Exeter Ship Canal - M/V 'Jenjo'

[davidwheeler]

Well, it is a bit of a dreary day today, so I will put up another photo in case it is of interest.

This is the Dutch motor coaster 'Jenjo'. Built in 1939 as the 'Jozo' by Geb. Nierstern, Delfzihl, operated by Wagenborg, the major Dutch ship managers, for the owner. From May 1940 to June 1945, sailed under the Red Ensign, based on London, before returned to her owner. 200 grt. 96 nrt. Powered by a 3 cylinder, 2-stroke single acting oil engine manufactured by NV Appingedammer Bronsmotorenfabriek, Appingedam. Of 150 bhp, this engine remained in the ship throughout.

In 1955, with a change in ownership but not of management, she became the 'Jenjo'. Of 37.4m loa, and 6.55m beam, she suited the Ship Canal sea lock at Turf very well. That lock was and is 112'5" in length between cills, and 29'2.5" wide. She made 47 visits to the Canal and to Exeter Basin, 45 of which with timber from the Baltic, Sweden or Finland, and 2 with oyster shell from Fredriksund. She was by far the most frequent foreign visitor. On the occasion of this photo, taken 11th August 1966, she was eight days out of Ala, Finland, and had come up the Canal with another Dutch coaster. By this time quite a rare event. Both ships sailed down the Canal on the 16th August 1966 during the afternoon, both bound for South Cornish ports to load china clay.

A stay in Exeter of five days or so was quite normal. Timber cargos were unloaded by the crew, length by length. Although the timber yard was a mile or so down the Canal from the Basin, every ship had to come into the Basin to turn, as you see the 'Jenjo' is doing. Either before or after unloading the 'Jenjo' might lie for a while in the Basin, close to the city's facilities. And its pubs.

This was a family ship. One of the youngsters became partial to the local beer, and sometimes his exuberance carried him into the arms of the police and a night in the cells. A short appearance before the Justices the next morning, a mild ticking off and delivered into the hands of his Captain/ parent in time to catch the tide. Or to start work with one of the two derricks, one of which was of 1.5 ton capacity and the other, 1 ton. 

Why is any of this of interest to some of us?  Because the 'Jenjo' was the last dry cargo ship to trade to Exeter Basin. On the 17th December 1973 the last departure of any foreign carrier. The end of an era spanning hundreds of years. What, ostensibly brought this about was the building of the M5 viaduct over the River Exe and the Exeter Canal. But that was not the reality. The Ship Canal was too narrow, too shallow and too slow. Turf Lock was too small. It became increasingly difficult for charterers to find ships small enough to navigate it. The loads were uneconomical. It was more efficient to load prepackaged timber for Topsham or Exmouth, and transport them on by train or lorry to Exeter. But within a few years even that was uneconomical.

The 'Jenjo' did not long outlast the effective closure of the Canal to commercial shipping. In September the next year she was sold to Syria as the 'Fairuz' and ended broken up by unknown wreckers at Jableh in 1989.

[magnetman]

What a lovely looking Boat. 

 

They know what they are doing those Dutch people. 

[Derek R.]

London in 1965, digitally remastered (several of these on YT).

At 6m 58sec there is just such a Dutch coaster making good headway down the Thames.

 

[davidwheeler]

To give you some idea of how transport by sea has changed  over the last one hundred years, here is a glass negative image of Exeter Basin in 1913. Looking down the Basin. The one of the Jenjo was looking up. Here we can see two schooners, three ketches and a steamer. The latter more or less lying where the Jenjo was in 1966. The ketch at right foreground is a Teignmouth registered trawler. Astern, a topsail schooner, very likely with salt cod from Newfound land. The ketch at left foreground will have carried all manner of stuff around the coast. The white hulled schooner beyond looks to me to be Baltic. The steamer, still quite rare in those days, and still controlled as to speed and required accompaniment on the Canal, is probably the weekly London steamer. 

