Leaderboard

This is not a description of the canal, no more than of its history - those you can find easily elsewhere. It is an indication of the vessels you could have expected to meet on a transit of it during August 1990. It is about boats and ships, with the waterway in the background. Most of the vessels I will describe have gone. Since I have no idea whether it will be of interest I will start with just a couple. If there is interest I will go on. If not, no great harm done. We start at the sea lock at Corpach on the West side. Just around the corner, beyond the lighthouse, ships would come into the loch to load timber from the forests nearby. But in this case it is a fishing boat, the Smallwood, which is coming into the lock. Looking for lobsters, and having gone aground, she is going across to the East coast, for better luck. In her bridge, the skipper has a print out of his sonar, which shows a large dark shape far below on Loch Ness. Was it Nessie? or a shoal of fish? He thinks it is Nessie. He says he thinks it is Nessie.The Smallwood, a trawler built of steel in Ramsey, Isle of Man in 1966 had had successful days -" in 1984 Smallwood and Bahati hauled 1800 boxes of cod. They had to tow the net into Stonehaven and it took 30 men 3 days to gut them all." By 1991 she no longer appeared in the registers. Locking up with Smallwood in the Corpach flight, the Vic 32. Built in 1943 by Dunstans of Thorne, one of the 63 VIC type puffers built for the Ministry of War Transport on the lines of the Lascar of 1939. A steam lighter powered by a water tube boiler, she is thought to have worked out of Corpach for a while, taking ammunition from barges and supplying the Atlantic fleet at St Christopher's naval base. Also at Scapa Flow delivering aviation spirit, and as a day boat at Rosyth until sent to Inverkeithing in the 1960s for scrapping. Bought by Keith Schellenberg to serve his private island, and then by Nick Walker who operated her from 1975 to 2002. With a crew of mate, cook, engineer and general help, he took hundreds of people, steam enthusiasts and some not quite enthusiasts, all around the Western Isles and up and down the Caledonian Canal in clouds of sooty black smoke. A master at melding people together, he had to be. In 2002 he gave the Vic 32 to the Puffer Preservation Trust and I believe she is still operational as the last steam puffer. And passing along the canal, just after the last castiron swing bridge in its two halves, a bright red hulled fishing boat the Green Brea. Built in 1973 as the Laurisa BA145 by Herd & McKenzie at Buckie for one Jimmy Gibson, a herring trawler of 54 feet, powered by a 230 hp Gardner diesel, of wood. Of her, said that we can now put a man on the moon but we cannot make the likes of her. A photo of her launch. She lasted in to this century and to I think 2010. Right, that will do for now. If there is interest, I will go on a bit further.

I think that perhaps I have gone a bit too far with this so I will end it with just two more, because these two were again unique to the Caledonian Canal and they have to all intents and purposes gone. The first is the Scot 11. Built in 1931 by Robb Henry Ltd of Leith, of steel. 75' x 15' x 8.50, purpose built for the Ministry of Transport as a steam powered ice-breaking tug for duties on the Caledonian Canal. In 1960 converted to diesel with Kelvin T8 engine. From 1961 to 1991 cruised on Loch Ness with carrying capacity of 70 passengers. Also continued with ice-breaking duties during winters. 1992 to 1999 leased by British Waterways as a floating restaurant at Laggan Locks. In 1999, taken back by British Waterways for restoration. In the summer of 2005 bought by private individual for restoration and towed to the Isle of Bute. Sank, and remained under water for 10 months. Raised and put on a mooring in Kyles of Bute. In 2009 taken back to Bute and rescued by the Save the Scot 11 group, which plans to return her to her former glory....The work involved is self-evident from the photo of the hull. The colour photo of the ship was taken in August 1990, her last full year of service. There were not many passengers on board. Compare that with the Jacobite Queen on the same day. The Jacobite Queen herself an interesting ship built in 1949 by Hawthorn Leslie as a passenger ferry across the River Tyne. Nick Walker, who knew most of what went on on the Caledonian, told me the British waterways had given the Jacobite Queen the better berth for passenger accessibility, the Scott 11's berth outside the BW Dock building was a lot less convenient. Whatever is done to rebuilt the Scot 11, she will not be the same. A second vessel unique to the Canal, effectively lost. Finally, the unregistered, non-propelling grab dredger 'Fairway'. Built for the Ministry of Transport specifically for the Caledonian Canal in 1937, with a vertical boiler powering the Priestman crane. Disposed of by British waterways sometime in the 1990s and converted to a floating restaurant in Muirtown Basin. Sold again in 2010 for use as a houseboat. A third vessel unique to the Canal, lost. There were other interesting ships and vessels in and about the Canal in those days, but I will stop here. For those that are interested, A D Cameron's book The Caledonian Canal is full of interest. Two of these illustrations are from his book. I recommend it.

Sent 3 versions : The BMF, the RYA and the Governments 'official' boat bill of sale.

On this day in 1986 Basingstoke Canal, Woodham Locks Compare 18Jun1978 10Feb1980 15Mar1981 29Apr2006 4May2006

If and when I see a no cycling sign, I'll push the bike.

