sopra e sotto servono a sospendere la lampada dai ganci oa sostenerla come puntoni su un tavolo. Nel complesso, la lampada assume la forma di una fantasiosa nave o galea antica. La sua prua è come un ariete nautico; la lampada Cadogan ha una punta che si riferisce a questa funzione e un vero e proprio mazzo di cacca dietro.[1] Arricciando la punta in un elemento continuo con due anse, Riccio ha trovato una soluzione più elegante per la lampada del Museo. I viticci sostengono il corpo della lampada, conferendo leggerezza e un senso di mobilità alla massa di bronzo altrimenti densa. Delle tre superbe lampade qui menzionate, questo è l'unico esempio completo e dimostra il funzionamento del coperchio, dei manici e dei passanti.
Sul coperchio un paio di putti si posano, abbracciando creature simili a cigni che emergono dalla superficie di bronzo rigonfia e vi rimboccano il collo. Il coperchio della lampada Cadogan sostiene un solo putto a cavallo di un delfino che nuota in direzione opposta rispetto alla barca; un buco nella cacca potrebbe indicare dove un tempo si trovava una seconda figura, forse il timoniere, come ipotizzato da Anthony Radcliffe.[2] Un'incisione della Lampada Morgan, eseguita nel 1652, quando mancava già il coperchio, mostra un putto suonatore di lira seduto contro il manico posteriore; i resti di un piede sul labbro anteriore suggeriscono che un altro putto fosse di fronte allo stoppino.[3] Pertanto, tutte le lampade avevano originariamente figure di bambini che cavalcavano in cima. La lampada Morgan ha la forma di uno stivale classico, non di una nave. Ma questi fantastici oggetti non dovevano essere presi alla lettera: fanno riferimento ad antichi prototipi di lampade,[4] e con le loro figure a cavallo suggeriscono anche sia i carri riccamente decorati che gli artisti rinascimentali realizzavano per le processioni trionfali sia le illustrazioni di carri così elaborati in opere come Hypnerotomachia Poliphili (1499) di Francesco Colonna.
Incrostato di conchiglie, bucrani, arpie, ghirlande e altri motivi decorativi classici, il corpo di ogni lampada è decorato anche con fregi di putti. La lampada del Museo ne mostra una dozzina nel rilievo da un lato e undici dall'altro. Nella prima i dodici fanciulli nudi danzano, giocano con un montone, scavalcano una brocca e suonano un corno; nel secondo, alcuni balli, uno suona il flauto all'estrema destra e un gruppo inginocchiato si siede in cerchio attorno a un ariete a sinistra. Questi fregi si restringono a un'estremità e, man mano che si assottigliano, ogni bambino rimane chiaramente delineato, ma le pose passano da eretto a accovacciato a seduto.
Le tre lampade sono strettamente legate all'opera in bronzo più consistente di Riccio, il candeliere pasquale nella basilica di Sant'Antonio (Il Santo) a Padova, poiché su tutte sono presenti motivi simili. Iniziò il colossale oggetto liturgico nel 1507, sarebbe stato interrotto nel 1509 e lo completò solo nel 1516. Sebbene la datazione delle varie parti del candeliere sia congetturale, la maggior parte degli studiosi colloca le tre lampade nel periodo della sua realizzazione o poco dopo .
Friend and Cowes lifeboat crew-colleague / helmsman Patrick Moreton of Moreton Marine, Cowes. Standing beneath his restoration project the 1927 Ketch Fedoa. This will be the subject of many visits this year to record progress.
I wouldn't normally use my 14-24mm for such a shot, but wanted to include the hull overhead.
Strobist info: a single Nikon SB910 flash, high to camera left, triggered by a Pocket Wizard Flex TT5 and modified with a Rogue Flashbender to diffuse and soften the output. Pocket Wizard TT1 and AC3 zone controller on camera
© 2014 Nick Edwards, All Rights Reserved
This image is not available for use on websites, blogs or other media without the explicit written permission of the photographer.
TEIGN C Damen Stan 1405
IMO: - N/A
MMSI: 235082804
Call Sign: MWBM9
AIS Vessel Type: Dredger
GENERAL
DAMEN YARD NUMBER: 503705
Avelingen-West 20
4202 MS Gorinchem
The Netherlands
Phone: +31 (0)183 63 99 11
info@damen.com
DELIVERY DATE August 2001
BASIC FUNCTIONS Towing, mooring, pushing and dredging operations
FLAG United Kingdom [GB]
OWNED Teignmouth Harbour Commission
CASSCATION: Bureau Veritas 1 HULL MACH Seagoing Launch
DIMENSIONS
LENGTH 14.40 m
BEAM 4.73 m
DEPTH AT SIDES 205 m
DRAUGHT AFT 171 m
DISPLACEMENT 48 ton
TANK CAPACITIES
Fuel oil 6.9 m³
PERFORMANCES (TRIALS)
BOLLARD PULL AHEAD 8.0 ton
SPEED 9.8 knots
PROPULSION SYSTEM
MAIN ENGINE 2x Caterpillar 3406C TA/A
TOTAL POWER 477 bmW (640i hp) at 1800 rpm
GEARBOX 2x Twin Disc MG 5091/3.82:1
PROPELLERS Bronze fixed pitch propeller
KORT NOZZELS Van de Giessen 2x 1000 mm with stainless steel innerings
ENGINE CONTROL Kobelt
STEERING GEAR 2x 25 mm single plate Powered hydraulic 2x 45, rudder indicator
AUXILIARY EQUIPMENT
BILGE PUMP Sterling SIH 20, 32 m/hr
BATTERY SETS 2x 24V, 200 Ah + change over facility
COOLING SYSTEM Closed cooling system
ALARM SYSTEM Engines, gearboxes and bilge alarms
FRESH WATER PRESSURE SET Speck 24V
DECK LAY-OUT
ANCHORS 2x 48 kg Pool (HHP)
CHAIN 70 m, Ø 13mm, shortlink U2
ANCHOR WINCH Hand-operated
TOWING HOOK Mampaey, 15.3 ton SWL
COUPLING WINCH
PUSHBOW Cylindrical nubber fender Ø 380 mm
ACCOMMODATION
The wheelhouse ceiling and sides are insulated with mineral wool and
panelled. The wheelhouse floor is covered with rubber/synthetic floor
covering, make Bolidt, color blue The wheelhouse has one
helmsman seat, a bench and table with chair Below deck two berths, a
kitchen unit and a toilet space are arranged.
NAUTICAL AND COMMUNICATION EQUIPMENT
SEARCHLIGHT Den Haan 170 W 24 V
VHF RADIO Sailor RT 2048 25 W
NAVIGATION Navigation lights incl towing and pilot lights
Teignmouth Harbour Commission
The Harbour Commission is a Trust Port created by Statute.
The principal Order is the Teignmouth Harbour Order 1924
as amended by the Teignmouth Harbour Revision Order 2003
TEIGN C Damen Stan 1405
IMO: - N/A
MMSI: 235082804
Call Sign: MWBM9
AIS Vessel Type: Dredger
GENERAL
DAMEN YARD NUMBER: 503705
Avelingen-West 20
4202 MS Gorinchem
The Netherlands
Phone: +31 (0)183 63 99 11
info@damen.com
DELIVERY DATE August 2001
BASIC FUNCTIONS Towing, mooring, pushing and dredging operations
FLAG United Kingdom [GB]
OWNED Teignmouth Harbour Commission
CASSCATION: Bureau Veritas 1 HULL MACH Seagoing Launch
DIMENSIONS
LENGTH 14.40 m
BEAM 4.73 m
DEPTH AT SIDES 205 m
DRAUGHT AFT 171 m
DISPLACEMENT 48 ton
TANK CAPACITIES
Fuel oil 6.9 m³
PERFORMANCES (TRIALS)
BOLLARD PULL AHEAD 8.0 ton
SPEED 9.8 knots
PROPULSION SYSTEM
MAIN ENGINE 2x Caterpillar 3406C TA/A
TOTAL POWER 477 bmW (640i hp) at 1800 rpm
GEARBOX 2x Twin Disc MG 5091/3.82:1
PROPELLERS Bronze fixed pitch propeller
KORT NOZZELS Van de Giessen 2x 1000 mm with stainless steel innerings
ENGINE CONTROL Kobelt
STEERING GEAR 2x 25 mm single plate Powered hydraulic 2x 45, rudder indicator
AUXILIARY EQUIPMENT
BILGE PUMP Sterling SIH 20, 32 m/hr
BATTERY SETS 2x 24V, 200 Ah + change over facility
COOLING SYSTEM Closed cooling system
ALARM SYSTEM Engines, gearboxes and bilge alarms
FRESH WATER PRESSURE SET Speck 24V
DECK LAY-OUT
ANCHORS 2x 48 kg Pool (HHP)
CHAIN 70 m, Ø 13mm, shortlink U2
ANCHOR WINCH Hand-operated
TOWING HOOK Mampaey, 15.3 ton SWL
COUPLING WINCH
PUSHBOW Cylindrical nubber fender Ø 380 mm
ACCOMMODATION
The wheelhouse ceiling and sides are insulated with mineral wool and
panelled. The wheelhouse floor is covered with rubber/synthetic floor
covering, make Bolidt, color blue The wheelhouse has one
helmsman seat, a bench and table with chair Below deck two berths, a
kitchen unit and a toilet space are arranged.
NAUTICAL AND COMMUNICATION EQUIPMENT
SEARCHLIGHT Den Haan 170 W 24 V
VHF RADIO Sailor RT 2048 25 W
NAVIGATION Navigation lights incl towing and pilot lights
Teignmouth Harbour Commission
The Harbour Commission is a Trust Port created by Statute.
The principal Order is the Teignmouth Harbour Order 1924
as amended by the Teignmouth Harbour Revision Order 2003
The great master of the small bronze in the early Renaissance, Andrea Briosco, called Riccio, trained first as a goldsmith in the workshop of his father, Ambrogio Briosco. He owes his renown to the bronze statuettes and functional objects he cast for a small circle of clients, particularly in his native Padua. Many of them were made in homage to the art of antiquity; Riccio borrowed motifs from ancient sources and combined them in novel ways to give them fresh meaning for his humanist patrons in that university town. Although members of his workshop and his followers issued, on a level of mass production, bronze oil lamps as well as inkwells and candlesticks, Riccio himself produced only a handful of them, including some unique oil lamps, which transcend utility to become masterpieces. Long in the collection of the Rothschild family, this is one of three superlative examples of its kind; the others are the Morgan Lamp, in the Frick Collection, New York, and the Cadogan Lamp, in the Victoria and Albert Museum, London. The three share many motifs, but with a fertile imagination Riccio incorporated them into each lamp in such a way that they seem to be in a constant state of flux, changing their guise from one object to the other before our eyes.
While its owners may have prized it too highly to use it for lighting, this is a functioning oil lamp. The hinged lid opens by means of the handle topped with a grotesque head — its upward movement limited by the ram’s head spiraling behind — and reveals two connecting reservoirs for oil. When the lid is closed, the grotesque head appears to be blowing on a wick that rose from a tongue protruding from the opening below. Curling tendrils above and below serve to suspend the lamp from hooks or to support it as struts on a table. Overall, the lamp takes the form of a fanciful ancient ship or galley. Its prow is like a nautical battering ram; the Cadogan Lamp has a spike that refers to this function and a proper poop deck behind.[1] By curling the spike into a continuous element with two loops, Riccio found a more elegant solution for the Museum’s lamp. The tendrils buoy up the body of the lamp, lending lightness and a sense of mobility to the otherwise dense bronze mass. Of the three superb lamps mentioned here, this is the only complete example, and it demonstrates how lid, handles, and loops were intended to work.
On the lid a pair of putti perch, embracing swanlike creatures that emerge from the swelling bronze surface and tuck their necks back into it. The Cadogan Lamp lid supports a single putto astride a dolphin that swims in the opposite direction from the boat; a hole in the poop may indicate where a second figure once stood, possibly the helmsman, as Anthony Radcliffe hypothesized.[2] An engraving of the Morgan Lamp, made in 1652, when it was already missing its lid, shows a lyre-playing putto seated against the rear handle; the remains of a foot on the forward lip suggest that another putto stood facing the wick.[3] Therefore, all of the lamps originally had figures of children riding on top. The Morgan Lamp is in the shape of a classical boot, not a ship. But these fantastic objects were not meant to be taken literally: they make reference to ancient prototypes of lamps,[4] and with their riding figures they also suggest both the richly decorated floats that Renaissance artists created for triumphal processions and illustrations of such elaborate chariots in works like Francesco Colonna’s Hypnerotomachia Poliphili (1499).
Encrusted with shells, bucrania, harpies, garlands, and other classical decorative motifs, the body of each lamp is also decorated with friezes of putti. The Museum’s lamp displays a dozen in the relief on one side and eleven on the other. In the first, the twelve naked children dance, play with a ram, step over an ewer, and blow on a horn; in the second, some dance, one plays a pipe on the far right, and a kneeling group sit in a circle around a ram at the left. These friezes become narrower at one end, and as they taper, each child remains clearly delineated, but the poses shift from upright to crouching to seated.
The three lamps are closely related to Riccio’s most substantial work in bronze, the Paschal candlestick in the basilica of San Antonio (Il Santo) in Padua, since similar motifs are present on all. He began the colossal liturgical object in 1507, was apparently interrupted in 1509, and completed it only in 1516. Although the dating of the various parts of the candlestick is conjectural, most scholars place the three lamps within the period of its making or shortly afterward.
Il grande maestro del piccolo bronzo nel primo Rinascimento, Andrea Briosco, detto Riccio, si formò prima come orafo nella bottega del padre, Ambrogio Briosco. Deve la sua fama alle statuette in bronzo e agli oggetti funzionali che fonde per una ristretta cerchia di clienti, in particolare nella sua natia Padova. Molte di esse furono fatte in omaggio all'arte dell'antichità; Riccio ha preso in prestito motivi da fonti antiche e li ha combinati in modi nuovi per dare loro un nuovo significato per i suoi mecenati umanisti in quella città universitaria. Sebbene i membri della sua bottega e i suoi seguaci produssero, a livello di produzione di massa, lampade a olio in bronzo, calamai e candelieri, lo stesso Riccio ne produsse solo una manciata, comprese alcune lampade a olio uniche, che trascendono l'utilità per diventare capolavori. A lungo nella collezione della famiglia Rothschild, questo è uno dei tre esempi superlativi del suo genere; le altre sono la Morgan Lamp, nella Frick Collection, New York, e la Cadogan Lamp, nel Victoria and Albert Museum, Londra. I tre condividono molti motivi, ma con una fertile immaginazione Riccio li ha incorporati in ogni lampada in modo tale che sembrano essere in un continuo stato di flusso, cambiando la loro forma da un oggetto all'altro davanti ai nostri occhi.
Mentre i suoi proprietari potrebbero averlo apprezzato troppo per usarlo per l'illuminazione, questa è una lampada a olio funzionante. Il coperchio a cerniera si apre per mezzo del manico sormontato da una testa grottesca — il suo movimento verso l'alto limitato dalla testa dell'ariete che si attorciglia a spirale dietro — e rivela due serbatoi di collegamento per l'olio. Quando il coperchio è chiuso, la testa grottesca sembra soffiare su uno stoppino che si levava da una lingua che sporgeva dall'apertura sottostante. I viticci arricciati sopra e sotto servono a sospendere la lampada dai ganci oa sostenerla come puntoni su un tavolo. Nel complesso, la lampada assume la forma di una fantasiosa nave o galea antica. La sua prua è come un ariete nautico; la lampada Cadogan ha una punta che si riferisce a questa funzione e un vero e proprio mazzo di cacca dietro.[1] Arricciando la punta in un elemento continuo con due anse, Riccio ha trovato una soluzione più elegante per la lampada del Museo. I viticci sostengono il corpo della lampada, conferendo leggerezza e un senso di mobilità alla massa di bronzo altrimenti densa. Delle tre superbe lampade qui menzionate, questo è l'unico esempio completo e dimostra il funzionamento del coperchio, dei manici e dei passanti.
Sul coperchio un paio di putti si posano, abbracciando creature simili a cigni che emergono dalla superficie di bronzo rigonfia e vi rimboccano il collo. Il coperchio della lampada Cadogan sostiene un solo putto a cavallo di un delfino che nuota in direzione opposta rispetto alla barca; un buco nella cacca potrebbe indicare dove un tempo si trovava una seconda figura, forse il timoniere, come ipotizzato da Anthony Radcliffe.[2] Un'incisione della Lampada Morgan, eseguita nel 1652, quando mancava già il coperchio, mostra un putto suonatore di lira seduto contro il manico posteriore; i resti di un piede sul labbro anteriore suggeriscono che un altro putto fosse di fronte allo stoppino.[3] Pertanto, tutte le lampade avevano originariamente figure di bambini che cavalcavano in cima. La lampada Morgan ha la forma di uno stivale classico, non di una nave. Ma questi fantastici oggetti non dovevano essere presi alla lettera: fanno riferimento ad antichi prototipi di lampade,[4] e con le loro figure a cavallo suggeriscono anche sia i carri riccamente decorati che gli artisti rinascimentali realizzavano per le processioni trionfali sia le illustrazioni di carri così elaborati in opere come Hypnerotomachia Poliphili (1499) di Francesco Colonna.
Incrostato di conchiglie, bucrani, arpie, ghirlande e altri motivi decorativi classici, il corpo di ogni lampada è decorato anche con fregi di putti. La lampada del Museo ne mostra una dozzina nel rilievo da un lato e undici dall'altro. Nella prima i dodici fanciulli nudi danzano, giocano con un montone, scavalcano una brocca e suonano un corno; nel secondo, alcuni balli, uno suona il flauto all'estrema destra e un gruppo inginocchiato si siede in cerchio attorno a un ariete a sinistra. Questi fregi si restringono a un'estremità e, man mano che si assottigliano, ogni bambino rimane chiaramente delineato, ma le pose passano da eretto a accovacciato a seduto.
Le tre lampade sono strettamente legate all'opera in bronzo più consistente di Riccio, il candeliere pasquale nella basilica di Sant'Antonio (Il Santo) a Padova, poiché su tutte sono presenti motivi simili. Iniziò il colossale oggetto liturgico nel 1507, sarebbe stato interrotto nel 1509 e lo completò solo nel 1516. Sebbene la datazione delle varie parti del candeliere sia congetturale, la maggior parte degli studiosi colloca le tre lampade nel periodo della sua realizzazione o poco dopo .
Just an idea of the helmsman's view. We are approaching bridge 35. Now 14 years ago when I last ventured up this canal there were good moorings just passed the bridge for the Bosworth Battlefield. I knew that recent research had shown that the actual battle site was now thought to be a little distance away, but I thought we could still walk there from the moorings. Unfortunately that was not the case, the moorings having been left to nature to be overgrown [they are not on the towpath side] so we had to press on. We discovered on our way back down the canal that the best moorings for the Battlefield are now located by bridge 34 but there is a new inn situated there and mooring was all taken up by private boats that appeared to be there for some time.
