Saturday, May 19, 2012

Wooden boat quiz

I don’t know how many things I don’t know about wooden boats, but I suspect it might be quite a few.  However I have just learned a few more, and I thought it might be interesting for you to have a go. 

That nice Mr Ditchrawler sent me a comment following my post about the wherry Albion suggesting I point out that although Albion can have a motorised push these days, this is an external device and the main boat is still as it should be.  He also directed me to the Wherry Trust website which is indeed worth a visit.  It was there that I found the glossary of wherry terminology which I will now use to quiz you.

Do you know what these words mean?

1. Standing Rightup -  nothing to do with the crew, but a bit of the boat.

2. Herring Hole – sounds fishy to me (sorry)

3. Cuddy ( no, not a Geordie donkey)

4. Binn, and Binn Iron (spectacle related?)

5. Ceiling – a good one this!

I confess that I didn’t.  I knew about leaches and luffs and tabernacles and bonnets, but these others were new to me.   I bet Sarah (Chertsey) knows one or two. You can look up the answers here.

I also found out that I lied to you (sorry).  Albion’s mast, which weighs 3 tonnes, is not made of oak but of pitch pine.  Most of the rest of the boat though is oak.

Meanwhile have a butchers at these old photos taken aboard the Albion which I have this week rescued from (nearly 40 year old) transparencies.  Mercifully I don’t appear in them because I was taking the photos, but I’m delighted to tell you that a number of those featured are still good friends today. Four of them were with us last weekend!

You might spot a young Rick and Marilyn and one or two of the cognoscenti might spot a certain member of the infamous Elderly Bros as well as superbrain PDS who helped us out with tunnel geology recently.

Elderly crew stands to attention

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Man relaxes while wife works.  Nothing changes.

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PDS looks down on us (quite rightly)

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I don’t know if this is Rick or a certain Mr Plod plodding.

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Who needs an engine?

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