Salt cod was a major import to Exeter. The last cargo arrived from Newfoundland in the 1930s, on a wild and windy day, the schooner towed up the canal by six horses, three on each bank.

Tomorrow I will finish this little series with an illustration on a ship passing through Double Locks. Unlikely ever to see such a thing again. More is the pity. At least for me.

[davidwheeler]

Here is another photo to complement the one above. I think from the early 1920s. On the back of it " Danish barquentine discharging salted codfish from Newfoundland." This ship has come across the Atlantic, into the English Channel, up the Exe estuary, along the Ship Canal to its head, and, at the Basin, turned back into the River Exe, a stone's throw from the City Walls and Exeter Cathedral. She would have had a tug for the estuary part, and horses for the canal part of the journey. How she then got up the river and across to the quay I do not know, and I forgot, years ago, to ask the man who would have known. The last living canal horseman. The open building to the right is the fish quay. The view is much the same today but for the ship. Which I, personally, miss the most.

Tomorrow, as I have written I will put up a photo of a coaster leaving Double Locks. The Exeter Ship Canal is short and on the whole rather featureless. However, I love it. Although best seen from the bridge of a ship, and, for the lower stretch, ideally when dawn is breaking on a frosty winter morning, when, with the estuary, it is staggeringly beautiful.

 

[davidwheeler]

These two photos, taken on 31.1. 1967, are of the Nova Zembla. Built by Sch. Delfzihl v/s Sander in 1939, the same year as Jenjo. Virtually the same tonnage and the same dimensions, but operated by another of the large Dutch ship managers, Wijnne & Barends. She has delivered a cargo of oystershell from Frederiksund. This was the second most frequent import up the canal, with four or five loads during the 1960s, but this had ceased altogether by 1968. Nova Zembla made five visits to Exeter, three with oyster shell and the other two with Baltic timber. In the lower photo, the Exe valley is wide and flat. The ship is approaching the one lock on the canal which you can just see, I hope, coming into view round the ship's stern. Nova Zembla was bound for Par, in Cornwall, to load chine clay. In the top photo you can see the gate beams. These were from the masts of HMS Exeter. Now replaced by utilitarian steel. The window is of the Double Locks Hotel which, well away from prying eyes, was quite lively. Maybe it still.  Although the Jeno and the Nova Zembla happen to have been built in the same year, the ages and designs of these small ships varied. During the last few years of shipping at Exeter, we had former sailing vessels from the 1910s, ancient motor coasters from the 1920s, to post WW11 to brand new Danish vessels, as well as the two remaining tankers which were British. The canal was an ideal research source for anyone interested in very small sea going ships. Not only could one visit, but often beg a trip down the canal.....

[Stilllearning]

I knew the Double Locks well in the 80s and 90s as the landlord was an old friend of mine. His uncle had owned The Turf. By then the only water traffic was canoes and swimmers. 

Edited January 23 by Stilllearning
Grammar

[davidwheeler]

I will end this little series with a mention of the Official Visit. During the '50s, '60s and '70s, the Canal received official visits from units of the Royal Navy, the RAF, and various other organisations. For the Navy and RAF visits, the ship received a visit from the Mayor and Sheriff, and the commanding officer, a lieutenant or flight lieutenant, would be entertained, in his full dress uniform, in the medieval Guildhall for tea and a ceremonial signing of the City's visitor book. The most ambitious event was the arrival in the River Exe, via the canal, of four Belgian MSI class inshore minesweepers. Built in 1957/8 by the Mercantile Marine Yard, Kruibeke, Belgian they were similar to the Royal Navy's Ham class. They drew 2.10 m. powered by twin Nuove Reggiane diesels of 1260cv, with a maximum speed of 15 kts. They were opened to the public, and great fun it was. But on the way up the canal, mud and debris had been sucked up and blocked the engine filters, so each had to be towed down the Canal behind the Exmouth pilot boat, with a local fishing boat hanging on the stern. 