TEIGN C Damen Stan 1405
IMO: - N/A
MMSI: 235082804
Call Sign: MWBM9
AIS Vessel Type: Dredger
GENERAL
DAMEN YARD NUMBER: 503705
Avelingen-West 20
4202 MS Gorinchem
The Netherlands
Phone: +31 (0)183 63 99 11
info@damen.com
DELIVERY DATE August 2001
BASIC FUNCTIONS Towing, mooring, pushing and dredging operations
FLAG United Kingdom [GB]
OWNED Teignmouth Harbour Commission
CASSCATION: Bureau Veritas 1 HULL MACH Seagoing Launch
DIMENSIONS
LENGTH 14.40 m
BEAM 4.73 m
DEPTH AT SIDES 205 m
DRAUGHT AFT 171 m
DISPLACEMENT 48 ton
TANK CAPACITIES
Fuel oil 6.9 m³
PERFORMANCES (TRIALS)
BOLLARD PULL AHEAD 8.0 ton
SPEED 9.8 knots
PROPULSION SYSTEM
MAIN ENGINE 2x Caterpillar 3406C TA/A
TOTAL POWER 477 bmW (640i hp) at 1800 rpm
GEARBOX 2x Twin Disc MG 5091/3.82:1
PROPELLERS Bronze fixed pitch propeller
KORT NOZZELS Van de Giessen 2x 1000 mm with stainless steel innerings
ENGINE CONTROL Kobelt
STEERING GEAR 2x 25 mm single plate Powered hydraulic 2x 45, rudder indicator
AUXILIARY EQUIPMENT
BILGE PUMP Sterling SIH 20, 32 m/hr
BATTERY SETS 2x 24V, 200 Ah + change over facility
COOLING SYSTEM Closed cooling system
ALARM SYSTEM Engines, gearboxes and bilge alarms
FRESH WATER PRESSURE SET Speck 24V
DECK LAY-OUT
ANCHORS 2x 48 kg Pool (HHP)
CHAIN 70 m, Ø 13mm, shortlink U2
ANCHOR WINCH Hand-operated
TOWING HOOK Mampaey, 15.3 ton SWL
COUPLING WINCH
PUSHBOW Cylindrical nubber fender Ø 380 mm
ACCOMMODATION
The wheelhouse ceiling and sides are insulated with mineral wool and
panelled. The wheelhouse floor is covered with rubber/synthetic floor
covering, make Bolidt, color blue The wheelhouse has one
helmsman seat, a bench and table with chair Below deck two berths, a
kitchen unit and a toilet space are arranged.
NAUTICAL AND COMMUNICATION EQUIPMENT
SEARCHLIGHT Den Haan 170 W 24 V
VHF RADIO Sailor RT 2048 25 W
NAVIGATION Navigation lights incl towing and pilot lights
Teignmouth Harbour Commission
The Harbour Commission is a Trust Port created by Statute.
The principal Order is the Teignmouth Harbour Order 1924
as amended by the Teignmouth Harbour Revision Order 2003
Leuvehoofd 17/11/2018 12h16
Leuvehoofd and Boompjeskade with the monument De Boeg (the bow).
De Boeg
De Boeg is a war memorial in Rotterdam. It commemorates the 3,500 crew members of Dutch merchant ships that lost their lives in the Second World War. The monument of Fred Carasso was unveiled by Princess Margriet on 10 April 1957 on the corner of the Boompjes and the Leuvehaven. The 46 meters high aluminum construction symbolizes a bow in the concrete waves. Later, on July 15, 1965, an 8 meter high bronze sculpture group was added to the monument: a helmsman, three sailors and a drowned one. On the side is the text: "They kept course" ("Zij hielden koers")
[ Wikipedia 2019 ]
And they're away...…
Notice how the engine is placed off centre so the helmsman can sit comfortably and trim the boat properly. For some reason this is something you seldom see.
I went to China on my first substantive Foreign Service assignment in July 1963, well before I
completed the 2-year Chinese language programme at Hong Kong University. I packed off from the relative comfort of a familiar academic environment, thanks to an on-the-spot decision by Foreign Secretary M.J. Desai. A couple of months earlier, while transiting through Hong Kong airport he had heeded a complaint voiced by the Head of Mission at Beijing P.K. Bannerji, who had lamented that he did not have a single Chinese-speaking officer. 'Take one of these youngsters”, he replied, pointing to Bhupat Oza, then in the first year of his language studies, and myself in the second year. Before I knew what was happening, I was posted to China! Quite a distant cry from the styles of Foreign Service Board meetings, and the structured formalities of decision-making on personnel issues! This was the first of my encounters with chance, a powerful force which took me on a career full of excitement and discovery.
I travelled from Hong Kong by train, with senior colleague A.K. Damodaran and his family. He was moving from Bonn to take up his assignment as the First Secretary (Political) and the No. 2 in the Indian mission. He became in time valued elder brother, graced as he has been with a particularly calm and generous temperament, and a degree of concern for others, which is a rarity in any profession, much less in our Service. That day as we progressed through the measured formalities of crossing into China, walking across the famous bridge at Shenzhen, which marked the separation of the British colony from the mainland,
it was difficult to restrain my enthusiasm. One was finally getting to the country which has been such a parallel - and contrast-to India, the other Asian giant embarked on its own drama of human and social engineering.
In Beijing I found that life in the Indian Embassy was one of camaraderie and immersion in a collective enterprise. It was only much later, when I served and observed elsewhere, that I understood the extraordinary character of our Mission and its special esprit de corps. The India-China Border War of 1962 represented for all Indians a huge trauma. For someone immersed in Chinese language studies at that time at Hong Kong University’s Language Institute, it became a routine humiliation to study in class an editorial from a mainland or Hong Kong journal, scorning India’s case, or to listen to comments form a Chinese perspective on the unfolding events. Living in that environment one felt even more sharply the disbelief of most Indians that things could go so wrong, so fast. It put under cloud one’s fascination with China and the saga of its nation-building. But on reaching Beijing I found that it did not extinguish one’s admiration. If anything, it sharpened curiosity and the quest for personal understanding, as a “beginner China-watcher”. And truthfully, it also at times engendered a kind of “schadenfreude”, some glee at China’s own troubles, an attitude of “it serves them right!". Thus the little Indian community in the Chinese capital, made up exclusively of the diplomats and staff, found its own equilibrium in a cocktail of emotions. There was a collective sense or purpose at being located in a country at whose hands, we sensed, our nation had suffered. For myself, the other dominant mood was of excitement at living in a place where things were happening, not all of them clearly discernible; where information was at a premium. Among the small number of foreign diplomats and even fewer journalists, there was a special affinity, and friendships came easily, For the handful of us who spoke Chinese -or as non-Chinese would call it, the Mandarin dialect-there was direct access to local people, despite the severe restraints which were then enforced for the most innocent of such contacts. It may seem hard to imagine today, but for foreigners, China of yesteryear practised the most stringent internal controls, hardly in any after place found. In that environment the Indian Embassy came to win a reputation for professionalism, which has endured over the decades.It was a privilege to be on such a team.
In the early 1960s there were barely 35 diplomatic missions in Beijing, and just around 5 international correspondents. Besides the twice daily staple of the English language Hsinhua (Xinhua) News Agency bulletin, there were the 4 national dailies in Chinese, and a handful of weeklies and other periodicals. Those in the Embassy who travelled to Hong Kong on weekly courier duty with the diplomatic bag (and all of us took turns, from the Charge d’ Affaires downwards) could liven up the boring 30 hour journey by scrounging for local newspapers, simply unavailable in the capital, for little nuggets of local information. That journey was rather more adventurous than most would have preferred, starting off from Beijing at 6 o’clock in the morning in a Russian IL-14 or IL-16 aircraft (country-cousins of the World War II vintage Dakota and the like), with refueling stops at 3 cities before reaching Guangzhou, for an overnight halt in a hotel, and the next morning a train to the border, the walk across the bridge, and on to the cornucopia of consumerism which the Crown Colony represented even then. Bad weather at any point on the air journey meant an unscheduled halt at Changsha or Wuhan, when fellow-travellers - the odd diplomat or businessman among the passengers - learnt the virtues of bonding!
Right up to the 1970s when I came back to China as a First Secretary and second-ranking diplomat in the Mission, travel by resident foreigners was limited to a radius of 20 km. from the centre of the capital, the Forbidden City, the 3 permitted exceptions being the Great Wall and the Ming Tombs - both located to the west, at a distance of 45 and 40 km. respectively, and the airport to the east. All other trips required the specific authorization of the Foreign Ministry, and in the usual course, only the “open” cities could be visited - Shanghai, Hangzhou, Nanjing and the like. The list expanded gradually, when places like Chongqing in Sichuan were made accessible. The travel privileges first went to the "friendly” countries, in a subtle political hierarchy of favour-dispensation. One could say that for China, this was no more than the traditional way of dealing with foreigners.
For someone who spoke Chinese, travel was a special joy, because one had direct access to new experiences, and could learn a bit about the provinces and the far-flung regions which were not accessible as a matter of course. Sometimes there were unexpected encounters with people one could not meet in the tightly regulated conditions of life for foreigners in China.
I vividly recall a journey made from Beijing to Shanghai by train sometime in 1964. In the “soft” class 4.berth sleeper I had only one travelling companion - a professor of some sort (as I made out from his conversation with his wife and teenage daughter who had come to see him off at the railway station). After the train started we began a conversation and I was delighted to have a distinguished academic as a companion, We had dinner together in the dining car, quite a fine meal. The professor gradually disclosed that he had in fact visited India and knew Gandhiji’s secretary Mahadeo Desai, whom he had met in Poona. Respecting the circumstances and the context, I steered clear of political or sensitive issues, but got along very well with him. The next morning when I woke up I found that sometime during the night we had acquired a third travel-mate, a rather loud person who turned out to be an army officer. He engaged in a noisy conversation with the professor on international affairs, speaking of unspecified “reactionary countries” and how China would deal with them. I ignored him, and some time later, when we were alone in the train corridor, the professor said in a soft voice that some people had not liked the idea of his conversation with an Indian diplomat. and it was better if we did not have lunch together on the train before it reached Shanghai. I replied that I understood, and hoped I had not inadvertently created difficulty for him. He laughed and said that it was a small matter. There is a footnote to that chance encounter. When I narrated the incident later to one of our senior China scholars, he said that the professor had been his teacher, and that he was also one of the distinguished India experts in the Chinese Academy of Sciences (later the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences). The professor had been too discreet to speak much about himself. It was inconceivable at that time that open and friendly contacts could be sustained between the Embassy and such personalities,
Another such chance meeting took place during my second China assignment, in early-1971, during the course of a tour for the diplomatic corps to the historic cities of Luoyang and Xian. As we visited a museum devoted to stone tablets commemorating the deeds of historical figures of the Song dynasty, I paused to admire an inscription in Chinese and Sanskrit - quite rare -recalling the journey of Faxian to India. One museum staff member, with whom I had been in conversation volunteered the observation: ‘With such a shared history, how can we persist in our existing problems!“. It was good to learn that even in the harsh climate of what then was the last phase of the Cultural Revolution, there were some who made private gestures to affirm mar our relationships should be rather different.
In early 1964 Jagat S Mehta took over as the Head of Mission, the de facto ambassador but officially carrying the title of “Charge d’Affairs ad interim”, in keeping with the formally reduced level of representation in the two capitals, which was to persist till 1976. He provided strong leadership to the Embassy, and became for many of us a persuasive role model. For the junior-most diplomatic official, as I remained till fellow China-specialist, Bhupat Oza, arrived on the scene a year later, it meant working on a series of essays and studies on specific themes, ranging from aspects of China’s economy, to the education system and the pattern of basic technical education and culture. Under Jagat, the pattern was established, which was to persist for many years, that the Embassy would devote energy to as much in-depth reportage as was possible, given the scarcity Of data and independent information, The goal was thematic analysis covering the internal scene, with the object of understanding the complex nation, and disseminating our reports within the governmental system in Delhi and to other Indian Missions. This was the classic mode of dispatch-writing, modelled in style on the British diplomatic method. I recall particularly well the papers written on China’s “pan-work part-study schools”, a bit akin to vocational schools in other countries, as also the early notes on the intense debate which was emerging on cultural issues around early 1965. For instance, little could anyone imagine that the controversy which suddenly erupted in mid-1965 over a sensitive film, “Early Spring” (which some friends and I managed to see in the few weeks it was screened, before being banned), would herald the storm of the Cultural Revolution. No one could then decipher the complex and indirect signals. But even for those who were ignorant of the master-plan saw that an artificial controversy was being generated. Cultural objects like that film were being offered deliberately as scapegoats. The ulterior purpose was invisible till the time I ended my first tenure in China in September 1965.
It was in 1964 that some of us took the initiative to set up a lunch club, consisting exclusively of second and Third Secretaries - the foot-soldiers in every embassy. The first meeting took place in my home with the 6 founders, and the group soon expanded to 12, which we set as the outer limit. New participants were admitted only when someone left on transfer, or was promoted - in the latter case, the person was ceremoniously thrown out after a farewell lunch. When the lunch sessions became too convivial, ending at 4 P.M. or so Jagat Mehta expressed a bit of displeasure, and gave us the sobriquet “The Tails of Mission Lunch Club”. The name stuck, and the group was in vigour at least till the mid-70s when I was invited to the monthly meetings as one of the founders!
In the diplomatic missions (other than the socialist embassies of that time), there were a handful of Chinese-speakers. Roping in some Chinese personnel who either worked in embassies, or were teachers to diplomats learning the language -and were thus permitted to have contacts with these foreigners - some of us cobbled together a “club” where we could practise speaking skills, and enjoy the cultural and culinary ambiance of the capital. The socialist embassies had a phalanx of language-specialists, but not all of them spoke English, and in addition the Westerners had their inhibitions in dealing with them. We, on the other hand, straddled both camps. Clearly, from the perspective of the Chinese authorities who kept us under scrutiny, this was a “permitted” contact network, perhaps useful from their perspective in giving an insight into the diplomat fraternity. Special care was exerted by all the participants of what we came to call the “Yenjing Club” (after one of the historical names of Beijing) to steer clear of any issue which might embarrass our Chinese friends, or worse, lead to the end of that experiment. We met every couple of weeks, either in the home of a diplomat-member, or by preference, in one of the 140 restaurants that operated in the city, sometimes after a visit to the Beijing Opera, or one of the many regional operas, or to a film or the circus. Friendship developed, even within the constraints of cautious conversation, and we learnt a little of the fun of Chinese life, like the wine-drinking games. And we were zealous in our search for varied and exquisite cuisine -which was then outrageously inexpensive. Of course such a club could not survive the Cultural Revolution, and when I got back to China in 1970 such open contact, however innocent, was unthinkable. I cherish the frayed navy-blue club tie which David Wilson - then fellow-member and now Lord Wilson - had obtained from Hong Kong for each of us, inscribed all over with the Chinese characters "Yan Jing”.
One great institution of our China experience was the diplomatic tour, an annual event which brought to the fore the great organizational talent of the Chinese system. The traditional pattern was that the Head of Mission and spouse ware invited by the Foreign Ministry as guests, together with one other diplomat to accompany them. Under the latter provision, junior officers had their chance to visit far places, including some not on the list of “open” cities of that time, in the course of what was usually a week-long excursion, Sometimes the tour covered places which in those days were completely inaccessible, save under special arrangements-such as the lengthy car journey which took one group to the “national model” agricultural village of Dalian. This was also the opportunity to practise and utilize language skills. It was a challenge for the language-speakers to ferret out some local information which hopefully added to one’s fund of knowledge, or gave a special insight, even while this was resented by the Protocol Department “handlers” who were usually watchful to see that this particular segment of their charges did not stray too far. The group travelled mainly by special train, accompanied by a Foreign Ministry Vice Minister, the Chief of Protocol, and a bevy of officials. The hospitality was lavish, and the provinces vied with one another in offering to the “foreign guests” the best of the local cuisine specialities. If Lawrence Durrel had been around, he would have found a treasure hove of amusing anecdotes and ego jousts within the Diplomatic Corps, given the fact that a shared journey of a week or more brought out some of the rivalries and petty jealousies, already accentuated in the hot-house atmosphere of a restricted diplomatic post. During the car trips the Foreign Ministry took scrupulous care to ensure that the assignment of vehicles were in the correct protocol order. With the Dean of the Corps in the lead, seated naturally in Car No, 1. This led me once to wonder as to the vehicle number of the car in which the Vice Minister travelled, since he seemed always to be ahead, besides, of course, the escort and security convoy. His car bore No. 0 - a perfect compromise!
In 1964 one such trip took us to the fabled Huang Mountain of Anhui province. This mountain range, dotted with Buddhist temples, accessible only by steep foot-track and arduous series of steps, is a place of remarkable scenic beauty and has inspired much Chinese painting and poetry. It also became the revolutionary base of Marshal Chen Yi in 1927, after the collapse of the short-lived co-habitation between the Kuomintang (KMT) and the Communists in Shanghai. In f 964, the Marshal, in his role as China’s Foreign Minister, joined us for that particular segment of the trip, his very first return to a region which had many memories for him. As we scrambled up the seemingly endless gradients and steps - much like our own mountain places of pilgrimage - and were lodged in what must have originally been spartan dormitories for the travellers, we caught glimpses of him and wondered at the panorama of emotions which he must have experienced. The photographs I took of the mountain peaks in the early dawn, and of the pine trees along the many perpendicular crags, are a souvenir of a memorable and exhausting journey.
One might ask, did life in the Chinese capital give any special insight which might otherwise not have been available? Of course, one gained some flavour on matters of detail, in the ways narrated above. On the really big hidden events, it gave partial information, which could not always be interpreted fully. For instance, those who lived in Beijing through the hardest years of the suffering and deprivation of the Great Leap Forward, knew that the situation in the interior provinces was hard. But none could fully estimate the scale of the self-inflicted agricultural crisis which unfolded after 1958, immediately following the much-acclaimed initial phase. I recall attending a lecture by the noted Cambridge economist Joan Robinson at Delhi University in 1959, in which she had waxed eloquent about the Great Leap, to an audience composed mainly of students like myself, who could not possibly imagine that a person whose textbooks were mandatory reading, could be so wrong. The impact of the Leap persisted for many years, and was evidenced in the 60s in the efficient system of food coupons and travel permits which enforced tight rationing and also ensured that the cities - which were much better off - did not become magnets to a population exodus. Winston Churchill’s memorable phrase describing Russia could equally apply even more forcefully to China: “A riddle, wrapped in a mystery, inside an enigma”. Often it took hindsight to interpret the events that took place right under ones’ nose. An incident vividly underscores this factor.
