Wednesday 4 September 2013

Ramsgate Sailing Trawler

One of easier comments in the previous post related to the Ramsgate Sailing Trawler just visible in the photo illustrating the post.

I will do my best with the description of this photo, which is a better picture of a Ramsgate Sailing Trawler.

She is ketch rigged and has, from left to right, Foresail, Mainsail, Main topsail, and Mizzen sail set. The Bowsprit has not been run out to carry the Jib sail.

Smoke coming from the funnel amidships is from the steam winch they used for warping, hoisting sail and hoisting the trawl. The boat had no engine to drive it along.

The trawl can be seen over the Port Quarter.

She is trailing her tender, this would be used to transfer her catch to the carrier these were usually cutter rigged smacks, very fast but not so powerful in trawling as the ketch rig. 

On the extreme left of the photo can be seen a crane with a basket slung on it, these were set on both piers to rescue crews of vessels that may have been driven against the piers.


On the extreme right can be seen the winding wheel of the “Bucket Dredger” “Hope”.

Around 1900 Ramsgate had a fleet of around 200 of these trawlers. I would guess that this photo dates from between 1901 when the Hope arrived and 1914 when WW1 stopped most trawling activity, after the war steam trawlers were mostly used.

13 comments:

  1. Thanks Michael. In the 60s a friend became skipper of a Thames Barge "Phoenician". I wish I had taken more interest at the time.

    When next I write to my mate who lives at Birchington I will ask about his brother's Thames barge which I think they sometimes bring into Ramsgate (not sure) and maybe they will email you to let you know ?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I just looked out my mate's Thanet address and I will contact him shortly and if they still have and use the Thames barge etc I will email you.

      Delete
    2. I just looked out my mate's Thanet address and I will contact him shortly and if they still have and use the Thames barge etc I will email you.

      Delete
  2. 200 trawlers! How many now c.20? and c.50 yachts/other boats?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. And the point is 12:23? In the world wars we had about 5 million people in uniform. How many now, 180K, 160K?

      Delete
    2. I was asking about the current trawlers out of curiousity. The relevance of your 5m men in uniform escapes me.

      Delete
    3. About as relevant as you looking for some significance in a reduction in the numbers of historic trawlers.

      Delete
    4. Anon 4:00 & 4:26,

      What a nasty little git you are.

      Delete
  3. In case anyone is interested, Griffin Law specialises in internet harassment cases. I know someone who has used them. 'Anons' are not beyond their reach.

    http://www.griffinlaw.co.uk/?utm_source=Guy+Fawkes%27+Blog+List&utm_campaign=001de2fca9-donors&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_547885726c-001de2fca9-195113865

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thank you John. I'm trying to stop the continuing online harassment from John Hamilton, so I'll investigate further.

      Delete
    2. Thanks John. You're on more than one post a day now. You did very well yesterday though.

      John Hamilton is annoying with his insults and frequent posts and stifling debate, don't you fall into the same Anonymouse trap again John.

      Delete
    3. Anonymouse 7:08,

      Your reptillian approach never fails to identify you. You have gone manic with your posting over the last couple of days, post after post, spitting out your venomous claptrap. The only posts that agree with your twisted rants are those that you place there yourself.

      Delete

Comments, since I started writing this blog in 2007 the way the internet works has changed a lot, comments and dialogue here were once viable in an open and anonymous sense. Now if you comment here I will only allow the comment if it seems to make sense and be related to what the post is about. I link the majority of my posts to the main local Facebook groups and to my Facebook account, “Michael Child” I guess the main Ramsgate Facebook group is We Love Ramsgate. For the most part the comments and dialogue related to the posts here goes on there. As for the rest of it, well this blog handles images better than Facebook, which is why I don’t post directly to my Facebook account, although if I take a lot of photos I am so lazy that I paste them directly from my camera card to my bookshop website and put a link on this blog.