Do you Recognise this one? A bit of Ramsgate fishing, the long answer to yesterday's clock

Do you know where in Thanet these statues are and do you know who they are of?

Next the answer to yesterday's mystery photo, the short answer is in Ramsgate Clock House.
next a longer answer with some more pictures.

In 1805 Samuel Wyatt the harbours engineer was directed to draw up plans for a watch house and clock house.

In 1809 modifications to the plans were suggested by John Rennie the naval architect and new engineer to the harbour.

Completed in 1817 its main purpose was as a navigational aid part being an astronomical observatory, very important in navigation.

There was a brass transit line embedded in the floor, similar to the one at Greenwich used for determining longitude also important in navigation, this was levered out and stolen in 1975.

The original astronomical clock by Moore of Clerkenwell with grid iron pendulum was constructed under the control of the famous pioneer of precision Captain Henry Kater (1777-1835) who did much research into the accuracy of pendulums.

In 1848 records show that there were two clocks in the clock house the one previously mentioned showing Ramsgate mean Time and a new one showing Greenwich Mean Time.

One of the great advantages of having an accurate clock visible in the harbour was that captains could scale their chronometers without taking these delicate instruments out of their ships.

we are not in a hurry at the moment so here is a chunk of a book about Ramsgate fishing smacks that I am editing on and off

Ramsgate’s fleet of sailing trawlers putting to sea.

At the foot of the cliff is Moses’ shipbuilding yard.

And in the close foreground are two of the ancient “Bath Chairs”

The business of fishing with nets and boats goes back into prehistoric times, and later there are plenty of biblical references to fishing with nets and boats

There are various methods by which boats and nets can be used to catch fish. Usually weights (stones in the earliest and most primitive forms) are attached to part of the net and floats (pieces of wood in the earliest and most primitive forms) to another part of the net.

The net often spread between boats or between boats and the shore and pulled in bringing fish with it.

At some time in the 1300s the method of fishing now known as trawling was invented, this consists of a net with an opening at one end being dragged through the water by a boat. The fish swim into the opening and are unable to escape, when the trawl net is full enough it is drawn into the boat and the fish discharged into a holding tank.  

Since it was invented there have been ecological concerns about trawling, most of these related to depleting fish stocks, it is because of these concerns that records exist relating to the invention of this method of fishing.

Here is what is, probably, the first historical record of a fishing trawl, from the reign of Edward III:

A petition was presented to Parliament in 1376 calling for the prohibition of a "subtlety contrived instrument called the wondyrchoum".

This was a beam trawl with a wooden beam to hold the net open, and consisted of a net 6 m (18 ft) long and 3 m (10 ft) wide, "of so small a mesh, no manner of fish, however small, entering within it can pass out and is compelled to remain therein and be taken...by means of which instrument the fishermen aforesaid take so great abundance of small fish aforesaid, that they know not what to do with them, but feed and fatten the pigs with them, to the great damage of the whole commons of the kingdom, and the destruction of the fisheries in like places, for which they pray remedy."

The wondyrchoun was described as being; "three fathom long and ten mens' feet wide, and that it had a beam ten feet long, at the end of which were two frames formed like a colerake, that a leaded rope weighted with a great many stones was fixed on the lower part of the net between the two frames, and that another rope was fixed with nails on the upper part of the beam, so that the fish entering the space between the beam and the lower net were caught. The net had maskes of the length and breadth of two men’s thumbs" 

The seas off coast of Kent are somewhat limited in terms of fishing and such records as do exist suggest that much of the fishing carried out from Thanet was done at considerable distance, often as far away as Icelandic waters.

William Lambarde writing in 1570 says: “The and these waters, yeelde good and wholesome fishes competently, but yet neither so muche in quantitie, nor suche in varietie, as some other coastes of the realm do afoorde.”

In 1586 the first edition of Britannia, by William Camden was published in Latin, it ran to many editions with variations and several different translations into English. Here is what it has to say about fishing in Thanet.

