M_M_I_2015_04_

56

A typical gravel barge was JJRP, built for Jack Pile of Braunton by

Waters of Appledore in 1923. She was 37 ft overall, 13 ft 5" beam,

drew 5 ft and loaded 28 tons a gravel. She was eventually sold to

Saunders of Barnstaple and later to Fred Mitchell of Braunton who

ran her until 1961 when she was laid up at Braunton Pill and then to a

mooring near Bideford where she was set on fire by vandals and sunk

to put out the flames. There was talk of her being restored by the

North Devon Museum Trust but her ultimate fate remains a mystery.

Advance was built by PK Harris, and was rumoured to have taken

part in the 1940 Dunkirk evacuation. It’s impossible to get this

confirmed, but it’s a nice story. The heyday of the sailing barges

was from 1870 to 1914 when much of the gravel was used for

building docks along the Severn Estuary, taken in vast quantities

by a fleet of ketches and small steamers which could carry the

cargoes of up to six barges.

Barges usually discharged their cargo at Barnstaple, Bideford

or Braunton. Before there were dockside cranes ships lowered

buckets (known as maunds) into the barges which were filled by

hand and hauled aboard. For this, the barge crew took on hobblers

(casual labourers), normally teams of six, who shovelled the gravel

into the maunds, which could hold five hundredweight, and then

swung onto the ship by a hand-winch on the barge. Hobblers were

paid around three shillings (15p) a day.

Sailing ships hauling gravel were mainly ketches plus the

occasional schooner and were usually local boats like Enid, Kitty

Anne, Maud, Bessie and Amazon. It was poorly paid freight and

only taken when there was nothing else around. As the skipper of

the Enid was once heard to remark:

“There’s nothing worse than gravel for knocking the ship about

and wearing out the crew – and all for a pittance.”

The last barge to operate in the estuary under sail was the

37 ft Hilda, also built by Waters and owned by Harry ‘Blue’ Mitchell

of Braunton who sailed her with his two daughters until the late

1940s. As she sailed up-river from salt-water into fresh, buoyancy

would decrease and the barge would lie even deeper. Harry once

remembered:

“When we were going loaded up the river we were so low that

people thought we were sinking because water was coming over

the deck. But as long as the hatch-covers were tight, you were OK.

But it was often a close-run thing!”

Only after she stopped dredging did disaster befall Hilda. She was

sold for use as a pleasure-boat in 1950 but while crossing Bideford

Bar on her way to her new home in South Wales, two-crew were

washed overboard and drowned.

Another barge which survived into the 1940s was one built by

the legendary James ‘Daddy’ Goss at Calstock on the River Tamar

• one of the last built by the man responsible for classic working
  boats like the ketch Garlandstone and the Tamar barge Lynher.

Making the Model

I decided to make a model of the ill-fated JJRP, pictured on the right

in the evocative photograph waiting for the tide alongside the barges

Sixty Spec and Hilda. I wanted to try to capture the traditional image

of a grounded barge – boom triced up, mainsail scandalised and jib

down on the deck. The peak of the mainsail is ready to be hauled

up by the billy tackle on the foredeck and the jib is hanked on to the

forestay ready for a quick getaway when the tide serves.

Working to a scale of 2 ft to 1", the 17" oak keel and stem and

sternposts were set up on the workbench and braced upright. A

plywood wineglass-shaped transom was fixed to the outside of the

sternpost with half inch of keel protruding to support the rudder.

To determine the shape of the hull, a ribcage was added to the

backbone – first with moulds (temporary bulkheads) spaced every

few inches along the length of the hull.

Ribbands or longitudinal stringers were fastened over the moulds,

spaced every three inches to form a rigid framework. When the

correct hull-shape was achieved, the moulds were replaced by

permanent laminated bulkheads. Floors, connecting the bulkheads

to the keel, were also fitted.

APRIL 2015 http://www.marinemodelmagazine.com

Early framing stage of barge JJRP

Basic deck and top planking

Frames and strake showing shape

Planking on keel and frames

The deck before planking

p54_MMAPR15_GravelBarges.indd 56 10/3/15 09:20:47