What Are You Watching on Youtube?

[Thomas]

Another "travelogue" video (I found it originally on my LiveJournal feed.) It might resonate with the UK delegation

It does with me, because 40-odd years ago I was aboard Ironsides, a Thames Sailing Barge, moored at Iron Wharf, next door to the Oyster Bay House (17 minutes in), as we set off down Faversham Creek and out into the Channel to take our chances in a barge match.

The place was a bit more rough-and-ready then, less gentrified. The wharf co-owner Alan Reekie raced Ironsides quite successfully. That's him in the shot, probably tactically-thinking his next victory.

 

[rocala]

This post is both nostalgic and puzzling. I was a very small child on holiday with my family. We were in the area of the Thames estuary. This was about 1960.
My father took me for an early morning walk along the shore and it became very foggy. Suddenly the mist seemed to part and there was this boat with black sails in front of me. It seemed incredibly sinister and I was terrified. My father just told me that it was a Thames Sailing Barge and continued walking.
Some years later, watching the scene in the film Great Expectations, where the convict found Pip, I knew Pip would have seen similar.
Seeing this post took me back to that day. However, the picture above and a quick google search shows only red sails? I know what I saw, and at a later date I saw another. So what happened to the black sail version?

 

[Phyllis Sidhe_Uaine]

It does with me, because 40-odd years ago I was aboard Ironsides, a Thames Sailing Barge, moored at Iron Wharf, next door to the Oyster Bay House (17 minutes in), as we set off down Faversham Creek and out into the Channel to take our chances in a barge match.

The place was a bit more rough-and-ready then, less gentrified. The wharf co-owner Alan Reekie raced Ironsides quite successfully. That's him in the shot, probably tactically-thinking his next victory.

View attachment 5321

My LiveJournal contact isn't as familiar with Reekies or Ironsides as you are (he's two or three degrees separated, while you are one degree separated iykwim...)

Several of the other places in the video are his "stomping grounds" (like the pubs, the bookstore and The Marketplace...)

Phyllis Sidhe_Uaine

 

[Thomas]

Suddenly the mist seemed to part and there was this boat with black sails in front of me. It seemed incredibly sinister and I was terrified. My father just told me that it was a Thames Sailing Barge and continued walking.
So what happened to the black sail version?

I think red sails were and are the norm – the sails were made of flax and the red was derived from a dressing – traditionally made from red ochre, cod oil, urine and seawater – to block uv rays in sunlight from degrading the flax.

The Norfolk Wherry traditionally had a black sail – lamp-black, tar and fish oil – again to protect from the elements.

So either it was a red-sailed barge that looked black in the light, or
It was a wherry, a long way from home (not sure how capable they were of coastal sailing), or
It was a Thames barge with black sails, as I'm sure it wasn't a law, but just practice.

Who knows?