“Nor must I here omit the mention The great industry of these parts, of a thing very much to the honour of the Inhabitants, those especially who live near the roads or harbours of Margat, Ramsgate, and Brodstear namely, That they are exceeding industrious, and are as it were Amphibious creatures, and get their living both by sea and land: they deal in both elements, are both fishers and ploughmen, both husbandmen and mariners; and the self same hand that holds the plough, steers the ship. According to the several seasons, they make nets, fish for Cod, Herring, Mackarel, &c. go to sea themselves, and export their own commodities. And those very men also dung their ground, plough, sow, harrow, reap, being quick and active in both employments and so, the course of their Labours runs round. And when there happen any shipwrecks, as there do here now and then (for those shallows and shelves so much dreaded by seamen, lie over-against it; namely, the Godwin, of which in its proper place among the Islands, the Brakes, the Four-foot, the Whitdick, &c. they are extremely industrious to save the Landing.”

A Dogger, an early sailing trawler, c. 1675 by Willem van de Velde the Younger

During the 1600s Doggers, early sailing trawlers commonly fished in the North Sea from British ports. The Dogger takes its name from the Dutch word dogger, meaning a fishing vessel which also gives its name to the Dogger Bank, the area of the North Sea where these vessels often fished.

John Lewis in History of Thanet written at the beginning of the 1700s, says:

“When they are boys, they go to catch Whiting and Herring in the North Seas, whihter they make two voyages a year, and come home the latter one soon enough for the men to go to the wheat season, and take a winter’s thresh: Which last they have done time enough, to go to sea in the spring. Besides this there are here two seasons for the home-fishery, which are called by the inhabitants Shot-fare and herring-fare. The first of these is the Macarel season which commonly is about the befining of May, when the sowing of barley is ended. The other is the season for catching Herrings, which begins about the end of harvest, and ends soon enough for the wheat season, the time of sowing which here is about November…

As to the North-Sea fishery, it has formerly been much used by the inhabitants of this island; but the little success they have met with of late years, has very much discouraged them from following that employment.  

Map from Lewis’s time circa 1720

Anciently the inhabitants of Ramsgate , St Peters and Bradstowe, lived, it seems very meanly and poorly, eating scarce any thing but fish, and particularly Red-herrings, and Ling, or North-sea Cod. Meregate was on account of its Harbour, and trade to London, the principle, if not only Place of Business, and whose Inhabitants were wealthy, and lived in Plenty; but Time has made a very great Alteration in these Places. By the Sea’s falling so heavy in the North Part of the Island, the Harbour of Meregate is gone very much to decay, and the Masters of ships which used live there are almost all removed to London, for the sake of Business: So that place is in a manner deserted by them. Whereas the Town of Ramsgate has all this while been growing and encreasing, being almost half of it new built, and their Pier being considerably enlarged; so there are many wealthy Persons among them.”

Lewis goes on to describe the long lines a tackle used for deep sea cod fishing and although obviously nets were used locally for boat fishing since prehistoric times, it is very difficult to work out when they were first used for trawling from here.

From Roman times, and probably before then, Ramsgate Harbour consisted of the natural bay with the pier extending the sheltered area, much like Broadstairs is now. The big change came in the latter part of the 1700s with the building of the much enlarged Ramsgate Harbour.

Although Ramsgate Harbour was built primarily to shelter shipping during storms and justified by the considerable financial losses to the country’s economy caused by the value of the shipping lost in these storms, it also became the home to a much larger fishing fleet.     

Until the late 1700s vessels were only capable of towing small trawls around the end of the century sailing fishing boats capable of towing large deep-sea trawls were developed by the fishermen in Brixham in Devon.

Apart from the constraint of having a powerful enough boat to tow the trawl, sufficient manpower to work the gear, the other problem was preserving the catch, this resulted in a considerable ice business.