In the days of my first assignment, I was a bachelor and shared a rather comfortable house within the Old City with another bachelor officer - it had originally housed our Counsellor, a post left vacant after the post-1962 scaling down in diplomatic representation. We had a couple of good friends who enjoyed dropping in on Sunday mornings, for coffee and conversation. One of them was a young colleague from an Asian country which enjoyed significantly better relations in China than we did, and he was a useful source of information. One morning, probably in early 1965, when this friend came and narrated this experience of a visit by their education minister, who ended his substantive programme with a meeting with Chairman Mao, customary for foreign visitors of that road in those days. Mao asked the visitor about his travels and his impressions, The visitor responded with fulsome praise of the things he had seen, the institutions visited and the education system in general. To this Mao gave a curious reply, saying that the visitor should not believe everything he had been told, and that things were not as good as apparent outwardly, This was said in the presence of the Chinese Education Minster, and we could not figure out what the Chairman had meant. It seemed to go beyond the typical expressions of Chinese politeness, when after the foreign guest who offers fulsome praise is told, in phrases which are part of the ancient syntax, that the praise is not merited. We could not believe that Mao was profoundly dissatisfied with the shape of the education system. Or that the entire polity needed a sharp cleansing action, to usher in a “permanent revolution” as subsequently claimed during the Cultural Revolution. As in the case of the artificial - or rather guided - debate on culture which unfolded at around the same time, we simply did not see the master design of the Great Helmsman.
Another good friend in those days was the journalist Jacques Marcuse, a Belgian who represented AFP in the Chinese capital in the 1960s. At a time when the Western media were represented only by Reuters and this agency, he was a familiar figure, distinguished by his monocle, and his sardonic humour. He had lived in Shanghai in the late 1930s and knew some of the leading figures from that time; this made him a cynic and sometimes rather sharp in his judgments. Jacques also had a fund of jokes, most of which he swore were true stories. His book “Peking Papers” contains many of the outrageous stories which I had heard first-hand from him - not always to be taken literally, but poking fun at some officials and others who were excessively serious. An example was his habit of inventing his own so-called sayings of Confucius - Jacques claimed that there was no one who ever responded that the “saying” cited was bogus, or that he did not recall any such statement by Confucius. Jacques was admired by his friends for another reason; at the bar at Beijing Airport, he had a standing arrangement to have “his” bottle of Maotai. Friends were welcome to dip into it as they awaited delayed flights - all one had to do was to call for Mr. Marcuses’ bottle!
When I came back to China in mid-1970 with a family, a wife, two children of 3 and 1 and a nanny in tow, the country had been through the trauma of the Cultural Revolution, though the likes of Lin Biao and Jiang Qing were very much in power, and the curtain would really come down on that particular experiment of Mao only some years later. In marry ways contacts between foreigners and the Chinese were even more difficult, but the presence of the children usually gave rise to friendly comment and gestures of natural affection, which tempered a little the alienation which arose in those artificial circumstances. This was particularly true of the outings to the parks, and the shopping forays for souvenir-hunting to which all diplomats fell prey in Beijing. For a Chinese-speaker, it was a particular joy to listen to the children prattle in the bell-like tones of perfectly spoken Beijing dialect, which they picked up so effortlessly from the Chinese cook and maid. Alas, they lost the language with equal speed when we left after a two-year stay. Diplomatic life was a bit changed from that of the 1960s with the number of embassies more than double the earlier figure, and the presence of many more African and Arab missions, besides the Western nations which set up representation in one large surge, after the French recognition of the People’s Republic of China in 1964 (the French Game with the zeal of new converts, to “interpret China to the world”). A second surge more or less coincided with the Nixon visit of 1971, Canadian recognition of the PRC, and the stationing of a shoal of Japanese correspondents, as a prelude to Japan’s recognition of its great neighbour. All this made for a much larger number of diplomats, journalists and business visitors, changing the intimacy of the former period for a more “normal” major capital. In other ways, life was less interesting than before, since the performing arts were still to revive from the decimation of the Cultural Revolution, and one encountered only the standard fare of revolutionary art, drama and music. The number of restaurants was also much reduced from the earlier numbers, and many of the fabled places-like the ”San Jwor" of the inner city with its memorable dishes of fresh-water eels - were gone! The subsequent period saw a gradual revival, of cuisine and of the arts, but I left China in September 1972, much before the real “normalization” of the post-Cultural Revolution life of China.
Living in China in those years enabled one to observe a complex political process, the shaping of a great, but secretive, Asian power. The early 1960s coincided with the intense ideological debate with the Soviet Union, and the early 1970s with the terminal phase of Mao’s last major social experiment. We said in those days that one sometimes wrote an analysis of China in the first 6 weeks of arrival, when the first encounter gave what seemed to be definitive insights. The alternative, especially for those who were not short-term visitors, was that one realized the limitations of one’s understanding, and chose the gradual unraveling of the many areas of ignorance, before venturing forth in print. It was rather like Einstein’s response to a gushing admirer who praised his vast fund of wisdom; he replied: What I know is but a fraction of what I do rot know!“. In the 1960s the air was thick with heavy polemical debate between the two communist giants, whose bilateral relationship deteriorated progressively. The smaller communist states were proxies in the debate, or were drawn into the vortex through their geo-political compulsions. Beijing was a useful observation point also for the evolution in these inter-relationships, ranging from the ultra-privileged status of Enver Hoxja’s Albania (which received massive material support in exchange for its total identification with China), to the fence-sitters like North Korea and North Vietnam of that time. The behaviour of the diplomatic missions of these countries in the rarefied atmosphere of Beijing became a side drama for outside observers like ourselves. Yugoslavia (in whose name the entire Sine-Soviet debate had first commenced, when the “Peoples’ Daily” thundered in 1961:“ls Yugoslavia a Communist Country?“) was for us the coolest of the lot, both on account of the uniform high professionalism of their diplomats, and because of our natural empathy and proximity to them. I was not in China in the difficult period of 1966-68, when the Cultural Revolution was at its climax, and when diplomatic missions were attacked by mobs manipulated by Jiang Qing and her ilk; the Beijing Diplomatic Corps showed its weakest face at that time through disunity, and currying of favour by a few embassies who believed that this was their road to narrow advantage. This is a small sad foot-note to that era.
Immediately after the India-China border war of 1962 which ended wiith a unilateral cease-fire and partial withdrawal of Chinese troops to their pre-war claim-line, China took the high road of urging negotiation and freezing of the difficult ‘issue, pending improvement of relations on other fronts. This was sound strategy from their perspective, but overlooked the extent of injury to India. In the treatment of the Indian Embassy in Beijing this sometimes took the form of petty pinpricks, combined with a few gestures of special consideration for about a year immediately after the war. This coincided with the remaining term of P.K. Banejee as the Head of Mission, who was summoned to meetings with Premier Zhou Enlai from time to time, almost invariably at no notice at all, and usually at night - since this legendary Zhou of the time (and almost the only one to have kept his repute intact) kept an owl’s hours, and commenced his work after sunset! My only personal encounter with him occurred in late-1963, when P.K. Banejee was given the special favour of a personal farewell call, and took with him 5 of his embassy colleagues, Premier Zhou was suave and smiling, essentially repeating the message loudly proclaimed by China to Asia and to the world, that China sought a negotiated border settlement, that it was prepared to wait till India was ready for this, and that in the interim the two countries which had so much in common should improve relations in other areas. At that meeting we had a taste of Zhou’s renowned alertness and charm. At one point he said something humorous, and noticing that I had smiled before the interpretation was completed, he immediately remarked that I spoke Chinese. After inquiry as to where I had learnt it, he complimented me on my accent! It should be said in parenthesis that the accent business is very serious for foreigners learning Chinese. At the same time, among the Chinese themselves, the range of accents is so vast that other than the few born in the immediate vicinity of the capital - which is where the Oxford accent of Chinese is located - speak in tones which betray their places of origin, even to the extent of incomprehension. Thus Mao’s Hunan accent was so strong that he needed interpreters to make himself understood to his own compatriots not used to him. Lin Biao was another one whose accent tested the limits of one’s comprehension range. While at the Language School at Hong Kong we cultivated several North Chinese friends, through lunch clubs and the like, to get speaking practice. One example was Steve Chou, a good and generous friend to many generations of Indian students,
I once mentioned to one of my teachers that Steve’s Beijing dialect was superb. How can that be, she responded, since he was born in Tianjing (150 km. away from the capital) and moved to Beijing only when he was 10 years old!
During the years I spent in China, there was no real India-China dialogue. After the Border War it was simply too early for India. In the 1964-65 period there was some gentle probing of intentions, given Jagat Mehta’s easy equation with the then Director of the Asia Division Zhang Wenjin, his counterpart in the futile “Official Talks” held in 195960, (he later became China’s Ambassador to the US, and Vice-Foreign Minister; a member of the Premier Zhou's top team), But this led to nothing, white preventing further downslide in relations. Some petty slights were received by the Indian Embassy, but for the main part the relationship was correct and the attitude of senior officials was constructive. When Asian or other diplomatic groups were received jointly, we were handled with perceptible coolness, but never in discourtesy. The Middle Kingdom has long practised a finely-turned method of subtle differentiation, and these habits ware a great deal deeper than the patina of communism. Seen with detachment, the Chinese manner of handling foreigners was a delight to watch, rooted as it has always been in profound self-confidence and a holistic vision of content and form.
My second sojourn began just after Chairman Mao’s deliberate gesture of reconciliation to the Indian Charge d’Affairs Brajesh Mishra at the top of the Tienanmen rostrum at the May Day parade of 1970, when he said directly to our envoy that “the two countries had long been friends and we could not go on quarrelling”. We know now through diverse sources that this was a calculated gesture bearing Mao’s personal stamp, and was meant to be taken seriously. And this was precisely the manner in which it was interpreted by the politically astute Head of Mission. One suspects that the premature manner in which the move was leaked to the Indian media, just at the time when Mishra was in Delhi to help in full assessment, and the gesture was even held to mild ridicule through its characterization as “the Mao Smile”, bore the stamp of our domestic pro-Soviet lobby. Further, we were even then probably not ready to move towards that window of opportunity.
1971 saw the build-up to the Bangladesh crisis and the 19.day war of December in the same year, and again the view from Beijing was revealing. China did not support the actions of Pakistan in its then Eastern wing, and clearly counselled caution, while making pro-forma expressions of support as the events moved to their denouement. The Indian brief was clearly to keep China informed of the increasingly impossible situation and the very limited goals of Indian policy, i. e. containment of the crisis. Brajesh Mishra played the vital role as the dialogue partner in this communication link, and was responsible for the accurate assessment that China would make public expressions of support to lslamabad but would stay out of any conflict. Thus the Embassy’s task for virtually the entire year was to manage this issue in a complex environment, and it came to dominate the bilateral relationship. It took China several months’ after the creation of Bangladesh to begin to come to terms with the realities of South Asia, and this produced an amusing incident.
As the Bangladesh crisis escalated, increasingly open criticism of India became the norm in Chinese speeches delivered at national day celebrations of various embassies and state banquets in honour of visiting foreign delegations, By local custom the diplomatic receptions took the form of sit-down dinners, while the Chinese banquets were even more formal, and again by local custom included all Heads of Missions in the guest-list. Mishra made it clear from the outset that he would not sit through direct criticism of India, and would walk-out, it soon became our internal and deliberate Embassy practice to inform the Chinese chauffeur of the flag-car that he should stand by with the car at the main entrance, in anticipation of likely walk-out. This worked well. Sometimes the speeches were delayed fill the meal was over - rather than delivered at the beginning as per Chinese custom -and this provoked comment in the diplomatic corps that it was to ensure that the Indian Charge finished his meal before making his exit! In the event, there eventually came the reception around the middle of 1972 when contrary to form, India was not criticized in the Chinese dignitary’s speech, marking the end of that particular phase, As it happened, the Soviet Union was attacked in that same reception speech, and the Soviet envoy, accompanied by his bloc phalanx staged a walk-out-much more impressive in sheer numbers. The effect was spoilt when the group came down the steps of the huge Palace of the People complex and were met by the Indian flag-car, tricolour and all, but alas not their own vehicle. They were not amused at the delay in mobilizing their transport to go home!
The Bangladesh war also produced for us the melodrama of assisting the then Pakistani diplomats of Bengali origin to establish contact with their own new government-in-the-making, since in the politically charged atmosphere of Beijing there were none but the most formal contacts with Pakistani diplomats - mainly I should add at the preference of the latter, who may have found that even routine courtesies, or return of courtesies to Indian counterparts, detracted from their self-image of victims of Indian machinations. This was my only, exposure to the cloak-and-dagger style, as roundabout means were mutually used to make soundings and first contacts, often via the spouses, since the latter often had their own friendships and equations! The establishment of these first links with the Bangladeshis, who became major players in their new nation, was a heart-warming experience. It also provided relief and counterpoint to the tension generated by the war, We celebrated the signing of the surrender documents by
the Pakistani generals in Dacca with champagne - the first and only time that my wife cultivated a high-class hangover. As we drove home she wondered why there were so many people on the road that late hour; I responded that they were just the early morning shift going to work!
A small instance of the quality of the evolving India-China relationship of 1970 was the visit to the Embassy by the renowned Mao biographer Edgar Snow, who was on what represented his last visit to China. I had met Snow a couple of years earlier, at the home of Professor Gilbert Etienne in Geneva (inviting me to that lunch meeting Gilbert had warned me not to get into an argument with Edgar Snow over India-China relations; I had replied that one could not argue with a legend!). Reading in the Chinese press around October 1970 that he was in Beijing as Mao’s personal guest, I tried to phone him and failing in that, sent him a note seeking a call. He telephoned some weeks later and said that he had been travelling in the provinces, and that he would come and meet me at the Embassy. He turned down my offer to call, and some days later drove up in his official limousine, for about 40 minutes of general conversation. He was too wily to give away any hard information and spoke in general terms of his positive impressions of the changes in the country. He also pumped me for information on some new document, which had emerged in the Hong Kong press about events on the mainland, relating to Chinese personalities, if I recall correctly. There was nothing of substance in the meeting. The significant aspect was that it took place at all, and that Snow made it a point to visit the Indian Embassy. It was a straw in the direction of normalization.
Another encounter with an author, perhaps a year later, had more in content. On the way back from a routine courier trip to Hong Kong I travelled with a Chinese-speaking American academic, who seemed interesting and we got into a conversation. She gave her name as Roxanne Witke, and she spoke of her interest in meeting Chinese leaders - rather a difficult task for an unknown visitor. A couple of weeks later I read in the Xinhua news bulletin that she had met Jiang Qing someone who seldom met foreign visitors. I tracked her down at the then premier lodging in the capital, the Beijing Hotel, and invited her to join my wife and myself for dinner at the Mongolian restaurant on Hou Hai lake, at the back of the Forbidden City. She accepted and, over the meal, she proceeded to unfold her extraordinary experience. This is narrated in her biography of that complex and, of course, controversial leader of the Cultural Revolution. The difference was that she spoke fresh from her first meeting with Madame Mao, at a point when Witke did not know that on her way out of the country through Guangzhou (still the only viable entry-exit point, even though direct flights to Shanghai from the West and Addis Ababa had commenced), she would be summoned back by the imperious lady for a series of additional meetings. The story of how later on attempts were made in the mid-70s to stop the publication of her book, at a time when Jiang Qing was under political attack and headed for downfall, are well-known.
The striking aspect for me in that dinner-meeting with Witke was the tale she unfolded, and her unerring prescience. She had earlier met Deng Yingchao, the spouse of Premier Zhou Enlai. Witke narrated the meticulous manner in which she had to prepare herself for the audience with Jiang Qing, listening to unpublished speeches where she could take notes but not see the text or record the reading on tape. She recounted that Jiang was truly concerned that she was not viewed with sympathy by the outside world, and felt that Witke could help in depicting a more human picture of her. Witke remarked that someone was trying to make her into a latter day Edgar Snow, and perhaps she was not displeased at the prospect. Jiang told her that Premier Zhou had urged her to go ahead with this meeting. Witke also spoke of the thorough investigation made into her academic and family background, plus the ways in which different Chinese interlocuters made known their knowledge of this. Then she went on to add her initial conclusion based on that first meeting, that someone was giving Jiang a long rope to hang herself. Witke also felt that she had unwittingly become enmeshed in China’s internal politics, and might be used in the manoeuvring by various personalities. This proved to be remarkably close to the truth, as the world learnt subsequently, when some of the inside stories on the events in China of the Mao era began to emerge. But to go back to that evening in the Mongolian restaurant, Hoxanne Witke told a story which gave deep insight into the inner workings of a land of enormous secrecy, and she seemed credible just for the reason that the account was vivid in personal detail.
My account of an Indian diplomat’s life in China some decades back, perhaps looks disjointed and sketchy. It describes some events and people that stand out in memory. It is intended to evoke some of the flavour of that time, and to underscore the wonder of one’s first start in a service career. Truly, it was a privilege to be exposed to China at a young age. It imprinted on me the enormous will and courage which this Asian giant mobilized, in its successful efforts to pull itself up by its own bootstraps. The circumstances of India are so different that direct comparisons are hard. But there is a great deal in the Chinese model which is relevant for us. The goals of democracy and freedom are absolute, and should not be compromised for economic achievement. A full 50 years after independence when the basic needs of our people are yet to be met, in education and health, in three square meals per day, in shelter and jobs, and even in drinking water, it can legitimately be asked - is this freedom? China’s record, evident in the excesses of the Great Leap and of the Cultural Revolution, suggests that it has swung in cycles of normalcy and extremes. The post-1979 economic reforms of Deng Xiaoping have brought great achievement and prosperity. But the tension between political and economic freedom, the contradictions and disparities between coastal and interior regions, and the restraints on individual freedom are among the issues which may pose for China its future challenges. Is individual liberty possible without the satisfaction of basic needs? Each society gropes for its own answers to these dilemmas. The comparable features and circumstances of India and China provide a basis for stronger cooperation, particularly in functional areas like agriculture or applied research. As we move to the next millennium, we must put aside the past, and seek out new ways of working together
More About Ambassador Kishan Rana
Ambassador Kishan Rana served as an Indian ambassador in Germany and consul general in San Francisco, and began his early career in China. His illustrious career in the Indian Foreign Service makes him well qualified discuss and reflect on India at the global level, as well as comparatively with China and other countries. Ambassador Rana’s status in the diplomatic corps and contacts with the policy establishment and security community in New Delhi will benefit our universities’ ties to India for faculty and student development.
Currently Ambassador Rana is active the Indian international affairs community and has handled projects for the Ministry of External Affairs. He advises the Ministry of Commerce and the Office of External Affairs in implementing plans to build India’s capacity at the global level. Professor Aseema Sinha, who is responsible for bringing this distinguished visitor on campus, hopes that his visit will establish new high-level linkages in India, address current projects such as the Emerging Powers Initiative and the India Initiative within the Division of International Studies, and provide a platform for discussion among many entities on campus, including: the Department of Political Science, the Center for South Asia, the Center for East Asian Studies, the India Initiative, the China Initiative, and Center for World Affairs and the Global Economy (WAGE).
Ambassador Rana was educated at St. Stephens College, Delhi University and holds a BA with honors and an MA in economics. He first joined the Indian Foreign Service in 1960 and was assigned in 1961 to the Indian Commission at Hong Kong to study Chinese. He then served at the Indian missions in Beijing (twice) and Geneva, and at the Ministry of External Affairs in New Delhi. Ambassador Rana served as the Indian Ambassador to Algeria (1975-79). Subsequent posts included ambassador or high commissioner to Czechoslovakia and Kenya and consul general in San Francisco, Mauritius, and Germany. He served as the joint-secretary in the prime minister’s office (1981-82) and in the Ministry of External Affairs (1982-83).