The photos show the four alongside Exeter Quay, one being towed by the pilot boat, and, finally, two moored below Double Locks, with the third in the lock. The pilot boat was locally built and served the estuary and Exmouth for many years.

That is it. I hope you enjoyed the photos. None of them have been published before. 

[Stroudwater1]

Thanks for such an interesting set of postings. It must have been a thrill to get so near to these vessels. Docks now seem impenetrable and folk are kept well away, a pity for many reasons . Many dock/ ports seem to have these Double locks type establishments, there was similar with similar stories at Sharpness. 
 

Where was the oyster shell taken? Would it have gone for compost with peat extraction and horticulture in the Somerset and Devon areas? 
 

 

[Stilllearning]

20 minutes ago, Stroudwater1 said:

Thanks for such an interesting set of postings. It must have been a thrill to get so near to these vessels. Docks now seem impenetrable and folk are kept well away, a pity for many reasons . Many dock/ ports seem to have these Double locks type establishments, there was similar with similar stories at Sharpness. 
 

Where was the oyster shell taken? Would it have gone for compost with peat extraction and horticulture in the Somerset and Devon areas? 
 

 

The Double Locks was an exceptional boozer and eatery back in the day, and is still pretty good.

ETA

historically the building was I believe the offices of the Dutch merchants who traded up to Exeter.  If you look at the building, the Dutch influences are fairly clear.

Edited January 25 by Stilllearning

[davidwheeler]

The oyster shell was for chickens. Below, if it works, is a photo of sacks of Viking oyster shell. It is not the hold of Nova Zembla but of the Lukas M. built in Holland in 1948. I think that on this occasion, some stevedores were helping unloading because the Council Matador mobile crane was being used. Maybe it was always used for unloading oyster shell. I simply cannot remember. Just as a matter of interest, compare the Lucas M's welded construction with that of the Goeree, another Exeter visitor in the period 1966/9. In those days all you had to do was to look interested and you could nip aboard...

[davidwheeler]

Perhaps having seen the inside of these two ships, you might like to see the outside. Again, if things work. The Lucas M was built in Tjamsweer, Holland in 1948. The Goeree, in 1927, by the well-known yard of Noord Neds Scheeps, Groningen. Although only 21 years between them, a world of difference in  building techniques. Both in their way, handsome ships. On this day in October 1966, both ships were unloading below the Countesswear swing bridge, which carried the main Taunton to Plymouth/Cornwall road. Due I think to a canal closure through installation of new gates at Double Locks. 

I mentioned unloading oyster shell. I recall from photos I took, that when unloading in the Basin and with the ship tied up adjacent to the warehouse, the bags were lifted by the ship's equipment out of the hold and onto a platform and then each bag loaded, by hand, onto an electric elevator and thus up to the first floor. I spoke once to a deckhand about this. He said, in Dutch, something like "It is ****** hard work this all *****day." That was the gist of it. Luckily, just across the river, by ferry, was a favourite pub. The wooden motorboat in the foreground of Lukas M. was there to help guide the ship backwards to the wide open stretch of the canal at Limekilns, where there was room to swing. Without that she would have been stuck until the canal reopened to the turning bay in the Basin.

[Stilllearning]

46 minutes ago, davidwheeler said:

Perhaps having seen the inside of these two ships, you might like to see the outside. Again, if things work. The Lucas M was built in Tjamsweer, Holland in 1948. The Goeree, in 1927, by the well-known yard of Noord Neds Scheeps, Groningen. Although only 21 years between them, a world of difference in  building techniques. Both in their way, handsome ships. On this day in October 1966, both ships were unloading below the Countesswear swing bridge, which carried the main Taunton to Plymouth/Cornwall road. Due I think to a canal closure through installation of new gates at Double Locks. 