Various methods of preserving the catch were used, salting, a live fish tank in the hold of the boat and iceboxes, all had associated problems. Much of the work to preserve the catch was done onboard, pickling, smoking and so on, a life of very hard work.

I think it was the regular supply of ice, from about 1880 that caused trawling to increase considerably around that time. The fish caught in a trawl net would be mostly dead, making it impossible to preserve them swimming in a tank, so prior to around 1880 most of the deep-sea fishing seems to have been using the long-line method. This is a long (can be miles long) fishing line with many baited hooks (hundreds or even thousands). Fish caught this way would still be alive, suitable species being preserved alive in seawater tanks, other species either being, smoked or salted for preservation or discarded.  

The peak of the sailing trawler at Ramsgate was between about 1880 and 1920, after 1920 steam powered trawlers were introduced.

Ramsgate’s prosperity and associated market for fresh fish, would have started at the beginning of the 1800s when Ramsgate became a military training depot and the harbour used as an embarkation point for soldiers associated with the Napoleonic Wars.

When the wars finished in 1815 the first of the paddle steamers arrived at Margate from London making Thanet easily accessible before the UK railway network.      

I recently bought the Manuscript of an article about the Ramsgate sailing trawlers of this period, by Frank. C. Bowen, with a collection of photographs mostly taken by H. H. Blinko.

Most of the photographs date from between 1880 and 1920 the accompanying text appears to be much later written I think in the 1950s. It says it was prepared for The Science Museum in South Kensington and I have endeavoured to edit it considerably in order to make it comprehensible to a contemporary reader, without a considerable understanding of sailing vessels of a hundred years ago or more.

 A TYPICAL RAMSGATE SAILING TRAWLER

The Ramsgate sailing trawler is an adaptation of the Brixham design, and a very large number of them were built at the port. Others came from Galmpton and Rye, while some were built at Ramsgate by Messrs. Moses, whose shipyard is now covered by Port Ramsgate.

SIZE

The ketch-rig smacks varied greatly in size, but from about 1880 mostly 24 tons net (about 30 tons gross) became very popular. The reason for this was firstly that the towing charges of Ramsgate were doubled after 25 tons net and secondly, that the skippers and mates of vessels below that tonnage did not require a certificate and the younger men would not work for them.

DIFFERENCES FROM BRIXHAM

The principle differences from the usual Brixham design were that the Ramsgate smacks had more beam and less draught, but that was at the opinions of the owners who ordered them, nearly all of whom had been to sea in smacks themselves.

BOW

Normally the bow was straight with a curved forefoot, this curve being increased with the later boats. They had fine lines forward and no flare. One owner had three boats built experimentally, the VIE, the VIS and the VIC, with cutaway stems known locally as the “snib” bow, the idea being to do away with then jibs in working, but these boats proved too “lightheaded” and were poor for towing the trawl.

In the last few years before the first world war there was a tendency to round the forefoot more and to fit a larger rudder, boats built on these lines proving better in a seaway and handling beautifully. They were so handy that they would carry way to sail round and round a bouy while waiting to leave the harbour.

SHEER

            The hulls as a rule had a good sheer forward and considerable spring aft. This sheer was not usually broken after the Brixham fashion, but some of them were.

STERN

            Smacks were built both with square and elliptical sterns according to the taste of the owners. Many preferred the square sterns, for although the elliptical was sightly it was expensive to repair in the event of a collision, especially replacing the taffrail. There was no difference in strength or seaworthiness. Lowestoft builders introduced the first elliptical sterns into Ramsgate.

RIG

            Until the ‘eighties there were many cutter-rigged smacks in the fleet, but all the more modern were ketch rigged as it proved far better for towing the trawl. The remaining cutters, which were undoubtedly the fastest of the fleet and would sail within four and a half points of the wind against the five points of the ketches, were latterly used for carrying the fish back to the market. The market was often saved by these boats which was the reason for their survival. The ketch rigged boats trawled to within six points in moderate weather.