Ambassador Rana retired in 1995 and worked as a free-lance business advisor from 1995-99. Since 1999 he has been teaching and writing. Positions he has held include: professor emeritus, e-learning teaching faculty (since 2000), DiploFoundation, Malta and Geneva; commonwealth adviser to the Namibia Foreign Ministry (2000-01); honorary fellow, Institute of Chinese Studies, Delhi; archives by-fellow, Churchill College, Cambridge; public policy scholar, Woodrow Wilson Center, Washington, D.C. (2005); distinguished fellow, Institute of Diplomacy and Foreign Relations, Kuala Lumpur; and honorary fellow, Institute of Chinese Studies, Delhi.
TEIGN C Damen Stan 1405
IMO: - N/A
MMSI: 235082804
Call Sign: MWBM9
AIS Vessel Type: Dredger
GENERAL
DAMEN YARD NUMBER: 503705
Avelingen-West 20
4202 MS Gorinchem
The Netherlands
Phone: +31 (0)183 63 99 11
info@damen.com
DELIVERY DATE August 2001
BASIC FUNCTIONS Towing, mooring, pushing and dredging operations
FLAG United Kingdom [GB]
OWNED Teignmouth Harbour Commission
CASSCATION: Bureau Veritas 1 HULL MACH Seagoing Launch
DIMENSIONS
LENGTH 14.40 m
BEAM 4.73 m
DEPTH AT SIDES 205 m
DRAUGHT AFT 171 m
DISPLACEMENT 48 ton
TANK CAPACITIES
Fuel oil 6.9 m³
PERFORMANCES (TRIALS)
BOLLARD PULL AHEAD 8.0 ton
SPEED 9.8 knots
PROPULSION SYSTEM
MAIN ENGINE 2x Caterpillar 3406C TA/A
TOTAL POWER 477 bmW (640i hp) at 1800 rpm
GEARBOX 2x Twin Disc MG 5091/3.82:1
PROPELLERS Bronze fixed pitch propeller
KORT NOZZELS Van de Giessen 2x 1000 mm with stainless steel innerings
ENGINE CONTROL Kobelt
STEERING GEAR 2x 25 mm single plate Powered hydraulic 2x 45, rudder indicator
AUXILIARY EQUIPMENT
BILGE PUMP Sterling SIH 20, 32 m/hr
BATTERY SETS 2x 24V, 200 Ah + change over facility
COOLING SYSTEM Closed cooling system
ALARM SYSTEM Engines, gearboxes and bilge alarms
FRESH WATER PRESSURE SET Speck 24V
DECK LAY-OUT
ANCHORS 2x 48 kg Pool (HHP)
CHAIN 70 m, Ø 13mm, shortlink U2
ANCHOR WINCH Hand-operated
TOWING HOOK Mampaey, 15.3 ton SWL
COUPLING WINCH
PUSHBOW Cylindrical nubber fender Ø 380 mm
ACCOMMODATION
The wheelhouse ceiling and sides are insulated with mineral wool and
panelled. The wheelhouse floor is covered with rubber/synthetic floor
covering, make Bolidt, color blue The wheelhouse has one
helmsman seat, a bench and table with chair Below deck two berths, a
kitchen unit and a toilet space are arranged.
NAUTICAL AND COMMUNICATION EQUIPMENT
SEARCHLIGHT Den Haan 170 W 24 V
VHF RADIO Sailor RT 2048 25 W
NAVIGATION Navigation lights incl towing and pilot lights
Teignmouth Harbour Commission
The Harbour Commission is a Trust Port created by Statute.
The principal Order is the Teignmouth Harbour Order 1924
as amended by the Teignmouth Harbour Revision Order 2003
TEIGN C Damen Stan 1405
IMO: - N/A
MMSI: 235082804
Call Sign: MWBM9
AIS Vessel Type: Dredger
GENERAL
DAMEN YARD NUMBER: 503705
Avelingen-West 20
4202 MS Gorinchem
The Netherlands
Phone: +31 (0)183 63 99 11
info@damen.com
DELIVERY DATE August 2001
BASIC FUNCTIONS Towing, mooring, pushing and dredging operations
FLAG United Kingdom [GB]
OWNED Teignmouth Harbour Commission
CASSCATION: Bureau Veritas 1 HULL MACH Seagoing Launch
DIMENSIONS
LENGTH 14.40 m
BEAM 4.73 m
DEPTH AT SIDES 205 m
DRAUGHT AFT 171 m
DISPLACEMENT 48 ton
TANK CAPACITIES
Fuel oil 6.9 m³
PERFORMANCES (TRIALS)
BOLLARD PULL AHEAD 8.0 ton
SPEED 9.8 knots
PROPULSION SYSTEM
MAIN ENGINE 2x Caterpillar 3406C TA/A
TOTAL POWER 477 bmW (640i hp) at 1800 rpm
GEARBOX 2x Twin Disc MG 5091/3.82:1
PROPELLERS Bronze fixed pitch propeller
KORT NOZZELS Van de Giessen 2x 1000 mm with stainless steel innerings
ENGINE CONTROL Kobelt
STEERING GEAR 2x 25 mm single plate Powered hydraulic 2x 45, rudder indicator
AUXILIARY EQUIPMENT
BILGE PUMP Sterling SIH 20, 32 m/hr
BATTERY SETS 2x 24V, 200 Ah + change over facility
COOLING SYSTEM Closed cooling system
ALARM SYSTEM Engines, gearboxes and bilge alarms
FRESH WATER PRESSURE SET Speck 24V
DECK LAY-OUT
ANCHORS 2x 48 kg Pool (HHP)
CHAIN 70 m, Ø 13mm, shortlink U2
ANCHOR WINCH Hand-operated
TOWING HOOK Mampaey, 15.3 ton SWL
COUPLING WINCH
PUSHBOW Cylindrical nubber fender Ø 380 mm
ACCOMMODATION
The wheelhouse ceiling and sides are insulated with mineral wool and
panelled. The wheelhouse floor is covered with rubber/synthetic floor
covering, make Bolidt, color blue The wheelhouse has one
helmsman seat, a bench and table with chair Below deck two berths, a
kitchen unit and a toilet space are arranged.
NAUTICAL AND COMMUNICATION EQUIPMENT
SEARCHLIGHT Den Haan 170 W 24 V
VHF RADIO Sailor RT 2048 25 W
NAVIGATION Navigation lights incl towing and pilot lights
Teignmouth Harbour Commission
The Harbour Commission is a Trust Port created by Statute.
The principal Order is the Teignmouth Harbour Order 1924
as amended by the Teignmouth Harbour Revision Order 2003
Lifeboat helmsman manouevring Atlantic 85 class lifeboat B-813 'Muriel and Leslie' in Port Erin harbour, Isle of Man.
Recapture the essence of sailing!
Sailing means different things to different people.
Some people prefer to go cruising, alone, or with family and friends, and explore, relax and disconnect and enjoy the freedom of the sea.
To other people it is the challenge and excitement of racing that attracts them to sailing.
However, many people also get disillusioned with sailing. Some of the common reasons for this are the high cost, complexity and time involved, or uncomfortable, slow, and unattractive boats.
The idea behind Scandinavian Cruiser is to recapture the essence of sailing, by going back in time to a period a century ago when boats were considered truly beautiful, and sailing was a genteel, aspirational and romantic lifestyle.
Design concept
Scandinavian Cruiser combines the style and beauty of classic yachts with today’s modern lifestyle and the latest technologies.
Scandinavian Cruiser is designed for owners who want to recapture the essence of sailing, and for who style and great design is very important.
Stunningly beautiful design
Most people admire the sleek looks of the classic Skerry Cruisers (Square Meter Yachts). The design of Scandinavian Cruiser is admired equally by experienced sailors and landlubbers, giving the owner true pride of ownership.
High speed at all points of sail and wind conditions
Scandinavian Cruiser is faster than most other boats that appear to be much bigger. The light, long and sleek hull accelerates fast in even the lightest puff of wind, and the narrow bow cuts gracefully through the waves.
Superior maneuverability
Scandinavian Cruiser is an extremely pleasurable boat to sail because it heels over and accelerates gracefully and gradually, and the helmsman always has full control of the steering at any angle of heel.
Designed for today’s busy lifestyle
Considering the high demands on our free time, and the difficulty in finding sailing crew, Scandinavian Cruiser is designed for safe and easy single or short-handed sailing by one person, couples, small families and friends, for fair-weather day-sailing, shallow water anchoring, convenient trailering, and fast Corinthian club and one-design racing.
Features
•Ultra-light and strong E-glass, VE resin and Navicell Q60 core composite materials
•Rotating semi-unstayed tapered carbon wingmast
•Furling self-tacking jib and furling asymmetrical spinnaker
•Lifting carbon fiber keel strut with lead bulb and lifting carbon fiber rudder
•Stern sun deck
•Small cabin with entrance hatch
•Hiking straps and single trapeze belt
•20’ shipping container compatible
•Road trailer (optional)
Design brief
Scandinavian Cruiser is designed without regard for any handicap, class or measurement rules. The only design compromise is to design the fastest possible small day boat with the most stunningly beautiful classic yacht lines.
The two-sectioned mast and hull fit within a 20’ shipping container (up to 3 SC20’s in one 20’ container), and the boat is road-trailer legal.
Fast and easily driven hull, with wave-piercing bow, long and narrow water-line, low freeboards, and long bow and stern overhangs. The hull lines above the waterline are inspired by the classic Skerry Cruiser (Square Meter Yacht) lines.
Scandinavian Cruiser is designed with lifting keel and lifting rudder that can both be operated while sailing, thereby allowing access to shallow-water harbors, anchoring without swinging, and easy hauling, trailering, storage and container shipping.
The efficient keel & rudder are designed to achieve maximum speed and lift while maintaining the characteristics of the original Skerry Cruisers, such as a rudder that rarely stalls, a boat that does not easily drift sideways at low speed, a boat that is equally fast upwind and off the wind, and a stable boat that accelerates and heels over gradually without easily luffing up or spinning out.
The rotating carbon fiber wingmast is semi-unstayed, to achieve an uncluttered and modern look, as well as better safety and aerodynamic performance. The sails include a furling asymmetrical spinnaker, furling self-tacking jib with vertical battens, and full battened main.
The deck and cockpit layout is designed in classical lines with modern day boat functionality, including enough space for a small family. The halyard and trim line layout is designed for the boat to be sailed by one person, or raced by two people. The large cockpit has standing and seating space for up to 3 people, and the sun deck has sitting space for one person.
The hull and deck are constructed in VE resin, fiberglass and Navicel Q60 core composite, to achieve minimum weight and optimum performance.
The accommodations are carefully designed for convenient day-sailing, anchoring and socializing. The cabin offers storage space for cooler chests, sails, etc.
Free-standing and rotating wingmast
By Eric W. Sponberg, Naval Architect, PE (CT), CEng. (UK)
Beauty • Safety • Simplicity • Efficiency
Free-standing rigs are inherently more beautiful, safer, simpler, and more aerodynamically efficient than conventional rigs.
They are beautiful because of their sleek modern design and the absence of a myriad of standing rigging.
They are safer because stayed rigs are held up by multiple wires and spreaders, any one of which could fail or slip out and cause the rig to fall down. A free-standing mast is held up by just two parts—the deck and the heel fittings—so safety of the rig increases.
Free-standing rigs are more aerodynamically efficient because without wires, the sail-plan is no longer defined and confined by the triangular shape bounded by the backstay. The triangle is absolutely the worst possible plan-form shape that anyone could ever conceive of to be a lifting surface because of induced drag.
Induced drag is automatically created with lift. You can control it—make it bigger or smaller—but you can never get rid of it. Induced drag is a fact of life.
In any given aerofoil plan-form, the airflow on both sides of the surface are at different static pressures—high pressure to windward, low pressure to leeward—and they would really like to equalize. In a triangular plan-form, the airflow on the high pressure side gets a chance to equalize sooner, by virtue of the shape, than on a rectangular plan-form for example, by skewing up toward the tip and off the surface. This skewing of flow from the high pressure side, mixing with the flow on the low pressure side, creates a vortex off the tip. The bigger the skew, the bigger the vortex, and the greater the induced drag.
To reduce the vortex we can use a totally different shape for the plan-form, either elliptical or rectangular. The flow across an elliptical plan-form, as it turns out, has little tendency to twist off into a large vortex. In fact, the vortex is very small. A rectangular plan-form also has a pretty small tip vortex, and it can be made smaller, close to or better than that of an ellipse, if the tip of the sail is twisted to leeward. This is exactly how gaff rigs are shaped and why they are actually pretty efficient. It is also why we add roach to the leeches of mainsails—we are trying to approximate an elliptical or even a more rectangular, twisted, plan-form. You may have seen square-topped mainsails on modern multi-hulls and windsurfers. This is the reason—to reduce the tip vortex, and therefore the induced drag, to as small as possible. Less drag for the same amount of lift, or even greater lift, means more aerodynamic efficiency. More power is being devoted to making the craft move forward, not sideways.
The only reason we have triangular sail-plans is because we have wires that hold up the masts, and this necessarily makes sails triangular. And if you have wires in the way, you don’t want your sails to chafe on the wires, so we have triangular sails.
And the only reason we have wires in the rigs is because we are afflicted in modern sailboat design with arbitrary sailboat design rating rules that, for no good aerodynamic reasons, require the wires in the rigs. While many evolutionary changes have occurred in rig design over the years--most notably in new materials, first with metals, then with composites--standing rigging still remains steadfastly impacted inside the rating rules. And there is no relief in sight. Wires in the rig, and, therefore, triangularly shaped sails, are so inbred into our industry and our thinking that we blindly accept them without question.
It takes a bit of courage, I guess, to ask the question: “Why do we do this?” Well, sailors and designers are conservative people. There is no other explanation. The idea of a mast without wires is so foreign to most people that they just cannot fathom how a sailboat mast can stand up all by itself without something to hold it up.
Today, a Boeing 747 airliner at take-off weighs 875,000 pounds, carries 524 passengers, flies at 567 miles per hour more than 7 miles above the earth, and it does not have any wires holding the wings on!
Free-standing mast design and construction:
In engineering jargon, free-standing masts are called cantilevers. Stayed masts, on the other hand, are columns. Cantilevers bend, columns compress. The two behaviors are different, and so the structures are designed and built accordingly.
In a stayed rig, the boat heels due to wind pressure on the sails. Without wires holding up a normally skinny mast, the rig would fall over. But the wires hold the mast in place, pulling on the mast in tension and with their lower ends anchored into the deck and hull. This tension in the wires induces an equal and opposite compression load in the mast itself. The mast has to be big enough in cross-section with a thick enough wall so that it can handle the stress and not buckle.
In a free-standing rig, the wind pressure on the sails causes the mast to bend sideways and back. No wires support the mast, so the mast itself has to have a big enough cross-section and a thick enough wall to handle the load. This necessarily makes the mast bigger than its equivalent stayed counterpart.
And this is where carbon fiber plays such an important role. Carbon fiber laminates are about 60% of the weight of aluminum, the most common mast material, yet carbon is more than twice as strong. This makes carbon fiber a much more efficient material than aluminum when it comes to making sailboat masts (and other weight/strength sensitive structures, like airplanes).
The carbon fiber laminate is thicker at the base, where the load is greater, and tapers in thickness towards the top where the load goes to zero.
Wingmasts:
A wingmast is a mast shaped like a wing that is allowed to rotate. Wing shape and rotation further increase the efficiency of a free-standing rig. Unfortunately, mast rotation also falls victim to traditional rating rules—it is not allowed. This prohibition can be traced back to L. Francis Herreshoff, who had a patent on a rotating mast design, one of which he installed on an R class boat (Lwl = 20’) called Live Yankee in 1925. But when the regatta committee of the New York Yacht Club heard about this rig, it promptly passed a rule prohibiting “revolving masts, double luffed sails and similar contrivances.” This prohibition remains in current rating rules, and no changes to eliminate it are in sight. It really smacks of spite against a progressive designer and the yacht club’s desire to protect the status quo of the fleet at the time. But that was almost 80 years ago! It is truly amazing to me that such a prohibition has remained in place for so long.
However, in spite of the rules, rotating a stayed mast is difficult to say the least because the rigging wires simply get in the way. And actually, when sailing on the wind, stayed rigs are really very good. The airflow over a non-rotating mast attaches really well over the mast and mainsail. The power generated by a stayed rig on the wind and a free-standing wing-mast rig on the wind are pretty comparable. Two boats of the same type but with different rigs—stayed and un-stayed—do not have much advantage over each other—they sail about the same. The differences are really apparent when sailing off the wind. See the sketch below.
a. Stayed mast on the wind; b. Stayed mast off the wind;
c. Mast off the wind and rotated.
When sailing on the wind (a), the airflow on the back side of the mast is well-attached. Off the wind (b), the mainsail on a stayed rig sets off the side of the mast because the mast can’t rotate. The leading edge shape--the most important part of the rig for generating power--is awful. The airflow quickly separates off the mast. To recover some lift, the sail-maker has to build enough camber into the sail to fool the airflow into reattaching. Then, when you go even further downwind, you lose lift altogether and drag is the only component left to make you go. Most people will say that the more downwind you go, the more pure drag you want anyway, to push you downwind. They obviously have not felt the adrenaline rush of acceleration and speed caused by pure lift from a properly designed and rotated wingmast rig. Get rid of the wires, and full mast rotation is possible. Rotate the mast (c), and all the aerodynamics change. Even downwind--especially downwind--pure lift is much more powerful than pure drag. The boat is considerably faster because so much more power is harnessed from the wind. This has been proven a number of times in actual sailing trials between stayed rig boats and boats with free-standing, rotating masts. The free-standing rig boats just run away from their stayed counterparts when sailing off the wind.
Another benefit of eliminating the wires is that a boat is much more directionally stable and more resistant to gybing. A boat with a stayed rig can sail perhaps ten degrees by the lee before the mainsail gybes. If not properly controlled, the boom will swing violently to the other side and crash against the lower shroud, perhaps breaking the shroud or itself. The boat may also broach if the seas are running fairly high. If something breaks or the boat broaches, the boat is instantaneously in danger of losing its rig and getting rolled over.
On a boat with a free-standing rig, the boom can set way forward of abeam wing-and-wing. You can sail ninety degrees or more by the lee without gybing. If the boat starts to round up because of a hit by a wave or gust, the sails will naturally pull the bow back downwind. And even if the boat does gybe, what happens if the boom gets away from the crew? Nothing, because there is nothing to hit—if it is not there, it cannot break! The sails will stop in a luff position all by themselves. It is very unlikely that the boat will broach. When the other boats crash, this one just keeps on going.
For more detailed information on the topic of free-standing masts and wingmasts, please visit: www.sponbergyachtdesign.com/StateoftheArt.htm
History of the Skerry Cruisers (Square Meter Yachts)
The Swedish name Skärgårdskryssare means Shoal Cruiser, or phonetically translated Skerry Cruiser, referring to the protruding rocks off the coast of the Baltic Sea.
The rule of the Square Meter Yachts was applied by the Swedish Sailing Association in 1908 and revised in 1925. The rule applies to the sail area in square meters.
The original Skerry Cruiser designs were the most beautiful and fastest yachts in the world when they first came out in Sweden exactly 100 years ago.