I mentioned unloading oyster shell. I recall from photos I took, that when unloading in the Basin and with the ship tied up adjacent to the warehouse, the bags were lifted by the ship's equipment out of the hold and onto a platform and then each bag loaded, by hand, onto an electric elevator and thus up to the first floor. I spoke once to a deckhand about this. He said, in Dutch, something like "It is ****** hard work this all *****day." That was the gist of it. Luckily, just across the river, by ferry, was a favourite pub. The wooden motorboat in the foreground of Lukas M. was there to help guide the ship backwards to the wide open stretch of the canal at Limekilns, where there was room to swing. Without that she would have been stuck until the canal reopened to the turning bay in the Basin.

I love the lines of those old ships, so elegant. 

[davidwheeler]

Although in the last few years of active trading on the canal by dry cargo ships, the average age was over thirty years, there were nevertheless still some small coasters being built to within the canal's very limiting dimensions. So far as Exeter's canal is concerned, they were Danish. One built in 1955, another in 1960, and the largest and most modern, in 1963. This, the 'Satelith', made 11 visits to Exeter between 1964 and 1968. I think, always with timber from the Baltic. The last in January 1968 from Gdansk. In that year she was lengthened and the canal lost another carrier. During 1968 to 1971 of the 30 cargoes of timber brought up the canal, 22 were carried in the 'Jenjo', 5  in the Danes 'Dapa' and 'Stella Rask', 1 in the 'Satelith' and the other in antique former sailing vessels, one of which became a museum ship. For shipbrokers, finding ships suitable for the timber trade was just one of the problems of this canal. The quantity carried was just too small: an average of about 90 standards, or 410/420 cu.m.  

Next time, since nobody has told me to stop, I will touch very briefly on how the Press dealt with the canal during this difficult period.  

The photo below is of the Dapa alongside the wharf at Gabriel's timber yard, some little way down the canal from the Basin. The one below that is of the Satelith, unloading at the head of the Canal Basin.  Using her own gear, she is loading onto trailers, which were then driven down the canalside road to the timber yard. The yard's wharf already occupied by another ship unloading. The year is 1967.

[Pluto]

The date is after commercial work in the port, but you should remember the museum which made a visit to Exeter worthwhile for those interested in historic vessels  The photo dates from 1982.

[davidwheeler]

You are quite right. We should remember the Maritime Museum. I was a founder member of ISCA. I worked as a volunteer in those early days. I ate Mrs Goddard's powerful curry lunches. I was on the bridge of the tug St. Canute when Sir Alec Rose was rowed past for the Opening. I and others of us sailed the dhow in the Exe estuary, careering from one sand bank to another. But those were the first days and years, when the collection was still small, but growing,  with exciting things happening. But later, as the museum became larger, so the factions and the politicising began which eventually tore it all to pieces. Someone should write the history of it. I am not competent to do that since I have not researched it. But it would take, I think, a book to do the subject justice. Although, in justice, the museum should still be there. It was a huge loss to Exeter. And a huge waste of effort by those who fought for it.

[davidwheeler]

Correction. In response to Pluto's reminder of the Maritime Museum, I wrote 'sand bank'. It should have read 'mud bank'. Proof enclosed.

This was an extremely rare event in the sludge vessel SW2/Countess Wear's long period of service. I do not recall any other occasion.

[davidwheeler]

I am going to end my contribution to this, with illustrations from the local newspaper, the Express & Echo, showing two of the Services official visits to Exeter. The first, 'Dark Intruder' was built locally at Teignmouth in 1955, and was sold out of the Navy in 1966. One of class of 18 fast patrol boats. Powered by Napier Deltic 18 cyl  2 stroke opposed pistons, she could reach 40 kts. These boats were remarkable by the extent of diesel exhaust fumes and stains, which led to their being painted black instead of Navy grey. Based at Portland at the time of her visit in 1966, she was used as a helicopter rescue launch. The second, HMAFV 2772E came from RAF Mountbatten, Plymouth. An air/sea rescue and target towing launch. I have been told that to the shipwrights entrusted with their well-being, they were known as 68 feet of snarling dry-rot. In calm conditions they could manage 50 kts thanks to their two Sea Griffin piston engines. Four of these engines were fitted in the Avro Shackelton aircraft, the Lancaster successor.  Not that sort of speed up the canal, of course, but the snarl was certainly there. I remember it. The sound grumbled up the canal, while the ship was still far out of sight. That won't be repeated.

