LAST SAILORMAN
Clockwise from
top left: Dick (far
left) tallies in a
freight; Harry
Bottreill in 1984,
the mate on
Northdown;
Cambria restored
and racing at the
Thames Barge
Match 2011;
Decima was
blown to
Germany in the
great galeto sail the sinking barge ashore, but the gash left by the
steamship was severe and Greenhithe capsized taking
Bob with her.
He swam to the surface was rescued by a naval tug
and taken ashore. Her freight book also survives to this
day: the pages covered in silt.
By now Bob Roberts seemed invincible.
His next, and final sailing command was Cambria
and as master of her he joined the last of the sailormen,
as sailing barge skippers were known by London
dockers, to distinguish them from lightermen.
He wrote another book, appropriately called Last of
the Sailormen, in which he – far from blowing a solitary
trumpet – named the other barges still sailing with him:
Anglia, Spinaway C, Venture, Marjorie and May of
which only the last two survive to this day.
But in the end there was only Cambria left and
suddenly the world noticed. There were articles in
magazines and newspapers, including a seminal feature
in the Sunday Times’ supplement. There were
engagements on radio and TV: Bob appeared telling
yarns on Jackanory, a documentary, Look Stranger, was
made about the barge which screened on BBC 2, a BBC
soap opera, King of the River, was screened aboard the
barge and Sunblest bread even asked him to make a
commercial, an offer he declined.
More than one American sailor flew across the
Atlantic to be able to experience trading under sail
before it was too late. They included US maritime author
Dennis J Davis who produced a book: The Thames
Sailing Barge, Her Gear and Rigging which was
published in Maine, USA.
Ocean-going yachtsmen also felt the need to make a
passage in a genuine sailing ship and both David Lewis,
who circumnavigated Antarctica in Ice Bird and Bill
Nance, who made a solo circumnavigation in Cardinal
Vertue, made passages with Bob.
By now Cambria was making a lot of water and
wetting freights, and we shipped the only engine she’d
ever known: a petrol-powered motor-pump, as trying to
keep her dry was becoming a battle on the hand pumps.
We also constructed cement boxes beneath the hold’s
ceiling to try and dam the leaks.
Finally in October 1970 we carried the last freight
under sail alone from Tilbury Dock to Ipswich and
shortly after that, Bob sold the barge to the Maritime
Trust, who were collecting craft to act as floating
museums. Barges do not make good museums and sheROGER FINCH