The rule produced a classic elegant racing yacht with timeless beautiful and fast lines. With its slim and long hull the speed of these boats is remarkable. In light wind the friction in the water is kept to a minimum, while at increasing speed the overhang portions of the design increases the hull speed by stretching the waterline.
On the Swedish east-coast the Square Meter Yachts soon became popular. The small classes allowed more people to build boats, and the Square Meter Yacht became one of the first folk-boats.
Square Meter Yachts were required to provide basic living accommodations. Because these boats were raced in the ocean, it was important the designer created strong boats that could be sailed over distance. Even the small boats regularly crossed the open-sea stretches between the Scandinavian countries on the way to the international competitions; rather unusual for boats of that size those days.
Both the 30 and the 40 Square Meters were Olympic classes in the 1920 Olympics. The choice of Meter Rule boats for the war-time Olympics spelled the demise of an era. After the war, the International Rule favored by the USA ended the competition scene for the Square Meter boats.
The “grand old man” of American yachting, L. Francis Herreshoff, was one of the most vocal supporters of the Square Meter Yachts in the US. He bought one in Sweden and imported it to Marblehead, Massachusetts. He was convinced that these boats were bound to be the new Olympics class, and he judged them far better than both the European Meter class boats and the American R-class.
Mr. Herreshoff’s enthusiasm is a prime reason for the interest the Corinthian Club showed in the Square Meters. The class was introduced to the US in Marblehead, and the first races were organized by the Corinthian Club.
In 1928, Mr. Herreshoff designed Oriole II, a 30 square meter boat for one of his customers, Chandler Hovey's daughter Elizabeth, who admitted to having more fun with this boat than any other.
Another very important “ambassador” for this class of boats was Eric Lundberg of the Royal Swedish Yacht Club who, in August 1929, finished first in all races off the coast of Marblehead in the Swedish-German-American races. No other guest ever won all 11 races before.
By the end of the 1930s the class was so popular that there were 24 in the USA, 18 in England, 13 in Switzerland, 100 in Germany and 500 in Sweden. Today, more than 1200 boats of this type are built. They sail in the waters off Scandinavia, Germany, Switzerland, England, USA, and Australia.
Measurements
L.O.A. 19’3” (5.86 m)
Waterline length: 12’7” (3.84 m)
Beam 4’3” (1.30 m)
Freeboard height 1’2” (0.35 m)
Keel draft: 4’7” (1.40m)
Keel shoal draft: 1’2” (0.35m)
Rudder draft 2’4” (0.70m)
Rudder shoal draft 0 (0m)
Displacement: 0.34 ton (750 lbs)
Ballast: 0.17 ton (375 lbs)
Ballast %: 50%
Mast diameter at bottom3.39” (8.6 cm)
Mast diameter at top1.69” (4.3 cm)
Mast length23’0” (7.0 m)
Mainsail: 97 sqf (9 SQM)
Jib: 41 sqf (3.8 SQM)
Asymmetrical spinnaker: 172 sqf (16 SQM)
Detailed design specifications
Rig
The SC 20 is equipped with a sloop rig with that includes a main sail, jib, and asymmetrical spinnaker which are flown from a free-standing, rotating wing mast. Although the mast is designed for strength and stiffness to be completely free-standing, it nevertheless is equipped with running backstays which are used with the asymmetrical spinnaker to keep the mast from pumping. The running backstays may also be used with the jib to control the forestay sag, and in heavy wind conditions.
The mast is comprised of two equal length sections for easy transportation. The upper section is tapered. The mast is supported by two UHMW bearings, one mounted in the cabin roof, and one in the mast step.
The mast weight is only 7.1 kg (15.7 lbs) which means that it can be raised or removed by one person if it is not too windy.
Keel
The keel and bulb has a 1:5 purchase lifting tackle that allow it to be move up and down. Usually, the keel is lowered into position for the day’s sailing and is retracted only when entering shallow harbors or being maneuvered onto the trailer. However it is possible to lift the keel while sailing.
The keel blade is made of carbon fiber over a solid core made of high density closed cell foam. The blade aerofoil section is a modified GA(W) aerofoil of 10% thickness. The basic blade chord length is 26 cm (10”), therefore the blade width is 2.6 cm (1”).
The ballast bulb is an antimonial lead casting with a stainless steel armature built into it for affixing it to the keel blade. The bulb is called a Beavertail/Swallowtail bulb. The wide beavertail shape helps minimize the tip vortex by keeping the water flow running perpendicular to the span near the tip. The pointy swallowtail minimizes the vortices coming off the corners of what otherwise would be a square-tipped tail.
The keel slides up and down inside the keel casing which is made of composites and bonded into the boat. The top of the keel casing is situation 20cm (8”) above the water line to prevent sea water from coming into the cockpit while sailing.
Rudder
The rudder is a carbon fiber blade that is housed in a rotating composite drum that is supported in the hull by upper and lower UHMW bearings. Steering is by a tiller which is affixed to the drum. The rudder blade slides up and down by hand and is pinned in place at any of a number of discrete heights with a stainless steel locking pin.
The rudder blade is made of carbon fiber over foam core, molded in a female mold. The chord length is 13 cm (5”). The aerofoil section is, like the keel, a modified GA(W) aerofoil of 10% thickness, therefore its width is 1.3 cm (0.5”).
picture by Don Wilts, 362nd Signal Co.
info from: Ships Nostalgia
“Eastgate” built by Turnbull and Scott 1957, not in the picture.
Shell 'K' or 'H' type vessel.
turbine product tanker 12166grt
British tanker ‘Eastgate’ under attack at Vung Ro bay june 6 1968.
story as told by W.T. Alexander
It promised to be an interesting stay in Vung Ro right from the start.
As we where mooring up to the sea buoys a US Navy destroyer at the entrance to the bay started lobbing 5-inch shells over us and the surrounding hills.
This made us look questioningly at the 2 members of the US Army who where taking samples of our JP4 cargo prior to discharging.
“Don’t you worry non son. There is a bit of battle goin on over them thar hills. But thars 10000 Koreans in them hills and Charlies scared shitless of them Koreans”
He then regaled us with stories of Koreans taking Viet Cong heads and sticking them on poles outside their bases. It all sounded very reassuring.
I was 17 years old and training to be an officer in the British Merchant Marine.
This was my first trip to sea and life was exciting. I’d joined the Eastgate just a couple of weeks before in Hong Kong. From there we had sailed to Singapore to load JP4 and other petroleum products for the United States Military in Vietnam.
Vung Ro was a small port south of Qui Nhon.
There where 4 bouys to berth a tanker a short distance from the shore. The tanker discharged through a submarine pipeline attached to a buoy. This pipeline supplied an airbase inland.
A jetty for cargo ships was just north of the base. These berths where occupied by the “American Scientist” and another US merchant vessel.
The day passed quickly with lots of things happening. A cliff face was blown up by the army engineers. A blast which knocked all of us interested spectators back two paces. Then two Hueys landed on the beach and some very nice looking young ladies stepped out and where escorted into the camp.
Our two resident army radio operators informed us of a strip show at the base that evening and if any of the crew where interested they would whistle up a boat. Well amazingly enough most of the crew where interested. So those who could get the time off duty duly went ashore and where royally treated by our American hosts.
Unfortunately I was not one of the chosen few but you can’t win them all.
I came on watch at midnight to find all was quiet.
Andy, my sidekick, informed me that pumping had been stopped due to a suspected hole in the pipeline and the hole was to be investigated the next morning. Sounded good to me.
0130. I was on the poop on a routine fire watch, looking over towards the base ashore.
A flash and a shower of silver sparks form the middle of the base followed immediately by an explosion, followed by another, and another. I got to thinking that this shouldn’t be happening.
I went back midships to see the 2nd Officer who was also of the opinion that this was not usual. The 2/O hit the alarm bells whilst I went to let the Captain know what was happening.
The Chief Officer started to organize the disconnection of the pipeline and attaching it to the buoy ready for use next time. Andy and I where sent off to make sure the ships blackout was complete whilst the Captain was conferring with the two radio operators as to the next move.
Meanwhile a mortar round exploded close to the bow of the “American Scientist”.
Many of the crew jumped overboard whilst others left the ship on the landward side. They ran along the jetty but 2 shells landed at the shore end of the jetty and they turned and ran back to the ship.
When I got back on deck after checking the blackout I found all the engineers on deck with lifejackets.
I asked the 3rd engineer what was going on and he said the Captain had told them to get ready to abandon ship.
What had happened was that the Captain was a bit unsure of what to do and had asked the American radio operators. The operators had lost touch with the shore and where unhappy about sitting on top of 12.000 tons of JP4 with mortar shells flying around the place. So they had advised getting everyone ashore.
Whilst the Captain considered the Chief Engineer, an old gnarled Scotsman with a limp, stormed up to him and told him in no uncertain terms “Captain you’r not abandoning this fucking ship”.
This had the effect of pulling the Captain out of his uncertainty and ordered the Chief to get the engines ready for leaving.
Our problem was that there was no emergency evacuation plan for leaving the port. We had lost touch with all other units and the local patrol boats where busy picking up the men in the water from the “American Scientist”. Ashore there was nu letup in the assault on the base with the sound of the mortar shells being joined by that of small arms fire.
Finally we where ready for off. We had to let our mooring ropes go from the ship as there where no boats available to let them go from the buoys. This would add to the hazards of leaving because of the risk of the ropes fouling the propeller.
We let go one from each buoy, but then came the next problem. The “American Scientist” had let go her moorings and was manoeuvring to leave the bay. It was far too dangerous to have 2 large vessels manoeuvring in such confined waters at night, blacked out, and in the middle of a battle. So we had to wait.
In the mean time helicopter gunships had arrived and where spraying the hillside above the base with gunfire and rockets. This was hugely spectacular and worth waiting to see.
So we where all stand by waiting to complete unmooring as soon as the “American Scientist” was clear. The only crew members who where not at their stations where our Arab firemen who where under the port lifeboat with packed suitcases. They where eventually driven back down the engine room by the 2nd Engineer.
I was up on the bridge as the order was finally given to let go the remaining mooring lines and leave the bay. A manoeuvre which the Captain did brilliantly, his former nerves now seemingly well settled. Our American radio operators still couldn’t get in touch with the base and where more than a little worried sat on the deck on the bridge wing. Our Captains remark to Dave Piggott the helmsman when we finally cleared the bay was “I don’t know about you Piggot but I think I need a new pair of underpants” Bit of a wag at times our Captain.
And so we spent the night a safe distance offshore to see what the morning would bring.
And the following morning, still no radio contact with the base, so we continued our offshore patrol.
Later in the day we received a message from Shell Tankers that we where to proceed to Qui Nhon to complete the discharge. But then the next problem. Most of our mooring ropes where still attached to the bouys in Vung To Bay and the Captain was loatch to go without them.
So we headed back towards the bay to see if we could get them back. As we approached the bay one of the patrol boats dashed out and a chap with a megaphone demanded to know “what the fuck are you doing here with that ship Captain ?”
The Captain explained that we had been told to go to Qui Nhon but could we have our ropes back first please.
Eventually a party of our crew went into the bay on the patrol boat and towed the mooring ropes out and we said goodbye to our radio men who seemed quite relieved to be off.
From there we sailed to Qui Nhon. Three days later we passed Vung Ro on the way back to Singapore. We could see fighter bombers attacking the hills to the north of the bay. And so it went on.
Postscript
About 8 years later I was on a chemical tanker sailing from Newhaven to Elizabethport. The pilot for Long Island Sound turned out to be the Captain of the other merchant vessel that was berthed alongside the “American Scientist” and a regular runner into Vung Ro.
Het told me that the Koreans had been moved from the hills around Vung Ro but no one had thought to inform the American troops of this fact. They thought they where well protected but where not.
The other thing he told me was that the “American Scientist” had a large quantity of napalm on board hence the crew reaction to the near miss.
W.T. Alexander
Hornsea England
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"Eastgate" sunk 30.3.1973
as a result of a collision when approaching Hong Kong at night.
With the French mv “Circea”.
fire amidships and 3 crewmembers lost their lives.
As a "total loss" delivered to ship breakers at Kaohsiung 3 months later.
The great master of the small bronze in the early Renaissance, Andrea Briosco, called Riccio, trained first as a goldsmith in the workshop of his father, Ambrogio Briosco. He owes his renown to the bronze statuettes and functional objects he cast for a small circle of clients, particularly in his native Padua. Many of them were made in homage to the art of antiquity; Riccio borrowed motifs from ancient sources and combined them in novel ways to give them fresh meaning for his humanist patrons in that university town. Although members of his workshop and his followers issued, on a level of mass production, bronze oil lamps as well as inkwells and candlesticks, Riccio himself produced only a handful of them, including some unique oil lamps, which transcend utility to become masterpieces. Long in the collection of the Rothschild family, this is one of three superlative examples of its kind; the others are the Morgan Lamp, in the Frick Collection, New York, and the Cadogan Lamp, in the Victoria and Albert Museum, London. The three share many motifs, but with a fertile imagination Riccio incorporated them into each lamp in such a way that they seem to be in a constant state of flux, changing their guise from one object to the other before our eyes.
While its owners may have prized it too highly to use it for lighting, this is a functioning oil lamp. The hinged lid opens by means of the handle topped with a grotesque head — its upward movement limited by the ram’s head spiraling behind — and reveals two connecting reservoirs for oil. When the lid is closed, the grotesque head appears to be blowing on a wick that rose from a tongue protruding from the opening below. Curling tendrils above and below serve to suspend the lamp from hooks or to support it as struts on a table. Overall, the lamp takes the form of a fanciful ancient ship or galley. Its prow is like a nautical battering ram; the Cadogan Lamp has a spike that refers to this function and a proper poop deck behind.[1] By curling the spike into a continuous element with two loops, Riccio found a more elegant solution for the Museum’s lamp. The tendrils buoy up the body of the lamp, lending lightness and a sense of mobility to the otherwise dense bronze mass. Of the three superb lamps mentioned here, this is the only complete example, and it demonstrates how lid, handles, and loops were intended to work.
On the lid a pair of putti perch, embracing swanlike creatures that emerge from the swelling bronze surface and tuck their necks back into it. The Cadogan Lamp lid supports a single putto astride a dolphin that swims in the opposite direction from the boat; a hole in the poop may indicate where a second figure once stood, possibly the helmsman, as Anthony Radcliffe hypothesized.[2] An engraving of the Morgan Lamp, made in 1652, when it was already missing its lid, shows a lyre-playing putto seated against the rear handle; the remains of a foot on the forward lip suggest that another putto stood facing the wick.[3] Therefore, all of the lamps originally had figures of children riding on top. The Morgan Lamp is in the shape of a classical boot, not a ship. But these fantastic objects were not meant to be taken literally: they make reference to ancient prototypes of lamps,[4] and with their riding figures they also suggest both the richly decorated floats that Renaissance artists created for triumphal processions and illustrations of such elaborate chariots in works like Francesco Colonna’s Hypnerotomachia Poliphili (1499).
Encrusted with shells, bucrania, harpies, garlands, and other classical decorative motifs, the body of each lamp is also decorated with friezes of putti. The Museum’s lamp displays a dozen in the relief on one side and eleven on the other. In the first, the twelve naked children dance, play with a ram, step over an ewer, and blow on a horn; in the second, some dance, one plays a pipe on the far right, and a kneeling group sit in a circle around a ram at the left. These friezes become narrower at one end, and as they taper, each child remains clearly delineated, but the poses shift from upright to crouching to seated.
The three lamps are closely related to Riccio’s most substantial work in bronze, the Paschal candlestick in the basilica of San Antonio (Il Santo) in Padua, since similar motifs are present on all. He began the colossal liturgical object in 1507, was apparently interrupted in 1509, and completed it only in 1516. Although the dating of the various parts of the candlestick is conjectural, most scholars place the three lamps within the period of its making or shortly afterward.
Il grande maestro del piccolo bronzo nel primo Rinascimento, Andrea Briosco, detto Riccio, si formò prima come orafo nella bottega del padre, Ambrogio Briosco. Deve la sua fama alle statuette in bronzo e agli oggetti funzionali che fonde per una ristretta cerchia di clienti, in particolare nella sua natia Padova. Molte di esse furono fatte in omaggio all'arte dell'antichità; Riccio ha preso in prestito motivi da fonti antiche e li ha combinati in modi nuovi per dare loro un nuovo significato per i suoi mecenati umanisti in quella città universitaria. Sebbene i membri della sua bottega e i suoi seguaci produssero, a livello di produzione di massa, lampade a olio in bronzo, calamai e candelieri, lo stesso Riccio ne produsse solo una manciata, comprese alcune lampade a olio uniche, che trascendono l'utilità per diventare capolavori. A lungo nella collezione della famiglia Rothschild, questo è uno dei tre esempi superlativi del suo genere; le altre sono la Morgan Lamp, nella Frick Collection, New York, e la Cadogan Lamp, nel Victoria and Albert Museum, Londra. I tre condividono molti motivi, ma con una fertile immaginazione Riccio li ha incorporati in ogni lampada in modo tale che sembrano essere in un continuo stato di flusso, cambiando la loro forma da un oggetto all'altro davanti ai nostri occhi.
Mentre i suoi proprietari potrebbero averlo apprezzato troppo per usarlo per l'illuminazione, questa è una lampada a olio funzionante. Il coperchio a cerniera si apre per mezzo del manico sormontato da una testa grottesca — il suo movimento verso l'alto limitato dalla testa dell'ariete che si attorciglia a spirale dietro — e rivela due serbatoi di collegamento per l'olio. Quando il coperchio è chiuso, la testa grottesca sembra soffiare su uno stoppino che si levava da una lingua che sporgeva dall'apertura sottostante. I viticci arricciati sopra e sotto servono a sospendere la lampada dai ganci oa sostenerla come puntoni su un tavolo. Nel complesso, la lampada assume la forma di una fantasiosa nave o galea antica. La sua prua è come un ariete nautico; la lampada Cadogan ha una punta che si riferisce a questa funzione e un vero e proprio mazzo di cacca dietro.[1] Arricciando la punta in un elemento continuo con due anse, Riccio ha trovato una soluzione più elegante per la lampada del Museo. I viticci sostengono il corpo della lampada, conferendo leggerezza e un senso di mobilità alla massa di bronzo altrimenti densa. Delle tre superbe lampade qui menzionate, questo è l'unico esempio completo e dimostra il funzionamento del coperchio, dei manici e dei passanti.
Sul coperchio un paio di putti si posano, abbracciando creature simili a cigni che emergono dalla superficie di bronzo rigonfia e vi rimboccano il collo. Il coperchio della lampada Cadogan sostiene un solo putto a cavallo di un delfino che nuota in direzione opposta rispetto alla barca; un buco nella cacca potrebbe indicare dove un tempo si trovava una seconda figura, forse il timoniere, come ipotizzato da Anthony Radcliffe.[2] Un'incisione della Lampada Morgan, eseguita nel 1652, quando mancava già il coperchio, mostra un putto suonatore di lira seduto contro il manico posteriore; i resti di un piede sul labbro anteriore suggeriscono che un altro putto fosse di fronte allo stoppino.[3] Pertanto, tutte le lampade avevano originariamente figure di bambini che cavalcavano in cima. La lampada Morgan ha la forma di uno stivale classico, non di una nave. Ma questi fantastici oggetti non dovevano essere presi alla lettera: fanno riferimento ad antichi prototipi di lampade,[4] e con le loro figure a cavallo suggeriscono anche sia i carri riccamente decorati che gli artisti rinascimentali realizzavano per le processioni trionfali sia le illustrazioni di carri così elaborati in opere come Hypnerotomachia Poliphili (1499) di Francesco Colonna.