            In the old days the smacks carried long main topmasts with crosstrees and set a large jackyard topsail on both the main and the mizzen. The yard of the main topsail ran up to 17 feet in length. They also carried jib topsails. As the shortage of fishermen began to be felt they were given shorter topmasts with a jibheaded topsail and the jib topsails were abandoned. The mizzen topsails were abandoned altogether and bigger mizzens were fitted.

            The mainsails were fitted with three reefs, using lacing and eyelets instead of points, and when the new big mizzens came in these sails were also thus fitted. The foresail had one reef.

            These smacks nearly always carried a particularly big foresail which they called the “tow foresail” for trawling. In running before the wind this was boomed out and used as a spinnaker.

            All smacks were fitted with reeving bowsprits.

STEERING

            With the exception of a few very large smacks which were imported from other centres, the smacks all had tiller steering and with lashed helm would lie hove to for an indefinite period.

ACCOMMODATION AND CREW

            The whole crew were accommodated in the cabin aft without any distinction. In the old days the smacks went to sea with skipper, mate, third hand, “deckie”, and cook, the last three being apprentices and the skipper and mate working on shares. Latterly the supply of apprentices was shorter and this arrangement became impossible.

            Althoug they did not share in the catch the apprentices were given what was know as “spending money”. In the ‘eighties the third hand drew one shilling a night, the “deckie” sixpence, and the cook three pence. But they were also all given all the small fish, weavers, gurneys, dogfish, crabs, etc. and the moment the smacks came into port the men came on board to buy this “Stockerbait” through the third hand.

            The smacks were all given five 6-foot berths around the cabin, with locker seats under and in front of them. In the older boats the stove and oven were in the cabin, but in some of the later ones, the galley was fitted in the engine room. In the older boats also all hands ate off the floor, but in the newer ones a table generally fitted between the locker seats – not always an unmixed blessing.

SUBDIVISION OF HULL

            Forward of the cabin was the engine room between bulkheads and next to its forward bulkhead were two water tanks, one on either side of the centre line as boiler feed and for drinking, while the space between and around them was used for the stowage of small stores. Then another bulkhead divided off the fish hold, which was practically amid ships. On the keel line against the after bulkhead was the big ice box, loaded through a bunker hatch on deck. They generally went to sea with two tons of broken ice.

            On either side of this ice box were two fish pounds, but an alleyway was always left between them and the side of the ship. The last night catch generally went into the ice box.    

            On the starboard side of this hold close to the hatch was the space reserved for spare trawl gear.

            Forward of the bulkhead a triangular space between the bulkhead and the mainmast was kept for chain cable and the rest of the space for the bow of the ship for spare canvas, stores, etc.

BOAT

            In the old days the trawler used to use what was known as the whale boat, rather a narrow boat with high gunwhale but square transom stern and not double-ended like the normal whale boat. These boats had a lamentable tendency to capsize while carrying the fish across to the carrier, and latterly the boats were about 13 feet long and very much more beamy. They proved much better and safer. The men always road “North Sea” fashion, that is to say with the stroke oar standing up and facing forward. The forward thwart was placed well forward in the bow of the ship and ropes were always secured by a turn round this thwart and not through a ringbolt.

CAPSTANS

            Steam capstans were introduced about the year 1886, when the first smack so fitted came down from Grimsby. These had both engines and boilers below deck alongside one another with a pinion wheel to the capstan on deck. The steam exhaust was carried through the funnel, with the result that it shot soot over everything. These worked up to a steam pressure of 80 pounds and were all made by Ransomes Sims of Ipswich. They were very powerful but they were too heavy for the work and Messrs. Elliott and Garrod brought out an improved capstan working to 100 lbs. Pressure, in which the engine was on top of the capstan. It did all the work that was necessary, although it had not the same power as the earlier ones, on half the consumption of coal.

