THAMES BAWLEYS

Wairarapa Times-Age, 30 September 1943, Page 4

THAMES BAWLEYS

WORK IN SHRIMP TRADE STOUT CRAFT FOR LOCAL CONDITIONS. GOOD BOATS IN HEAVY WEATHER The Thames shrimp has long been famous among epicures, and the demand for the fish created an industry which gave a living to a tough breed of Thames fishermen and which brought into being a special type of boat for the industry in these waters—the bawley, writes L. G. Fay, in the “Port of London Authority Monthly.” In a little backwater at Grevesend, known as Bawley Bay, you may see some of the remnants of a once large fleet of these vesels. Larger ones are based in the River Stour at Harwich, at Leigh, Whitstable and in the Rivers Medway and Blackwatetr. The darkhulled "little craft, bearing the registration letters HH (for Harwich) or LG (for London), were a familiarsight on the lower Thames until recent years The bawley was designed to suit local conditions and the type is somewhat old-fashioned. She is beamy of hull, shallow of draught, and has flat floors and a straight keel, like a Thames sailing barge, to enable her to rest in a comfortable position on the mud at low water. The stem is straight, as is usual in the fishing craft of these coasts, and is high above the waterline, with a small rounded forefoot, while the heavy transom stern is raked. She has a good freeboard, and the sheer line slopes gently down from her high bow, lifting slightly at the stern. A large rudder worked by a tiller, makes her handy. The hull is thus that of a good badweather boat, well suited to the short, nasty seas of the Estuary.

The rig, too, is well suited to hei’ work. A cutter, after the style of an eighteenth-century smack, she shows signs of Dutch influence, as did all eighteenth-century smacks. She has a short lower mast with a long head, above which is a long topmast. The lower mast is well stayed, having two oi’ three stays on either side, while the topmast is stayed to crosstrees at the lower masthead and so to the gunwale. A foretopmast stay runs from the truck of the topmast to the end of the bowsprit, which is a long, light spar, with a chain bobstay, and which can be run inboard. SOME DETAILS OF RIG. The mainsail, which is loosefooted and has no boom to slam about when the boat is rolling, is hoisted by peak and throat halyards on a long and heavy gaff. Due to the length of the gaff, the leech of the mainsail is almost perpendicular. The luff is hooped to the mast, and the sail carries two or three rows of reef-points; brails are fitted to enable the sail to be quickly and easily furled, and it is sheeted to a horse across the sternsheets. The bawleyman “plays” his mainsail almost continuously while trawling, spilling, wind, brailing and unbrailing, and working his mainsheet, in order to keep his boat at an even speed, and the sail thus gets a good deal of hard wear. Above the mainsail is set a large jib-headed topsail. The earlier bawleys had the lug-headed topsail then in fashion. Forward of the mast, a narrow foresail, often with a row of reefpoints, is set on the forestay, with a standingtack running on a iron horse; a jib is set flying on the bowsprit. A jibtopsail and a balloon jib were sometimes carried for use' in suitable breezes, but these are not in evidence nowadays. In rough winter weather the bawley is sailed under jib and brailed mainsail, and it is then that the bawley is really in her element, bounding over steep seas.the short, steep seas. Some bawleys stepped a mizzenmast and sail for use when trawling, but the experiment was not really a success, as it slowed the boats down in most cases. A black hull with a white line round the nibbing strake is the most popular decoration scheme for the boats. A crew of three men is generally carried. The deck, gear consists of a heavy, old-fashioned type of windlass forward for working the cable, and a winch amidships for working the small beam trawl. BOILING THE CATCH. A large cauldron for boiling the shrimps is carried amidships. The fire is lighted on starting and the water is boiling merrily by the time the trawl comes aboard with its harvest; the shrimps are thrown at once into the cauldron and boiled for a couple of minutes or so on the homeward run; they are then turned out to cool. On landing, they are packed into baskets for the market. Shrimps should be boiled immediately they are caught, and if the reader buys shrimps which are curled right up he will know that they have been boiled alive, in the proper way. The bawleymen rarely bought coal foi’ their boilers, but usually ran alongside a collier or steamer and exchanged, a bucket of shrimps for a bucket of coal.

The early Thames bawleys were slencher-built, half-decked boats about 20 feet in length, 8 feet in beam and 3 feet in draught, and were based *at Gravesend. The fish led the boats farther afield, however, and the vessels became larger —about 30 feet by 11 feet by 4 feet —carvel-built and wholly decked. Leigh became the centre of

the trade and in 1870 there were one hundred boats at this port. The Goodwin Sands area is the favourite fishing ground for Leigh boats. Bawleys also spread to Whitstable and to the Rivers Medway and Blackwater. The trade has now largely shifted to Harwich, and it is here that the largest bawleys are found.