nb Beatrice through Harecastle Tunnel from THE RIVER RUNS UPHILL by Robert Aickman. "Peter" herein is my illustrious namesake.
we reached the northern portal at early fall of eve. ... a number of working boats lay at moorings round the tunnel mouth, and their crews proved critical, even hostile. ... persuad[ing] Peter that it would be diplomatic for Beatrice to wait until next morning. When we awoke, all the working boats had gone, because working boats … commonly disappear at sunrise. ... After a careful breakfast, we entered the tunnel at 9 a.m., almost precisely.
The tunnel was at that time normally worked by an electric tug, which drew power, by a bow of tramway type, from a wire overhead, and also picked up a chain from the bottom of the waterway. A voyage behind this vessel could be a strain on the nerves: the noise of the links in the chain grinding over the cogs in the drum on the tug made spoken communication impossible; ... the tug was incredibly slow. But now the tug was out of action for repairs; and boats had authority to go through the tunnel under their own power. The reason for the installation of the tug had been fear lest the smoke from the early powered craft lead to suffocation. The tunnel had been built, and its ventilation surmised, upon the assumption that boats would be 'legged' through by direct human effort. When Beatrice entered the tunnel, we perceived at once that the diesel oil fumes left by the early morning narrow boats ... could be quite as unaesthetic and quite as promisingly lethal as any smoke. We chugged ahead into the thick blackness; our handkerchiefs held to our faces.
In the case of many canal tunnels, ... the far end is visible...from the moment one enters... Here there was nothing; until, after perhaps seven or eight minutes, suddenly we saw before us that the bore of the tunnel was about to become much smaller, the roof much lower. It did not happen gradually. ...we saw a perpendicular wall filling the upper part of the comparatively spacious tunnel ...The historical explanation ...: the tunnel ... suffered so much from subsidence caused by mining ..., that it was decided to renew and enlarge the bore; the work started at the northern end but came to an end ...many years earlier, at the point which now lay before us. We edged through the murk into the small aperture ahead. The steersman… had to crouch so low that it was impossible for him to keep much grip on the situation, ... A much more serious problem was presented by the remains of the towpath to the steersman's left. ... The Harecastle towpath was, …broken away and under water at several places, and so cannot reasonably be used for a transit of the tunnel on foot, but none the less forces boats out of the tunnel centre and against the far wall.
...we soon realised that if Beatrice was going to jam, the point of stoppage was going to be the top right hand edge of her conversion structure.... Beatrice came to a gentle but total stop: wedged between the tunnel arch on the steersman's right, and Telford's immense wooden rubbing strakes, vast planks edging ... the collapsed and soggy towpath, on his left. The steersman shut off the engine; partly to prevent us being asphyxiated. There was very little air and not much light,... After thought, we restarted the engine and attempted to retreat a short distance. We were wedged tightly enough to make this difficult, but we achieved it in the end, with some pushing and hauling from the wet and muddy towpath, upon which it was difficult, in that section, even to stand erect. James Sutherland returned to the point where we had stuck, and set about sawing through and removing a portion of the stout and heavy towpath planking: ... After he had succeeded, we tried again, and this time advanced considerably further. ... and our spirits were rising, when, on an instant, we stuck once more. This time we proved to be stuck so tightly that we could not even retreat...
The only hope lay in the piles of slimy bricks which the Docks and Inland Waterways Executive had thoughtfully placed at intervals along the even slimier towpath, for ...this very purpose. The wedged navigator loaded these bricks on to his vessel until her hull went down far enough into the water for the superstructure to clear the arch of the tunnel roof. ... Ours was a large vessel to lower, but there was nothing else to be done. Peter organised the whole party into a human chain through the near-darkness, and we started transferring the nearest pile of bricks to Beatrice's floor, where much care had to be given to their even and effective distribution. It was discouraging work, especially as there was just enough light for us to see Beatrice's gracious interior becoming ever more filthy and slithery; and soon a youthful member of the party lost his head, and began screaming that he could stand no more and must get out, a bad case of claustrophobia. It was fascinating to see how Peter dealt with him; an impressive demonstration of natural leadership and moral force. He reminded the lad that he was going to a good school …; a place where one just couldn't behave like that; he even spoke of the Empire ..., and of the conduct expected of an Englishman. The effect was astonishing. The boy quietened at once, resumed work on the bricks, and gave no more trouble....We loaded more than two hundred bricks before Beatrice could be made to budge; even though James Sutherland had been sawing off the corners of the main entrance hatch runners that were jammed against the tunnel brickwork. …. As we crept ahead once more, woodwork and ironwork screeching and ripping off from time to time, we quaffed packet soup salted with black mud, and cowered beneath the streams of water from overhead. We emerged from the tunnel at 3.40 p.m.
It was snowing. There was an assembly of working boats hideously delayed by our misadventures. There was an official of the Docks and Inland Waterways Executive: his task was to bid us unload the Executive's bricks immediately; which we immediately did under his stern eye, piling them up in the snow ..., while the working boat crews cursed us as they entered. We understood that the bricks would be restored to their original site by the Executive's staff: a ploy we would be excused. No doubt, all kinds of dirt money, danger money, and overtime would have to be paid. ... We were relieved when a call upon us late that night by the same official ... proved merely to be on behalf of his daughter, who wanted all our autographs.
On this day in 2017 Colwich Lock T&M Compare 9Mar2003 14Jul2008 1Mar2011 25Apr2013 (#2) 19Aug2013 30Aug2013 4Nov2016 (#2) 12July2018 25Apr2021 5May2021 30Sep2023