Incrostato di conchiglie, bucrani, arpie, ghirlande e altri motivi decorativi classici, il corpo di ogni lampada è decorato anche con fregi di putti. La lampada del Museo ne mostra una dozzina nel rilievo da un lato e undici dall'altro. Nella prima i dodici fanciulli nudi danzano, giocano con un montone, scavalcano una brocca e suonano un corno; nel secondo, alcuni balli, uno suona il flauto all'estrema destra e un gruppo inginocchiato si siede in cerchio attorno a un ariete a sinistra. Questi fregi si restringono a un'estremità e, man mano che si assottigliano, ogni bambino rimane chiaramente delineato, ma le pose passano da eretto a accovacciato a seduto.
Le tre lampade sono strettamente legate all'opera in bronzo più consistente di Riccio, il candeliere pasquale nella basilica di Sant'Antonio (Il Santo) a Padova, poiché su tutte sono presenti motivi simili. Iniziò il colossale oggetto liturgico nel 1507, sarebbe stato interrotto nel 1509 e lo completò solo nel 1516. Sebbene la datazione delle varie parti del candeliere sia congetturale, la maggior parte degli studiosi colloca le tre lampade nel periodo della sua realizzazione o poco dopo .
Catherine Barr, who died in 2008, left the money to fund a new lifeboat named in the memory of her late husband, Dr John Buchanan Barr MBE.
Dr Barr worked as a GP in Glasgow before World War II, during which he served with distinction with the Royal Army Medical Corps in North Africa, Sicily and Italy. After demobilising, he returned to general practice in Glasgow.
However, he and his wife often spent their holidays in Portpatrick and the lifeboat bequest was because of their fondness for the village.
The new boat is stationed in the Dumfries and Galloway village.
Tamar class lifeboats are all-weather lifeboats operated by the Royal National Lifeboat Institution (RNLI) around the coasts of Great Britain and Ireland. The Tamar class is the replacement for the Tyne-class slipway launched All Weather Lifeboat (ALB).
The class name comes from the River Tamar in south west England which flows into the English Channel where they are manufactured by Babcock International Group.
Since 1982 the RNLI had deployed 17 knots (31 km/h) Tyne Class lifeboats at stations which launched their boats down slipways or needed to operate in shallow waters. The organisation desired to increase the speed and range of their operations so introduced 25 knots (46 km/h) Severn and Trent boats from 1994 where they could be moored afloat. They then needed to produce a boat with similar capabilities but with protected propellers and other modifications that would allow it to be launched on a slipway.
The prototype Tamar was built in 2000 and was used for trials until 2006. It was sold in December 2008 to Kent Police, becoming Princess Alexandra III, the force's permanent maritime vessel operating out of Sheerness. The first production boat, Haydn Miller entered service at Tenby in March 2006. A few of the early boats suffered problems such as fuel leaking under the floor of the engine control room around hydraulic lines. These boats were recalled and the problems rectified. There are very few reported problems associated with the vessel now as the design and manufacturing process is largely perfected.
The Tamar has a new design of crew workstation with seats that can move up and down 20 centimetres (7.9 in) as the boat passes through rough seas at high speed, and a networked computerised Systems and Information Management System (SIMS) which allows the crew to monitor and control the boat entirely from within the wheelhouse. The coxswain and helmsman have seat-mounted throttles, trackerball and joystick controls of the rudder. Alternatively the boat may be monitored and control by two controls on the bridge: Dual throttle controls and joystick on the left; dual throttle, wheel and control-screen on the right. All aspects of the vessel may also be controlled from this position.
The lifeboat is completely water-tight allowing it to self-right with up to 60 people on board. The boat has the potential to carry a maximum of 120 passengers on board, but without self righting capability. The Survivors Space has room for 10 sitting and 8 standing. The Survivors Space is accessed either through the Wheelhouse or the fore deck Emergency Escape Hatch.
Each Tamar carries a Y Class inflatable boat which can be deployed and recovered while at sea
A major maritime exercise, Exercise Diamond, which involved HM Coastguard, vessels, RNLI lifeboats, helicopters, search and rescue coordinators, Belfast Harbour, emergency services and local authorities was held on Sunday 23 September from 9.30 am. Exercise Diamond, a live large-scale incident exercise, was held within Belfast Lough, Northern Ireland and involved 365 people.
Exercise Diamond was designed to test the major incident plans for all of the organisations that would be involved should a major maritime incident happen in Northern Ireland.
Exercise Diamond was the largest live maritime exercise ever held in Northern Ireland.
An exercise held within the Titanic centenary, Olympic, & Diamond year involving Emergency Services, Agencies and Companies dedicated to saving lives and providing the best possible service.
The following organisations participated in the exercise:
HM Coastguard / Maritime and Coastguard Agency; Royal National Lifeboat Institution; Police Service of Northern Ireland; Northern Ireland Fire and Rescue Service; Northern Ireland Ambulance Service; Ministry of Defence (including Royal Airforce); Stena Line; RFD Survitec; Irish Coastguard; Northdown and Ards Borough Council; Belfast Harbour.
TEIGN C Damen Stan 1405
Vessel Details
Name:TEIGN C
Flag: United Kingdom
MMSI:235082804
Call sign:MWBM9
AIS transponder class:Class B
AIS Vessel Type: Dredger
General
DAMEN YARD NUMBER: 503705
Avelingen-West 20
4202 MS Gorinchem
The Netherlands
Phone: +31 (0)183 63 99 11
info@damen.com
DELIVERY DATE August 2001
BASIC FUNCTIONS Towing, mooring, pushing and dredging operations
FLAG United Kingdom [GB]
OWNED Teignmouth Harbour Commission
CASSCATION: Bureau Veritas 1 HULL MACH Seagoing Launch
Dimensions
LENGTH: 14.40 m
BEAM: 4.73 m
DEPTH AT SIDES: 2.05 m
DRAUGHT AFT: 1.71 m
DISPLACEMENT 48 ton
Tank Capacities
Fuel oil 6.9 m³
Performances (trials)
BOLLARD PULL AHEAD 8.0 ton
SPEED 9.8 knots
Propulsion System
MAIN ENGINE: 2x Caterpillar 3406C TA/A
TOTAL POWER: 477 bmW (640i hp) at 1800 rpm
GEARBOX: 2x Twin Disc MG 5091/3.82:1
PROPELLERS: Bronze fixed pitch propeller
KORT NOZZELS: Van de Giessen 2x 1000 mm with stainless steel innerings
ENGINE CONTROL: Kobelt
STEERING GEAR: 2x 25 mm single plate Powered hydraulic 2x 45, rudder indicator
Auxiliary Equipment
BILGE PUMP: Sterling SIH 20, 32 m/hr
BATTERY SETS: 2x 24V, 200 Ah + change over facility
COOLING SYSTEM: Closed cooling system
ALARM SYSTEM: Engines, gearboxes and bilge alarms
FRESH WATER PRESSURE SET: Speck 24V
Deck lay-out
ANCHORS: 2x 48 kg Pool (HHP)
CHAIN: 70 m, Ø 13mm, shortlink U2
ANCHOR WINCH: Hand-operated
TOWING HOOK: Mampaey, 15.3 ton SWL
COUPLING WINCH PUSHBOW: Cylindrical nubber fender Ø 380 mm
Accommodation
The wheelhouse ceiling and sides are insulated with mineral wool and
panelled. The wheelhouse floor is covered with rubber/synthetic floor
covering, make Bolidt, color blue The wheelhouse has one
helmsman seat, a bench and table with chair Below deck two berths, a
kitchen unit and a toilet space are arranged.
Nautical and Communication Equipment
SEARCHLIGHT: Den Haan 170 W 24 V
VHF RADIO: Sailor RT 2048 25 W
NAVIGATION: Navigation lights incl towing and pilot lights
Owner
Teignmouth Harbour Commission
The Harbour Commission is a Trust Port created by Statute.
The principal Order is the Teignmouth Harbour Order 1924
as amended by the Teignmouth Harbour Revision Order 2003
Oil on panel; 74 x 50 cm.
The son of portraitist Giosuè Biachi, Mosè Bianchi was born in Monza and studied at the Brera Academy in Milan. His early output was largely academic, dominated by altarpieces and history painting, but even in this early phase his natural lightness of touch softened the stiff official idiom demanded by such subjects. In 1866 he was awarded the Pensionato Oggioni for his Conversion of St Paul, which enabled him to visit Venice, Rome and Paris. In Venice he came under the influence of the grand master Tiepolo, as well as contemporaries Giacomo Favretto and the Spaniard Mariano Fortuny, whose luminous palettes and playful subjects informed his work; while in Paris he admired Ernest Meissonier and the Realists. Back in Milan at the end of the decade he aligned himself firmly with the avant-garde, much like the Macchaioli had, embracing the tenets of realism and naturalism. By now, he had been discovered by the Paris art dealer Goupil; his reputation became European, and the added financial security enabled him to roam more widely in search of subjects. He remained particularly fond of Venice, however, and of the fishermen of the lagoon, and by the 1880s his treatment of these themes was increasingly free and impressionistic.
Notwithstanding his intense activity and continued public success (he was awarded the premio principe umberto in 1874, 1894 and 1900), Bianchi spent his final years in poverty, assisted by his nephew, the painter Pompeo Mariani (1857–1927).
Lassie of Chester was one of the last " Nobbies" built by the Conwy branch of the famous Crossfield family. She was also built as the sister ship of the "Betty" under the walls of Conwy Castle. Lassie was built with extra planking to her hull, possibly because the original owner was over 6ft tall, but also because she was intended to fish the turbulent waters of the Liverpool Bar. The extra height gives her more of a "Smack like" appearance than most other Nobbies . She also had a type of "Sentry Box" arrangement at her tiller to keep the helmsman dry. This extra height makes her a comparatively dry boat and enables reasonable accommodation in the forepeak for 4 people without the addition of a cabin top, maintaining her original working shape.
She was originally registered on the 18th May 1937 as CH 51 then fished on the Dee throughout World War II under the registry of the Port of Chester as CH 68. She had a reputation for fishing in all weathers. Later, she moved to Cumbria, fishing from Fleetwood, and was re-registered under the Port of Workington as WO 2.
In the late '80ies she finished fishing and was left in the mud to die but in 1994 was bought for conversion to a yacht, and motored to Bangor. Her massive100hp engine had taken its toll and shaken most of the caulking from her seams. She leaked so badly that she was rapidly sold onto Scott Metcalfe of Waterfront Marine, Port Penrhyn, Bangor, where her engine was removed and much of the decking and planking replaced, together with re-nailing and re-caulking. In 1995 she was bought by Doug Smith of West Kirby who, with the continued assistance of Waterfront Marine, carried out considerable further refurbishment including a new engine and a complete new interior, together with the fitting of a new "taller" mast allowing for the full sailing rig, of a larger topsail and a jib topsail to be flown.
Lassie has a high level of equipment - detailed separately - and provides adventurous cruising, exciting racing and gathers admirers where ever she goes.
Recent Sailing Summary
In 1996 she was 3rd overall in the Mersey Nobby race and won the "Best Turned Out Boat" cup. She was also 4th overall in the Conwy Nobby Race and 2nd in the Wright Shield the same year.
In 1997 she was 4th in the Mersey Nobby race and 5th in the Conwy Nobby Race. She also won the "Best Working Sail" award in the Peel Classic Boat week end.
In 1998 she visited the Peel Classic Boat weekend but took no prizes, the most notable part of the trip being the return journey where, in a Force 5/6, on a beam reach, she flew home, maintaining an average speed of 7.8 knots. She was also 4th once again in the Conwy Nobby Race.
In 1999 she was 3rd in the Mersey Nobby race and 3rd in the Conwy Nobby race and whilst she took no awards for elegance at Conwy, sporting new teak toe rails, she won the "Best Turned Out Boat" on the Mersey for the second time. Lassie was also 1st in the race to Conwy, winning the Wright Shield and the OGA "North West Passage" trophy.
In 2000 she successfully completed a 1,000 mile round trip to the Brest 2000 classic Festival encountering severe weather conditions, full details provided in a separate log.
2001 saw Lassie take 4th place in both the Mersey and Conwy Nobby races but winning the President's Plate and the Crossfield Trophy for her success in local regattas. She visited Peel in June, taking twenty hours to get there in 36-knot headwinds, once again flying home in twelve hours at an average of 7 knots over the ground. She was also 1st in the Royal Mersey Regatta & 2nd in the Royal Welsh Regatta both held on the Menai Strait.
2002 3rd Mersey Nobby Race, 4th Conwy Nobby Race, Best Boat @ Conwy, 1st WYC Regatta, 1st WCSC Regatta. 2003 1st Mersey Nobby Race, 1st WYC Regatta, 1st WCSC Regatta, 1st LYC Regatta.
Her "home port" is now Penrhyn Dock, Bangor, North Wales but she regularly revisits her original home of the Dee estuary and can often be seen at West Kirby
Lassie in light airs on the Dee estuary
Lassie of Chester - General Description
One of the last Morecambe Bay Prawners to be built, Lassie was built as an auxiliary fishing Nobby by Crossfield's of Conwy in 1937 - a Welsh Nobby. She has been restored to her outward original appearance over a period of six years and is now one of a very few Prawners that have not been totally converted, or spoilt, by the addition of a cabin top. Having said that, she offers more accommodation than the rest of her class as she was built with extra planking to suit the height of her commissioning owner.
She has structurally wanted for nothing over the last six years and is in probably the best condition of any Nobby. She is a very safe and sea worthy boat and has been extensively cruised - to Brest 2000 - as well as being sailed regularly in Irish Sea festivals. She is much admired and has been featured in the "Chatham Directory of Inshore Craft - Traditional Working Vessels of the British Isles", Classic Boat, December 2001 and "1000 miles in an Open Boat" as well as being featured in an HTV documentary series.
She is 36' with an additional 12' lifting bowsprit. She carries three foresails, a gaff main, a topsail and a watersail set on a 37' solid pine mast. She is of carvel construction and is of pitch pine on oak frames. Her toe rails are of teak and iroko has also been used as part of standard maintenance. She has a 40hp Lister Alpha engine (709 hours from new), fitted below floor level, with a central, fixed, three bladed propeller all operated by single lever controls. She has two 12 volt 110 amp hour batteries and a 100-litre stainless steel fuel tank. She has 3 tons if internal lead ballast.
Lassie is flush decked with an electric anchor windlass and fore hatch forward, a 14'x 3' cockpit aft of the mast, wooden deck cleats, a featured (non working) thoft pump on her starboard quarter, four Simpson Lawrence brass deck prisms and a beautifully carved dolphin's head oak tiller. Her hull is painted white with red antifouling and her oak keel has been extended slightly to improve windward performance and she has a steel keel band and shoe. She has a wide and graceful counter giving her the lines of an Edwardian racing yacht.
On either side of the cockpit are folding cots under the 3-4 foot side decks that provide excellent sea berths and accommodation in harbour. There is also a double skinned boom tent that provides standing headroom when alongside, extending throughout the 14' cockpit. The helmsman's platform has a hardwood grating with navigational instruments and engine control to hand stepping down to the main deck - boarded, with engine under, stepping down to the well. The well contains a galley to port, with a gimballed spirit cooker and a heads compartment containing a Jabsco sea toilet to starboard.
Forward of the well is a cabin measuring approximately 15' x 11' (tapering to the bow) by 5'2'' The cabin contains a berth either side (can be used as a tight double) with storage under and cupboards above. A central dining/chart table, a seat either side forward of the berth, with storage under and a central wood burning stove. The stove has a removable chimney; the deck aperture is covered by a brass blanking plate when at sea or a brass air vent when the stove is not in use. Forward of the stove is the anchor locker, windlass and sail stowage.
before I had a chance to upload all my photos from the recent Japan trip, I was off again on another trip to Asia, this time to China, and Hunan province. These images were taken on Tangerine island in the middle of a river that bisects the provincial capital city of Changsha, not far from Mai Zedong's hometown, and where he spent some years in his youth, when he was young and handsome...
As part of Preston Guild City Games 2014 the Dragon Boat Championship 2014
Each boat consists of 15 team members, including a drum-beater to keep the team in rhythm, and a professional helmsman (provided) to keep direction.
© 2014 Tony Worrall
His name has been circling in my brain all weekend--Andrew George. Sure, at this first college football weekend, BYU beat Oklahoma, and a receiver with that name burned Oklahoma with some spectacular catches, and won that game for BYU.
Big guy, big time player. But the "Andrew George" who owns that name in my heart and mind was a very big man with the tribe, big leader, and respected elder. A long way from a football player.
Nevermind that he was short in stature and had a bum leg. He had a presence that demonstrated how one's spirit soars beyond the limits of the body.
I've discovered that posting photos of elders, friends, mentors--shuffles those cards back into the deck. Google "Andrew George" right now, and you'll find that football player--but now the internet can perhaps also lead to Andrew George, Umatilla tribal elder and seer. Rightful respect and recognition paid for contributions made, and work done. In a strange way, the net bestows a measure of immortality, putting faces and stories back into the mix of time and memory.
In this shot, George is judging a young people's fancy dance competition. It's a posture that appears again and again in my negative files. He stands off to the side, leaning on his cane, silently taking in everything.
Time and time again, over the years, I'd be startled to find the man where I never expected to see him, silently observing, and at the most, acknowledging his permission for me to take a picture, with the slightest nod of his head. Whenever things were happening, he was always around, steadfast, holding that cane like a helmsman holding a tiller on course.
I'm going to follow this post with another shot, from those times. What seems like a rather mundane gathering, but actually an important meeting at an important time in tribal history. And Andrew George is characteristically off to one side, letting it all unfold. Strange how one random thought, a play in a Saturday college ballgame, can lead to an entirely different space and time.
HMS Shannon was a 38-gun Leda-class frigate of the Royal Navy. She was launched in 1806 and served in the Napoleonic Wars and the War of 1812. She won a noteworthy naval victory on 1 June 1813, during the latter conflict, when she captured the American Navy's USS Chesapeake in a singularly bloody battle.
Josiah and Thomas Brindley built Shannon at Frindsbury in Kent and launched her on 5 May 1806. She was to spend her first seven years under the command of Captain Philip Broke, who was transferred from Druid, and took command of Shannon in June that year. Shannon was one of the largest frigates built by the Royal Navy during the Napoleonic Wars, at a time when the Admiralty concentrated on producing vessels in larger numbers but to smaller builds and less heavy armament.
Shannon was quickly put into service. She formed part of a squadron under Commodore Owen that was patrolling off the French port of Boulogne. On 8 October she took part in the bombardment of the town using Congreve rockets.
