New hope

I've still got the handbowl. We didn't call them dippers, guess Susan Woolfit invented that word. LING had a fore-cabin in 1950, I always thought its removal spoilt her looks. I always understood the 15hp Bolinder came from GORSE.

My recollection is that Josher engine holes were scumbled above the gunwhale.

Was going to put a photo of LING on here but the site doesn't appear to be attachment -friendly.

Around the end of the 1939-45 war there was considerable re-location of stocks of aluminium, some of it carried out by canal. I came across a mention of aluminium from Aylesbury while doing some other research. This may explain the carriage of aluminium to Marsworth. Perhaps there was a water shortage on the Aylesbury branch at the time. Something for somebody to research?

I was Captain of the LING in 1959-60 including the occasion when that very nice pic was taken of her at Gas St. BW had her repainted for a Boat Show there. I don't think Ike Wilson ever had the LING. In 1950-51, her Captain was 'Barnton Tommy' Lowe. Ike then had the ARABIA (9hp) but by the end of the summer had changed to a 15hp motor so he could have a butty. Incidentally, I wonder if Ike's daughter, Mim, is still alive. She would be in her late 70s. She was transferred to the newly formed Midland Fleet around 1958 when her skipper was Edwards. I've mislaid his first name but it will come back! I had her after him in 1959. I carried coal from Hednesford to Worcester returning with copper or various foodstuffs. Once I took her to Gloucester for steel rails.There is a fuller account in my book FOLLOWING THE TRADE. In her FMC days she traded between the Mersey ports and the west and east midlands, also to Stourport mainly carrying foodstuffs and metals. There is a pic somewhere of her at Broad St Wolverhampton and I have a pic of her at Tardebigge. After the coal contract to Worcester expired LING became a maintenance boat, and I saw her few yrs ago on the Stour cut. I will try and find my pic of LING and put it on here.

These boats were equpped with 9hp Petters because they were intended to work singly. If the river was high they would hang onto one of the tugs or hitch a free tow behind a tanker. They had enough power for normal river conditions. Remember, Josher's 9hp motors worked on the Trent, Soar and Weaver I don't think anyone, except the designer, can explain the reversal of the traditional position of the cabin and engine room. The boatmen disliked it and it was clearly unsafe if the crew had to exit the cabin quickly in an emergency. The long holds were usual in all S&C boats to provide maximum hold space for timber and other light, bulky cargoes. The last of these boats in use for carrying could take 23 tons up the Shropshire Union as against 20 tons on a Josher. The two bought by Ballinger carried 23 tons of crumb between Frampton and Bournville. Tonnage was limited by the bulky nature of the cargo. They would probably, even in 1960 have carried 25 or 26 tons of heavy goods on the W&B. On the subject of BCN gauging, I had two boats weighed at Tipton and can confirm that weights up to 24 tons were placed in the boat and the rest was done by calculation. .

The high top planks were needed so that bulky cargoes could be covered by the cloths. There are plenty of pics showing bags of grain stowed up to the height of the planks. In later days, many boatmen cut down the cratches and stands of their Joshers to lower the height. But to a few boatmen a pronounced curve in the stern plank was a matter of style and they kept the high planks.

There were originally four gates at Worcester bar lock.I have a pic. There was normally a difference in level sufficient to prevent a boat from pushing the gates open without working the lock. The gates were removed about 1957 and I understand that the banks of the W&B summit only required a little raising in a few places to allow this. Incidentally the BCN Bottom Summit was, in those days, often very low and most of it was by no means deep.

The answer is that they didn't drain at all.(at least that is my recollection.) You scooped out as much water as you could and mopped up the rest. "Pram covers" over the slide were usually only used on motor boats as a motor could be steered without getting out of the door- hole. Boatmen called them "rain-sheds" and made them themselves out of wood and canvas with a small glass window in the front panel. Not many boatmen used them.