            The boiler was always fitted in a room by itself abaft of the midships, the boiler being of the ordinary vertical pattern. Fresh water was carried in supply tanks as already described, but salt water was used in an emergency with serious results to the boiler. The capstan was used for everything, not only for the trawl but also for the anchors, sails, etc., fires being kept banked all the time the smacks were out. The smaller boats too from 10 to 15 cwt. Of coal to sea with them.

TRIPS

            Fleet fishing was given up in the middle eighteen eighties, but after that there was a period of what was known as partner fishing when two or three owners had their smacks fish together and transferred their catch at sea. This principle was carried on in a very small way within individual small firms for a short time during the summer season until the war. When fleet or partner fishing the smacks would stay out for eight weeks, but in single boat fishing the normal length of trip was seven days and they were usually provisioned for that time.

BALLAST

            As a rule the 24-ton smacks carried 10 tons of pig iron and eight tons of iron dross, all of it being placed abaft the foremast and before the cabin bulkhead.

TYPICAL SPECIFICATION

of

TYPICAL RAMSGATE SAILING TRAWLER

submitted by

Robert Jackman & Sons, Shipbuilders, Brixham

in 1922

______________

Length of keel 50 ft. Beem 17 ft. 2 in. Depth 7 ft. 4 in.

______________

Keel of English Elm.

Stern, Sternpost, Frame, Keelson, Shelves, Beams, Knees, Covering Boards and Stanchions of English Oak.

Floors 5”. Frame 4” - 3½” x 6” – 4”

Plank 2¼” from gunwhale to bilge, 3 stakes 3” elm bilge, 2” elm bottom. Ceiling 1½” pitch pine. Clamp 1¼” pitch pine to bilge 3 stakes. 2¼” Oak bilge. Botton of 1¼” fir.

All outside and middle line fastenings to be galvanised iron. Outside plank fastened with 5/8” galvenised bolts. Bilges through bolted and cleanched.

2¼ pitch pine deck and dowelled.

One winch.

Oak chocks to capstan. Gangway rollers. Two tillers.

Cabin and engine room hatches with brass hinges and glass knobs.

Forecastle, Platform, Ice Box and Fish Pounds.

One set of spars. One boat with one pair of oars and boathook.

One set of blocks including mast hoops and deadeyes.

Ironwork to hull, spars and blocks, including castings, jib tack and topsail halliard chains.

Stem band and after shoe.

Cooking stove with galvanised iron funnel.

Oak tow post.

Wire standing rigging, forestay and hanks. Gaff strops.

Vessel rigged and spars put in place.

Cement concrete. Bolt holes cemented.

Vessel scraped and payed with one coat of tar and two coats of composition.

Name cut and gilded.

Bulwarks, deck work and spars three coats of paint.

Cabin and engine room grained and varnished.

Trucks gilded.

Ballast vessel with ten tons iron, remainder limestone.

One trawl beam. One pair of heads.

Pay the Board of Trade fees.

____________________

            The price quoted £1,225, was very much cut for the prices ruling at that time, and it would have cost at least another £750 to provide sails, nets etc., and fit her for sea.

Ramsgate Fishing Smacks.

1.

2.

3.

4. Foxhound

5. William and Elizabeth (owner Richard Henry Bush)

6. Lizzie

7.

8. Mizpah

9. Brittania

10. True Love

11.

12.

13. Teazer

14. Elsie

15. Peace

16. Proverb

17. Veda

18. Victress

19. Idessa

20. Evala

21. TTAC

22. Qui Vive

23.

24. Lily

25. Silent

26. Our Tom

27. Our Girls

28. Boy Will

29. Star of Peace (owner Tom Bush)

30.

31. Emblem

32. May Queen

33. Arrow

34. Our Boys

35. Thistle

36. Sleuthound

37. Boy Jack

38. Brilliant

39. R H B

40.

41. Shamrock

42.

43. Eureka

44.

45.

46.

47. Valcan

48. Revina

49.