Her next task was sailing in 1807 with Meleager to protect the whale fishery off Greenland. Despite encountering ice on 7 May 1807, they were able to push through, reaching the southern part of Spitsbergen on 17 June. There the two ships surveyed the Bay of Magdalena, at a latitude of 80°N. They eventually reached a latitude of 80° 6' N before the ice stopped them. They then turned westwards and reached the coast of Greenland on 23 July. The island of Shannon is named after the ship. Shannon spent the early autumn cruising from Shetland. She then left, returning to Yarmouth by the end of September, where she cruised off the Downs. She put into Spithead on 28 September to undergo a refit.
By the end of 1807, France had invaded Portugal, and Shannon joined Sir Samuel Hood's expedition against Madeira. The British took the island without firing a shot. Captain Broke then escorted the transports that had accompanied the fleet back to England, where they arrived on 7 February 1808. Shannon put into Plymouth before returning to patrolling in the Channel.
On 20 July Shannon was in company with Surinam and Eclair when they captured Comet.[2] Then on 21 August, Shannon was in company with Surinam and Martial when they captured Espoir.
In November 1808, Shannon took the French frigate Thétis in tow. Amethyst had shortly before captured Thétis, which later entered service as HMS Brune.
Shannon spent 1809 with the Channel Fleet and on 27 January captured the French 14-gun privateer cutter Pommereuil. Broke sent the prize into Plymouth.
On 1 June 1811, Shannon returned to Plymouth and was put into the dock where her hull was re-coppered. After this was completed, she sailed for Portsmouth to complete her refitting and resupplying in preparation for being assigned to foreign service.
Broke and Shannon were ordered to sail for North America as tensions between Britain and the United States escalated in the run up to what would become the War of 1812. Shannon sailed from Portsmouth and arrived in Halifax on 24 September 1811 after a journey of 45 days.
On 5 July 1812 Broke took command of a squadron consisting of Shannon, Africa, Belvidera, Aeolus and later Guerriere. Vice-Admiral Herbert Sawyer then ordered him to carry out a blockade of American ports.
Broke's first success came on 16 July when he captured the 16-gun American brig Nautilus off Sandy Hook. The Nautilus had been on a cruise from New York.
Later in the evening, the squadron spotted and gave chase to the USS Constitution as she sailed from Chesapeake Bay to New York. The chase lasted some 65 hours, during which both pursued and pursuers had to tow and warp. Belvidera eventually managed to come within gunshot of the Constitution on the afternoon of 17 July, but a lucky breeze blew up, and the Constitution's clean bottom allowed her to make good her escape.
Shannon's next duty was to meet a convoy homebound from Jamaica. An American squadron under Commodore John Rodgers had sailed to intercept it. Shannon ensured the convoy safely passed the Great Banks, before she returned to the American coast. She put into Halifax on 20 September to take on provisions. Sir John Warren arrived while she was in port, and took up the post of Commander in Chief of the North America and West Indies Station. He then despatched Shannon with the schooner Bream to rescue the crew and offload the money being carried by the frigate Barbadoes, which had been wrecked on Sable Island. While carrying out this mission, Shannon encountered and subsequently captured an enemy privateer schooner, Wily Reynard on 11 October, that she took back to Halifax with her.
On 31 October, Shannon, and while cruising with Tenedos, Nymphe and Curlew, Broke captured the American privateer brig Thorn. Thorn was armed with eighteen long 9-pounder guns and had a crew of 140 men. She was a relatively new vessel and was three weeks out of Marblehead on her first cruise. Sent to Halifax with a prize crew, Thorn was subsequently purchased and renamed as the Nova Scotia privateer brig Sir John Sherbrooke.
Sir John Warren was at Bermuda during the winter of 1812, and left Broke in command of the Royal Navy squadrons operating on the coasts of Nova Scotia, New Brunswick and New England. In December Broke took the Shannon and escorted a homebound convoy half way across the Atlantic, returning to North America by sailing round the Azores. In 1813, Captain Oliver arrived on the station aboard the 74-gun third rate Valiant, and took command from Captain Broke. Broke continued to deploy with his squadron until the Shannon and Tenedos became separated from them in a gale. They decided to steer for Boston, reaching the port on 2 April. Having observed the activity in the port, they returned to their squadron and reported the presence of the American frigates Congress, President and Constitution. In their absence, the Chesapeake had entered the harbour through the eastern channel.
Captain Capel aboard Hogue ordered the Shannon and Tenedos to watch the port from close inshore, while the rest of the squadron cruised in the offing. On 16 May Shannon and Tenedos chased a large armed ship under American colours, and forced her to run aground near Cape Ann Town. Shannon anchored close to the grounded ship and fired a few shots to disperse a number of militiamen who were assembling. Lieutenant George Watt of Shannon then managed to bring the ship off the shore without loss. She was discovered to be the French corvette-built privateer Invincible, of 16 guns. Mutine had captured her in the Bay of Biscay but the American privateer Alexander had retaken her. Her captors sent Invincible into Halifax. On 25 March Shannon took on stores of water and provisions from Tenedos, which was then detached, with orders to rejoin the Shannon on 14 June.
FIGHTING THE CHESAPEAKE
During his long period in command of Shannon, Broke had drilled his crew to an extremely high standard of naval gunnery.
"The weekly routine at sea was for the watch on deck to be exercised at the great guns on Monday and Tuesday afternoons, and in the afternoons the first division of the watch was exercised at small arms. Wednesday and Thursday forenoons saw the watch on deck at the carronades, and in the afternoons the second division of the watch at small arms. Friday was reserved for the Midshipmen – great guns in the morning, small arms in the afternoon. Thus each man had one morning at the 18-pounders, one morning at the carronades and two afternoons with musquets in every week. Saturdays were reserved for washing clothes and scrubbing the berth deck in the afternoon. Sunday, apart from Church service and any necessary evolutions with the sails, was free."
In addition to these gunnery drills, Broke was fond of preparing hypothetical scenarios to test his crew. For example, after all hands had been drummed to quarters, he would inform them of a theoretical attack and see how they would act to defend the ship. He would also arrange on occasion for a wooden cask to be sent over the side so competitions could be held to see which crew could hit it and how fast they could do so. A game called 'singlestick' was also devised and practiced. "This was a game employing roughly similar thrusts and parries as were used with cutlass, but as it was played with blunt sticks, hits, although painful, were not often dangerous. It soon developed quickness of eye and wrist."
Eager to engage and defeat one of the American 'super-frigates' that had already scored a number of victories over the Royal Navy in single ship confrontations, Broke prepared a challenge. The President had already slipped out of the harbour under the cover of fog and had evaded the British. Constitution was undergoing extensive repairs and alterations and would not be ready for sea in the foreseeable future. However, Chesapeake appeared to be ready to put to sea.
Consequently Broke decided to send his challenge to Chesapeake, which had been refitting in Boston harbour under the command of Captain James Lawrence, offering single ship combat. While patrolling offshore, Shannon had intercepted and captured a number of American ships attempting to reach the harbour. After sending two of them off to Halifax, he found that his crew was being dangerously reduced. Broke therefore resorted to burning the rest of the prizes in order to conserve his highly trained crew in anticipation of the battle with the Chesapeake. Broke sent the boats from the burnt prizes into Boston, carrying Broke's oral invitation to Lawrence to come out and engage him. He had already sent the Tenedos away in the hope that the more favourable odds would entice the American out, but eventually began to despair that the Chesapeake would ever come out of the harbour. He finally decided to send a written challenge.
"As the Chesapeake appears now ready for sea, I request you will do me the favour to meet the Shannon with her, ship to ship, to try the fortune of our respective flags. The Shannon mounts twenty-four guns upon her broadside and one light boat-gun; 18 pounders upon her main deck, and 32-pounder carronades upon her quarter-deck and forecastle; and is manned with a complement of 300 men and boys, beside thirty seamen, boys, and passengers, who were taken out of recaptured vessels lately. I entreat you, sir, not to imagine that I am urged by mere personal vanity to the wish of meeting the Chesapeake, or that I depend only upon your personal ambition for your acceding to this invitation. We have both noble motives. You will feel it as a compliment if I say that the result of our meeting may be the most grateful service I can render to my country; and I doubt not that you, equally confident of success, will feel convinced that it is only by repeated triumphs in even combats that your little navy can now hope to console your country for the loss of that trade it can no longer protect. Favour me with a speedy reply. We are short of provisions and water, and cannot stay long here."
By now Shannon had been off Boston for 56 days and was running short of provisions, while the extended period at sea was wearing the ship down. She would be even more at a disadvantage facing the Chesapeake, fresh from harbour and a refit.
Broke despatched a boat carrying the invitation, manned by a Mr Slocum, a discharged American prisoner. The boat had not reached the shore when the Chesapeake was seen underway, sailing out of the harbour. She was flying three American ensigns and a large white flag at the foremast inscribed 'Free Trade and Sailor's Rights'.
Though Lawrence had not received Broke's letter before leaving harbour, according to author Ian W. Toll, it would not have made any difference, Lawrence intended to sail at the first day of favourable weather. The fact that it was not in his nation's interests at this point in the war to be challenging British frigates seems to have not entered into his reasoning; President had in fact slipped out of harbour in foul weather to commerce raid, which was deemed in the US national interest.
The two ships had in one another about as close a match as could exist in a state of war. Chesapeake's (rated at 38 guns) armament of twenty-eight 18-pounder long guns was an exact match for Shannon. Measurements proved the ships to be about the same deck length. The only measurable difference between the two ships was the size of their complements: Chesapeake's 379 against the Shannon's 330. Shannon carried 276 officers, seamen and marines of her proper complement; eight recaptured seamen; 22 Irish labourers who had been 48 hours in the ship and of whom only four could speak English, and 24 boys, of whom about 13 were under 12 years of age.
Broke had trained his gun crews to fire accurate broadsides into the hulls of enemy vessels, with the aim of killing their gun crews, rather than shooting down the masts. By contrast, half of Chesapeake's officers and up to one quarter of the crew were new to the ship. Her crew had conducted no practice at small arms nor of the main battery. Despite this, Lawrence believed that he would win the battle. The previous American victories over Royal Navy ships left him expectant of success, especially since Chesapeake had a substantially larger crew than Shannon.
Still, before setting sail, Lawrence wrote two quick notes, one to the Secretary of the Navy pronouncing his intentions and another to his brother in-law asking him to look after Lawrence's wife and children in event of his death. He then set sail. Just before the engagement, the American crew gave three cheers.
The two ships met at half past five in the afternoon, 20 nautical miles (37 km) east of Boston lighthouse, between Cape Ann and Cape Cod. Shannon was flying a rusty blue ensign and her dilapidated outside appearance after a long period at sea suggested that she would be an easy opponent. Observing the Chesapeake's many flags, a sailor had questioned Broke: "Mayn't we have three ensigns, sir, like she has?" "No," said Broke, "we've always been an unassuming ship."
Shannon refused to fire upon Chesapeake as she bore down, nor would Chesapeake rake Shannon despite having the weather gauge. Lawrence's behavior that day earned him praise from the British officers for gallantry. The two ships opened fire just before 18:00 at a range of about 35 metres, with Shannon scoring the first hit, striking the Chesapeake on one of her gunports with two round shot and a bag of musket balls fired by William Mindham, the gun captain of one of Shannon's starboard 18-pounders. Two or three further broadsides followed that swept the Chesapeake's decks with grape and roundshot from Shannon's 32-pounder carronades. Shannon ran into Chesapeake, with Chesapeake lying athwart Shannon's starboard bow, trapped by one of Shannon's anchors.
Shannon now opened fire on the Chesapeake's maindeck with her after guns firing through the Chesapeake's port holes. Many of Chesapeake's crew were killed or wounded; two thirds of her gun crews were already casualties. The Chesapeake’s wheel was then shot away and her helmsman killed by a 9-pounder gun that Broke had ordered installed on the quarter deck for that very purpose.
With Chesapeake trapped against the Shannon and unable to manoeuvre, Chesapeake's stern now became exposed to raking British fire. Her situation worsened when a small open cask of musket cartridges abaft the mizzen-mast blew up. When the smoke cleared, Captain Broke judged the time was right and gave the order to board. Lawrence too tried to give the order to board, but the British were faster.
Mr Stevens, the boatswain attempted to lash the two ships together to prevent the Chesapeake from disengaging and escaping. This bravery cost him an arm. A party of small-arm men rushed aboard the Chesapeake, led by Broke and including the purser, Mr G. Aldham, and the clerk, Mr John Dunn. Aldham and Dunn were killed as they crossed the gangway, but the rest of the party made it onto the Chesapeake.
"Captain Broke, at the head of not more than twenty men, stepped from the rail of the waist-hammock netting to the muzzle of the after-carronade of the Chesapeake, and sprang from thence upon her quarterdeck."
The main-deck was found to be empty, having been swept clear by Shannon’s broadsides. Broke and his men quickly advanced forward along the deck, while more British reinforcements leapt aboard.
Meanwhile, the first lieutenant, Mr George T. L. Watt, had attempted to hoist the British colours over the Chesapeake, but was hit in the forehead by grapeshot as he did so. Fighting had now broken out along the top-masts of the ships as rival sharpshooters fired upon the their opponents in their rival's masts, and on the sailors on the exposed decks. The British marksmen, led by Midshipman William Smith, who had command of the fore-top, stormed the Chesapeake's fore-top over the yard-arm and killed all the Americans there.
Captain Broke himself led a charge against a number of the Americans who had managed to rally on the forecastle. After four minutes of fierce fighting, the Americans called for quarter, but then, finding that they out-numbered the British, they rallied and counter attacked. Three American sailors, probably from the rigging, descended and attacked Captain Broke. Although taken by surprise, he killed the first. Still, the second hit him with a musket, which stunned him, while the third sliced open his skull with his sabre, knocking Broke to the deck. Before the American could finish Broke off, he was cut down by William Windham. Shannon's crew rallied to the defence of their captain and carried the forecastle, killing the remaining Americans.
Broke handed over command of the Shannon to Lieutenant Provo Wallis. Though wounded, Broke was able to save the life of a young American midshipman who had slid down a rope from the fore-top. With American resistance weakening, Lieutenant Charles Leslie Falkiner, who had commanded the boarders who had rushed the main-deck, took command of the prize. While the two yard-arms had been locked together, Mr Cosnaham, who had commanded the main-top, had crawled out on the main yard-arm where he could fire down onto the Chesapeake, killing three of her men.
The British then secured the ship and took her surrender. The engagement had lasted just eleven minutes. Shannon had lost 23 killed, and had 56 wounded. Chesapeake had about 60 killed, including her four lieutenants, the master and many other of her officers, and about as many wounded. Captain Lawrence had been mortally wounded by fire from Shannon’s fore-top and was carried below before the Chesapeake was boarded. His last order upon being wounded was "Don't give up the ship!".
A large cask of un-slaked lime was found open on Chesapeake's forecastle and another bag of lime was discovered in the fore-top. British sailors alleged the intention was to throw handfuls into the eyes of Shannon’s men in an unfair and dishonourable manner as they attempted to board, though that was never done by the Chesapeake's crew, and the historian Albert Gleaves has called the allegation "absurd," noting, "Lime is always carried in ship's stores as a disinfectant, and the fact that it was left on the deck after the ship was cleared for action was probably due to the neglect of some subordinate, or petty officer."
Shannon’s midshipmen during the action were Messrs. Smith, Leake, Clavering, Raymond, Littlejohn and Samwell. Samwell was the only other officer to be wounded in the action. Mr Etough was the acting master, and conned the ship into the action. Shortly after the frigate had been secured, Broke fainted from loss of blood and was rowed back to the Shannon to be attended to by the ship's surgeon. After the victory, a prize crew was put aboard the Chesapeake and the Shannon escorted her and her crew into Halifax, arriving there on 6 June. Lieutenant Bartholomew Kent, of Nova Scotia brought the first news of the British victory back to London.
At Halifax Chesapeake's crew was imprisoned. Chesapeake herself was repaired and taken into service by the Royal Navy before she was sold at Portsmouth, England in 1820 and broken up.
The victory in closely matched combat raised the shaken morale of the Royal Navy, and the Americans honoured the heroism of Captain Lawrence. After setting out on 5 September for a brief cruise under a Captain Teahouse, the Shannon departed for England on 4 October, carrying the recovering Captain Broke. They arrived at Portsmouth on 2 November. After the successful action Lieutenants Wallis and Falkiner were promoted to the rank of commander, and Messrs. Etough and Smith were made lieutenants. Captain Broke was made a baronet that September. The Court of Common Council of London awarded him the freedom of the city, and a sword worth 100 guineas. He also received a piece of plate worth 750 pounds and a cup worth 100 guineas.
The British buried Captain Lawrence in Halifax with full military honours; six senior British naval officers served as pall bearers. Although Shannon's surgeon had pronounced as fatal Captain Broke's head wound from a cutlass stroke, he survived; nevertheless he never again commanded a ship. Two-thirds of the men that followed Broke in the boarding party were wounded or killed. The casualties, 228 dead or wounded between the two ships' companies, were high, with the ratio making it one of the bloodiest single ship actions of the age of sail. It had the single highest body count in an action between two ships in the entirety of the war.[22] The fact that it happened in 15 minutes is a sign of the sheer ferocity with which this battle was fought.
In 1847 the Admiralty authorized the issue of the Naval General Service Medal with clasp "Shannon wh. Chesapeake" to any surviving claimants from the action.
Commander Humphrey Senhouse (acting) assumed command in June 1813. Shannon was in ordinary at Portsmouth in 1814-1815. Between July 1815 and March 1817, she was at Chatham undergoing extensive repairs that cost £26,328. She then returned to ordinary. She underwent a small repair for £4,969 between May and July 1826. She was fitted for sea between August and December 1828, which cost another £14,746. In September Captain Benjamin Clement recommissioned her, and he would command her until 1830.
The Shannon became a receiving ship and temporary hulk at Sheerness in 1831. On 11 March 1844 she was renamed Saint Lawrence. Shannon was finally broken up at Chatham, a process completed on 12 November 1859.
Graves of Shannon's crew are marked in the cemetery of the Royal Naval Dockyard, Halifax and at the city's St. Paul's Church, then the cathedral of the Anglican Diocese of Nova Scotia. A plaque was erected to commemorate the battle in Halifax in 1927 and may be seen at Point Pleasant Park. Shannon's bell is displayed at the Maritime Command Museum in Halifax while the Maritime Museum of the Atlantic in Halifax has an exhibit about the battle which includes the battle-damaged ships bell from Shannon as well as a surgeon's chest and mess kettle from Chesapeake.
Because he was able to claim six days as acting captain of the Shannon, Provo Wallis became senior to many others who had been lieutenants in the Napoleonic-era Royal Navy. It was an advantage that, combined with his longevity, eventually propelled him to the post of Admiral of the Fleet.
A fictionalised account of the battle appears in The Fortune of War by Patrick O'Brian.
The battle became the subject of a British ballad:
The Chesapeake and the Shannon
The Chesapeake so bold, out of Boston, I am told,
Came to take a British frigate neat and handy, O!
The people of the port came out to see the sport,
With their music playing Yankee doodle dandy, O!
Yankee doodle, Yankee doodle dandy, O!