I was intrigued to see this cottage had a vigorously flowering New Zealand kohwai tree lockside when we passed through at this time of year, the only one we ever saw in England. And intrigued also when we passed through in September that it did not have a single pod, as here every flower nearly produces a pod. Either they had been plucked off, or perhaps there were none of the pollen gathering birds to pollinate the flowers. Is that the kowhai with its golden yellow flowers to the right of the bottom picture?

Interesting discussion, if a bit sad. We're headed into the UK for a fortnight around the 4CR starting next week. Looks likely that we will experience actual weather this time. (We're from California. We don't have that. Not like you'd know, anyway.) I guess we don't mind low traffic, but I hope it's not a desolate experience. We've planned 4 weeks a year for the next several. We've bought a share for our cruises starting 2025. Hope not to see the canal boating economy go south. We'll do our tiny part. Hope to see someone!

Yes apart from that and some other rare cases amongst the billions of gallons of clean drinking quality water delivered to consumers across the country every year.

But is a tow path a public highway? If it is not, then using a vehicle that would be illegal if used on the public highway, would arguably not be illegal when used on something that is not a public highway. You used to need a special permit to use a bike on the tow path, indicating that a tow path was not a public highway, but I don't know if subsequent legislation has changed the towpath's legal status. Perhaps it would be covered by by-laws or conditions of use, which could mean it would be a civil law matter rather than a criminal law one. The last two times we hired at easter, it snowed. The first time it settled and was heavy enough to build a snowman figurehead.

Ebikes, escooters and all motorised transport should be treated like motorbikes , which is what they are. Numberplates and registered to an owner, who is liable for damage no matter who is riding. No reason why a licence shouldn't be required to ride them, either. Just because a government can't be bothered, doesn't mean it isn't a simple solution. They pass enough daft laws - if they can make it illegal to walk slowly down a road, they could sort ebikes.

I’ve drank out of pint glasses with more scratches than that 👍

Enforcement, I agree may well help and may be it should be a topic to consider in the forth coming elections. On the roads and footpaths there is the problem of Deliveroo and Just Eat cyclists, electric cyclists and even ic powered scooters who regularly are odds with the Highway Code. These abuses can no doubt be seen by those who monitor the cameras in certain places. May be the companies should be fined as a way to get their staff to follow the rules.

How are the H&S concerns any different for towpaths than pavements and footpaths where fast (and often illegal) ebikes/escooters are also ridden illegally, and have hit and killed pedestrians? Regulation is useless without enforcement, and I don't see that there's a damn thing that CART can do about it, given that elsewhere the police force can't keep them under control either, and they have far more powers and staff than CART do... 😞

Hiring boats can be expensive at certain times of the year and that can be a factor. Visiting Birmingham is worthwhile and recommended and there are some canal such as the Wyrley & Essington and Tame Valley that deserve more boats to explore their routes. The cyclists and scooter owners remain it seems to be a deterrent and it sad the CRT has not more to regulate the more antisocial aspects that tarnishes all the good and care the sensible cyclists do. As to the electric scooter users their use should be regulated more and it should be recognised that they are banned on the Rail Network. Towpath improvement has contributed to the higher speeds of bikes and scooters and those that moor up can be confronted by those that do speed past their boat. CRT seem totally oblivious of the Risk Assessment and Health and Safety concerns.

I didn't carefully avoid your question I meticulously ignored it.

And as the pump will be on the other side of the filters, exactly how do you think that will help. It will make the delay until the pump cuts in even longer. You will get an initial spurt of water without the filter restriction, but it will soon drop to what you have now, then it will say the same until you turn the tap off, so the new accumulator recharges. Open the tap and the initial spurt, dropping to what you have now will just repeat. I suppose that if you fitted an enormous second accumulator, it could supply a lot more water until the pressure dropped enough for the pump to cut in, but you have mentioned space considerations. So if you don't have room for a second set of filters, I can't see you have room for a giant accumulator.

I will go on then and touch on gates and the Gatelifter 111. The Fraenkel Report of 1975 marked the `Caledonian Canal as in dire need of extensive repairs. In particular the lock gates. The wooden gates were to be replaced by steel one fitted with buoyancy tanks to avoid the distorting effect of opening and closing the gates by pressure on the top which caused the gates to bend. All the gates had been replaced by 1989 save the bottom gates of Fort Augustus bottom lock which hung on until 1992. It is the bottom lock gate that you see in the photo and the problem is self-evident. The other photo shows a steel gate awaiting placement. Until 1990, at the latest, gates for replacement and new gates were moved about the canal by the Gatelifter 111. It was in August that year that I walked out along the shingle below the Inverness sea lock to where the Gatelifter 111 was lying high and dry. I assumed then that she was on her way to the breakers. It was a most impressive sight. Her purpose was clear from the lifting equipment - the wooden gates weighed around 20 tons each. But was she built for that purpose? I did not think so. Why that hull shape? Why all those portholes along her sides? My thoughts were that she had been a lightship. Whatever her origines, an interesting vessel, replaced by land based mobile cranes. So another of the Caledonians unique service vessels was lost. More perhaps later but enough for now.

I dip mine with water finding paste. Never had any in the propulsion tank but the internal generator tank had around 30 litres in due to poor installation of the filler. Removed by Pela pump.

Commiserations old boy. These house things are not the best way to live 😩

Yep I was hoping to beat your 85 year liveaboard record, but alas I'm just getting too fat for a narrow boat.