50.

51.

52. Satinita

53.

54. Antelope

55.

56.

57. William and Mary

58. Irene

59.

60.

61.

62. Reindeer

63.

64.

65.

66.

67.

68.

69.

70.

71.

72.

73. Problem

74.

75.

76.

77.

78.

79.

80. Staghound

81. Skylark.

82.

83.

84.

85. Seaflower

86.

87.

88. Idea

89.

90.

91.

92.

93. Iverna (owner Tom Bush)

94.

95.

96. Iona

97.

98.

99. Idea

100.

101. Gloriosa

102.

103. Dorado

104. Cicerone (owner Edward Knott)

105.

106. Ianthe

107. Avona

108. Elanora (owner R H Bush)

109. Edith

110. Volane

111.

112. May

113. H C B

114.

115. Viator

116. Prosperity

117. Emily Victoria (owner Tom Bush)

118. Perseverance.

119. Uncle Dick

120.

121. Invicta

122.

123. Don

124. Era

125. Colinda

126. Endeavor

127.

128. Zephyr

129. Minerva

130. Early Dawn

131. Intrepid

132.

133. Venus

134. Quartette (owner Wallace Fairbrass)

135. Jessie

136. Ethel

137. Radium

138.

139. Sway

140. Deerhound

141. Vie

142. Defender

143.

144. Idalia

145. A J V

146. Isolde

147. Iunita

148. Acme

149. Meteor

150 L S D

151 Vis

152. W E

153.

154. Jimmy Lowther

155. Ismene

156. Harry Martin

157. Mercia

158. Genuine

159. Patience

160. Leonora (owner R H Bush)

161. Golden Cross

162. Geisha

163. Susie

163. Bem My Chree

165.

166. Alfred

167. Victoria Cross (owner Tom Farmcult)

168. Gem

169. Via

170. Spray

171. Olive

172. Vivid

173. Florrie

174. Cosmopolite

175. Enigma

176.

177.

178.

179.

180.

181.

182.

183. Louise

184. Ada

185. Sweet Hope (owner Jack Bartlett)

186.

187.

188.

189. Alessie

190. Referee

191.

192.

193.

194.

195.

196. Buttercup (owner Charlie Wilson)

197.

198.

199.

200. Samaritan

201. Dewdrop

202.

203.

204. Gloria

205. Silver Cross

206. San Toy

207.

208. Star of Hope

209. Alliance

210. Spitfire

211.

212. Pride of the Ocean

213. Rosy Cross

214. Cherub

215.

216. Birica

217. Reward

218. Energy

219.

220. Progress

221.

222. Violet

223. Concord (owner William Gorange)

224.

225.

226. Presage

227. Industry

228.

229.

230.

231.

232.

233. Valliant

234.

235.

236.

237. Clipper

238. Prudence

239.

240. Gratia

241.

242. Reliable

243.

244.

245.

246.

247.

248. Ophir (owner George Gibson)

249. Gazelle

250. Puritan

251. Proceed

252.

253. H C G

254. G L C

255. Careful

256.

257. Rhodora

258.

259.

260. Budget

261. Godita

262. Norman Craig

263.

264.

265.

266.

267.

268.

269.

270. Orina

271. Decision

272.

273.

274.

275. Belle of the Fleet

276. Celsia

277. Clementis/Clematis

278.

279.

280. Sunshine

281.

282.

340. Codelia

361. Quartette

378. Janetta

389. Lotta

398. Water Willow

405. Flora Isabella

410. Sidney & Clara

423. William and Rose (owner Frederick Snelling)

427. British Queen

430. Adieu

434. Hettie

443. Glance

446. Petrel

447. Bonnie Bele

448. Challenger

450. Daisy

459. Criterion

461. Otter

here is a bit of source material from Derek Jones, known to his friends as Tarzan

 On the daily coronavirus statistics front I have decided to publish them on this blog a day after so I will publish today's tomorrow.