The people of the port came out to see the sport,
With their music playing Yankee doodle dandy, O!
The British frigate's name, that for the purpose came
To tame the Yankee's courage neat and handy, O!
Was the Shannon, Captain Broke, with his crew all hearts of oak,
And in fighting, you must know, he was the dandy, O!
Yankee doodle, &c.
The fight had scarce began when the Yankees, with much fun,
Said, we'll tow her into Boston neat and handy, O!
And "I'll kalkilate" we'll dine, with our lasses drinking wine,
And we'll dance the jig of Yankee doodle dandy, O!
Yankee doodle, &c.
But they soon every one flinched from the gun,
Which at first they thought to use so neat and handy, O!
Brave Broke he waved his sword, crying, "Now, my lads, let's aboard,"
And we'll stop their playing Yankee doodle dandy, O!
Yankee doodle, &c.
He scarce had said the word, when they all jump'd on board,
And they hauled down the ensign neat and handy, O!
Notwithstanding all their brag, the glorious British flag
At the Yankees' mizzen-peak it looked the dandy, O!
Yankee doodle, &c.
Then here's to all true blue, both officers and crew,
Who tamed the Yankees' courage neat and handy, O!
And may it ever prove in battle, as in love,
The true British sailor is the dandy, O!
Yankee doodle, &c.
Name: HMS Shannon
Ordered: 24 October 1803
Builder: Brindley, Frindsbury
Laid down: August 1804
Launched: 5 May 1806
Completed: 3 August 1806 at Chatham Dockyard
Out of service: Receiving ship in 1831
Renamed: HMS St Lawrence in 1844
Honours and
awards: Naval General Service Medal with clasp "Shannon wh. Chesapeake"
Fate: Breaking up completed by 12 November 1859
General characteristics
Class and type: Leda-class frigate
Tons burthen: 1,065.7 bm
Length: 150 ft 2 in (45.77 m) (gundeck)
125 ft 6.5 in (38.265 m) (keel)
Beam: 39 ft 11.375 in (12.17613 m)
Depth of hold: 12 ft 11 in (3.94 m)
Sail plan: Full-rigged ship
Complement: 330
Armament: 38 guns
Upper deck: 28 x 18-pounder guns
QD: 8 x 9-pounder guns + 14 x 32-pounder carronades
Fc: 2 x 9-pounder guns + 2 x 32-pounder carronades
Lassie of Chester was one of the last " Nobbies" built by the Conwy branch of the famous Crossfield family. She was also built as the sister ship of the "Betty" under the walls of Conwy Castle. Lassie was built with extra planking to her hull, possibly because the original owner was over 6ft tall, but also because she was intended to fish the turbulent waters of the Liverpool Bar. The extra height gives her more of a "Smack like" appearance than most other Nobbies . She also had a type of "Sentry Box" arrangement at her tiller to keep the helmsman dry. This extra height makes her a comparatively dry boat and enables reasonable accommodation in the forepeak for 4 people without the addition of a cabin top, maintaining her original working shape.
She was originally registered on the 18th May 1937 as CH 51 then fished on the Dee throughout World War II under the registry of the Port of Chester as CH 68. She had a reputation for fishing in all weathers. Later, she moved to Cumbria, fishing from Fleetwood, and was re-registered under the Port of Workington as WO 2.
In the late '80ies she finished fishing and was left in the mud to die but in 1994 was bought for conversion to a yacht, and motored to Bangor. Her massive100hp engine had taken its toll and shaken most of the caulking from her seams. She leaked so badly that she was rapidly sold onto Scott Metcalfe of Waterfront Marine, Port Penrhyn, Bangor, where her engine was removed and much of the decking and planking replaced, together with re-nailing and re-caulking. In 1995 she was bought by Doug Smith of West Kirby who, with the continued assistance of Waterfront Marine, carried out considerable further refurbishment including a new engine and a complete new interior, together with the fitting of a new "taller" mast allowing for the full sailing rig, of a larger topsail and a jib topsail to be flown.
Lassie has a high level of equipment - detailed separately - and provides adventurous cruising, exciting racing and gathers admirers where ever she goes.
Recent Sailing Summary
In 1996 she was 3rd overall in the Mersey Nobby race and won the "Best Turned Out Boat" cup. She was also 4th overall in the Conwy Nobby Race and 2nd in the Wright Shield the same year.
In 1997 she was 4th in the Mersey Nobby race and 5th in the Conwy Nobby Race. She also won the "Best Working Sail" award in the Peel Classic Boat week end.
In 1998 she visited the Peel Classic Boat weekend but took no prizes, the most notable part of the trip being the return journey where, in a Force 5/6, on a beam reach, she flew home, maintaining an average speed of 7.8 knots. She was also 4th once again in the Conwy Nobby Race.
In 1999 she was 3rd in the Mersey Nobby race and 3rd in the Conwy Nobby race and whilst she took no awards for elegance at Conwy, sporting new teak toe rails, she won the "Best Turned Out Boat" on the Mersey for the second time. Lassie was also 1st in the race to Conwy, winning the Wright Shield and the OGA "North West Passage" trophy.
In 2000 she successfully completed a 1,000 mile round trip to the Brest 2000 classic Festival encountering severe weather conditions, full details provided in a separate log.
2001 saw Lassie take 4th place in both the Mersey and Conwy Nobby races but winning the President's Plate and the Crossfield Trophy for her success in local regattas. She visited Peel in June, taking twenty hours to get there in 36-knot headwinds, once again flying home in twelve hours at an average of 7 knots over the ground. She was also 1st in the Royal Mersey Regatta & 2nd in the Royal Welsh Regatta both held on the Menai Strait.
2002 3rd Mersey Nobby Race, 4th Conwy Nobby Race, Best Boat @ Conwy, 1st WYC Regatta, 1st WCSC Regatta. 2003 1st Mersey Nobby Race, 1st WYC Regatta, 1st WCSC Regatta, 1st LYC Regatta.
Her "home port" is now Penrhyn Dock, Bangor, North Wales but she regularly revisits her original home of the Dee estuary and can often be seen at West Kirby
Lassie in light airs on the Dee estuary
Lassie of Chester - General Description
One of the last Morecambe Bay Prawners to be built, Lassie was built as an auxiliary fishing Nobby by Crossfield's of Conwy in 1937 - a Welsh Nobby. She has been restored to her outward original appearance over a period of six years and is now one of a very few Prawners that have not been totally converted, or spoilt, by the addition of a cabin top. Having said that, she offers more accommodation than the rest of her class as she was built with extra planking to suit the height of her commissioning owner.
She has structurally wanted for nothing over the last six years and is in probably the best condition of any Nobby. She is a very safe and sea worthy boat and has been extensively cruised - to Brest 2000 - as well as being sailed regularly in Irish Sea festivals. She is much admired and has been featured in the "Chatham Directory of Inshore Craft - Traditional Working Vessels of the British Isles", Classic Boat, December 2001 and "1000 miles in an Open Boat" as well as being featured in an HTV documentary series.
She is 36' with an additional 12' lifting bowsprit. She carries three foresails, a gaff main, a topsail and a watersail set on a 37' solid pine mast. She is of carvel construction and is of pitch pine on oak frames. Her toe rails are of teak and iroko has also been used as part of standard maintenance. She has a 40hp Lister Alpha engine (709 hours from new), fitted below floor level, with a central, fixed, three bladed propeller all operated by single lever controls. She has two 12 volt 110 amp hour batteries and a 100-litre stainless steel fuel tank. She has 3 tons if internal lead ballast.
Lassie is flush decked with an electric anchor windlass and fore hatch forward, a 14'x 3' cockpit aft of the mast, wooden deck cleats, a featured (non working) thoft pump on her starboard quarter, four Simpson Lawrence brass deck prisms and a beautifully carved dolphin's head oak tiller. Her hull is painted white with red antifouling and her oak keel has been extended slightly to improve windward performance and she has a steel keel band and shoe. She has a wide and graceful counter giving her the lines of an Edwardian racing yacht.
On either side of the cockpit are folding cots under the 3-4 foot side decks that provide excellent sea berths and accommodation in harbour. There is also a double skinned boom tent that provides standing headroom when alongside, extending throughout the 14' cockpit. The helmsman's platform has a hardwood grating with navigational instruments and engine control to hand stepping down to the main deck - boarded, with engine under, stepping down to the well. The well contains a galley to port, with a gimballed spirit cooker and a heads compartment containing a Jabsco sea toilet to starboard.
Forward of the well is a cabin measuring approximately 15' x 11' (tapering to the bow) by 5'2'' The cabin contains a berth either side (can be used as a tight double) with storage under and cupboards above. A central dining/chart table, a seat either side forward of the berth, with storage under and a central wood burning stove. The stove has a removable chimney; the deck aperture is covered by a brass blanking plate when at sea or a brass air vent when the stove is not in use. Forward of the stove is the anchor locker, windlass and sail stowage.
Lady Delph (SunIntended as a no-compromise express cruiser with an equal balance between cockpit space for lounging and entertaining and luxurious interior accommodations for owner and guests, the Camargue feels right at home on American waters. Low, lean and stylish, the Camargue's foredeck seems long enough to launch carrier aircraft, yet there's ample cockpit space for a dozen or more of your closest friends.
The wide integral swim platform makes boarding easy, with a teak stairway leading to the cockpit level via a walkway to port that leaves a spacious sun pad for soaking up rays. As the entryway widens out, a deeply upholstered U-shaped lounge has seating for eight around a folding table, providing a gathering spot for cocktails or al fresco dining. Opposite is a built-in wet bar with sink, bottle locker, and refrigerator/ice maker.
Just forward is the helm area, with a seat to port and a wide bench seat for the helmsman and companion that is heavily bolstered and hinged to permit both standing and sitting. Hydraulic power steering is standard, and the burled walnut facia on the dash holds a full array of analog engine gauges as well as the Detroit Diesel DDEC electronic instrumentation for our test boat DDEC engines. Even more impressive is the electronics collection, since Sunseeker provides everything as standard equipment: radar, autopilot, VHF, depth sounder, and electronic speedo. Grip the glossy wood-rimmed steering wheel, gaze out through the steeply raked windshield, and pick your next port of call: Chicago, Mackinac, St Tropez?
Going forward, the side decks are fully protected by the welded stainless-steel rails and the sturdy windshield serves as a hand rail. The electric anchor windlass has cockpit controls for both up and down, and a large locker forward has space for docklines and other deck gear.
It's obvious that the generous seating and lounge areas of the cockpit are aimed at an open air lifestyle, but Sunseeker includes the radar arch with a full suntop and sidecurtains for those blustery afternoons on the English Channel.
Before going below, take a quick look back at the transom swim platform. The entire transom hinges up on electric lifts to reveal a seagoing garage that can hold a tender or jetbike which is launched and retrieved with a powerful electric winch. In addition, a hidden swim ladder leads down from the stairway and can be converted to a passerelle plank for stern-to boarding. The swim platform also has a hot-and-cold shower, and there's room in the garage for a windlass to simplify Med mooring.
Step below on the Camargue 55, and you're in another world of mirror-finished woods, soft leathers, and graceful curves. The saloon of our test boat was paneled in honey-colored birds eye maple which, with the fawn-colored leather upholstery, provided a light and elegant ambiance. To starboard is an S-shaped sofa with soft suede upholstery, and a fold-out dining table that can seat six easily.
The galley area to port curves to match the sofa and, when not in use, all the galley equipment is concealed under or behind maple panels. The deep sink has folding faucets to tuck under a counter panel, and the two-burner ceramic cooktop has another covering panel. The microwave oven and grill are in eye-level cabinets and even the under-counter double refrigerator/freezer have maple faces. The resulting galley is unobtrusive when entertaining, and fully functional when needed.
The master stateroom is forward, with a centerline oval double berth with large storage drawers and bins underneath, cedar-lined hanging locker, and settee. The private head compartment is of molded fiberglass with maple trim, and includes an electric toilet and separate shower stall with a curved door that rotates into place.
Aft, a pair of guest staterooms mirror each other with twin single berths, full headroom, full-height hanging lockers and underberth drawers. Both cabins share use of the second head (with shower stall) that also serves the salon for day use.
Construction is conventional and well-proven, with handlaid fiberglass, woven roving and unidirectional fabrics for strength. A balsa core is used in the topsides for added panel strength, and Sunseeker uses isophthalic gelcoat and resins backed up by orthophthalic resins. A bonded fiberglass and foam girder system stiffens the hull as well as carries the loads from the engines and structural molds, and an anti-blister treatment protects the hull before the bottom paint is applied.
You'll find the installation practices to be as good as any in the world: all the wiring is neatly bundled, the plumbing is carefully shielded from chafe and heat, and your mechanic will have plenty of room to move around all the various systems. Our test boat had the standard G&M 10.8 kW generator, U.S. spec. 120v shorepower, and an impressive bank of nine batteries with split-charging systems.
Sunseeker modified the Don Shead-designed deep-vee hull to a modified vee bottom with propeller pockets that not only provide shallower draft but also a much more efficient operation with near-level direct drive prop shafts. While prop pockets can sometimes affect the steering, the rudders on the 55 give away Sunseeker's performance orientation, with high-performance shapes and transom mounting for maximum control. Four-bladed bronze props are standard, as are the stainless-steel shafts and bronze P-brackets.
Unlike many Euro-styled designs that look fast at dockside and then turn out to be tepid performers offshore, the Camargue 55 has more than enough punch to keep you satisfied. Our test boat, with the Detroit 8V92 DDEC II engines (760 HP each), topped out at 37 knots, which is impressive when you consider we were pushing a 20 ton boat with an additional ton and a half of fuel, full cruising gear and six people aboard. At a comfortable 1900 RPM cruising speed, our 55 was still doing nearly 30 knots (29.5, actually) which will not only get you to Mackinac Island or Bimini or St. Tropez quickly, but will keep those diesels running happily for thousands of hours. A variety of power options are available, including MAN and MTU diesels, but the Detroit 8V92 were the most popular package for the 55.
At 30+ knots, the Camargue flattens out even lumpy seas into a mild rocking horse motion that allows your landlubber guests to walk around the cockpit, set their drinks down and, best of all, not turn green. Handling is what you'd expect from 20 tons of inertia: she rolls leisurely into turns and carves an immense white swath as she banks gracefully around. Picture the torpedo runs of PT-109, and you'll have an idea of the majestic feel of the Camargue.
The standard equipment list for the 55 includes the entertainment center with television, VCR and stereo/CD player,full fire extinguisher system, windlass, cockpit carpeting, shore fresh water, and 10.8 kW generator.
For '95, the Camargue will have a 51' sister, which has one guest stateroom and less space in the salon and cockpit, but still has the stern garage. Top of Sunseeker's Performance Motoryacht line for '95 is the aptly named Predator 77, a four stateroom, three head layout with a variety of power options including jet drives or Arneson surface props, and a Sunseeker-built jet-powered tender already in the garage!
After viewing and running the Camargue 55, it's clear that this is one boat that will keep the sun from setting on the British Empire!
See Sunseeker Camargue 55 listings.
Boat Specifications
Length55'
Length waterline43'11"
Beam14'7"
Draft4'1"
Bridge Clearance11'2"
Displacement39,670 lb.
Fuel753 U.S. gal.
Water185 U.s. gal.
Performance (2/DDEC 8V92, 760 hp, half fuel, 6 persons aboard)
RPMKnots
4004.5
120011.0
160022.0
190029.5
210031.5
240037.0
seeker Camargue 55)
TEIGN C Damen Stan 1405
IMO: - N/A
MMSI: 235082804
Call Sign: MWBM9
AIS Vessel Type: Dredger
GENERAL
DAMEN YARD NUMBER: 503705
Avelingen-West 20
4202 MS Gorinchem
The Netherlands
Phone: +31 (0)183 63 99 11
info@damen.com
DELIVERY DATE August 2001
BASIC FUNCTIONS Towing, mooring, pushing and dredging operations
FLAG United Kingdom [GB]
OWNED Teignmouth Harbour Commission
CASSCATION: Bureau Veritas 1 HULL MACH Seagoing Launch
DIMENSIONS
LENGTH 14.40 m
BEAM 4.73 m
DEPTH AT SIDES 205 m
DRAUGHT AFT 171 m
DISPLACEMENT 48 ton
TANK CAPACITIES
Fuel oil 6.9 m³
PERFORMANCES (TRIALS)
BOLLARD PULL AHEAD 8.0 ton
SPEED 9.8 knots
PROPULSION SYSTEM
MAIN ENGINE 2x Caterpillar 3406C TA/A
TOTAL POWER 477 bmW (640i hp) at 1800 rpm
GEARBOX 2x Twin Disc MG 5091/3.82:1
PROPELLERS Bronze fixed pitch propeller
KORT NOZZELS Van de Giessen 2x 1000 mm with stainless steel innerings
ENGINE CONTROL Kobelt
STEERING GEAR 2x 25 mm single plate Powered hydraulic 2x 45, rudder indicator
AUXILIARY EQUIPMENT
BILGE PUMP Sterling SIH 20, 32 m/hr
BATTERY SETS 2x 24V, 200 Ah + change over facility
COOLING SYSTEM Closed cooling system
ALARM SYSTEM Engines, gearboxes and bilge alarms
FRESH WATER PRESSURE SET Speck 24V
DECK LAY-OUT
ANCHORS 2x 48 kg Pool (HHP)
CHAIN 70 m, Ø 13mm, shortlink U2
ANCHOR WINCH Hand-operated
TOWING HOOK Mampaey, 15.3 ton SWL
COUPLING WINCH
PUSHBOW Cylindrical nubber fender Ø 380 mm
ACCOMMODATION
The wheelhouse ceiling and sides are insulated with mineral wool and
panelled. The wheelhouse floor is covered with rubber/synthetic floor
covering, make Bolidt, color blue The wheelhouse has one
helmsman seat, a bench and table with chair Below deck two berths, a
kitchen unit and a toilet space are arranged.
NAUTICAL AND COMMUNICATION EQUIPMENT
SEARCHLIGHT Den Haan 170 W 24 V
VHF RADIO Sailor RT 2048 25 W
NAVIGATION Navigation lights incl towing and pilot lights
Teignmouth Harbour Commission
The Harbour Commission is a Trust Port created by Statute.
The principal Order is the Teignmouth Harbour Order 1924
as amended by the Teignmouth Harbour Revision Order 2003
“Again the Ghost sped on, above the black and heaving sea -- on, on -- until, being far away, as he told Scrooge, from any shore, they lighted on a ship. They stood beside the helmsman at the wheel, the look-out in the bow, the officers who had the watch; dark, ghostly figures in their several stations; but every man among them hummed a Christmas tune, or had a Christmas thought, or spoke below his breath to his companion of some bygone Christmas Day, with homeward hopes belonging to it. And every man on board, waking or sleeping, good or bad, had had a kinder word for another on that day than on any day in the year; and had shared to some extent in its festivities; and had remembered those he cared for at a distance, and had known that they delighted to remember him.” ~ Charles Dickens
I was a little late getting to Amapondo Backpackers / Amapondo IBackpackers for a sundowner last week as I stopped up the road towards Mthatha to take some snaps. The people, goats and cars were all homeward bound.
— at Port St John