That is finally it. I hope you enjoyed the pictures.

[IanD]

3 hours ago, davidwheeler said:

I am going to end my contribution to this, with illustrations from the local newspaper, the Express & Echo, showing two of the Services official visits to Exeter. The first, 'Dark Intruder' was built locally at Teignmouth in 1955, and was sold out of the Navy in 1966. One of class of 18 fast patrol boats. Powered by Napier Deltic 18 cyl  2 stroke opposed pistons, she could reach 40 kts. These boats were remarkable by the extent of diesel exhaust fumes and stains, which led to their being painted black instead of Navy grey. Based at Portland at the time of her visit in 1966, she was used as a helicopter rescue launch. The second, HMAFV 2772E came from RAF Mountbatten, Plymouth. An air/sea rescue and target towing launch. I have been told that to the shipwrights entrusted with their well-being, they were known as 68 feet of snarling dry-rot. In calm conditions they could manage 50 kts thanks to their two Sea Griffin piston engines. Four of these engines were fitted in the Avro Shackelton aircraft, the Lancaster successor.  Not that sort of speed up the canal, of course, but the snarl was certainly there. I remember it. The sound grumbled up the canal, while the ship was still far out of sight. That won't be repeated.

That is finally it. I hope you enjoyed the pictures.

 

Going by the railway locos Deltics were light and powerful and howled lustily, but nobody would ever say they had clean exhausts... 😉

[matty40s]

Thankyou very much David for these pictures from your past, the top end of the canal is much changed and pretty dead now, even couple of Springers on the moorings!!

[Pluto]

A couple more 1982 photos, one of the harbour ferry, and one of one of the Portuguese boats held by the museum. I suspect the Portuguese decoration, and the Brightwork on L&LC boats, has similar origins.

[davidwheeler]

Since this has gone rather beyond just the m/v 'Jenjo', further than I thought it would, I would like to add the two most significant vessels in the last years of trading on the Canal. I will start with the sludge vessel 'SW2 / Countess Wear'. I think I have given details of this ship elsewhere on this site. She operated from the Water Treatment Works just above the M5 viaduct over the Rver Exe. With very very occasional visits to the Canal Basin. Three in all, I think, during her service life from 1963 to 1999. The first illustration is the Express & Echo's report of the acquisition. The photo shows the ship just after launching from the yard of J. Bolson of Poole in January 1963. The second is of the ship approaching Turf Lock, the canal entrance, on a falling tide. It is 1966. The third is a builder's photograph of sea trials in April 1963, taken for Bolsons by Kitchenham Limited photographers of Bournemouth.  It shows what, in my opinion, a remarkably handsome ship the SW2 was. And remained so, albeit a bit rusty on the outside, until her sale in 1999. What became of her I have never been able to discover. The West Indies, perhaps.

The other ship, the Esso Jersey, I have also mentioned before on this site. That will wait until tomorrow since our internet system here is desperately slow and seems to overload.

[David Mack]

17 minutes ago, davidwheeler said:

during her service life from 1963 to 1999.

I assume the dumping of sewage sludge in the sea ended then.

Interesting to note that the 1963 newspaper article described the previous practice of disposing of sewage sludge via drying beds as "most unsatisfactory". Which is probably what people in 1999 thought about dumping it in the English Channel!

[davidwheeler]

Dumping  sewage at sea ended by European legislation on 31st December 1998. Her last journey out to sea and back was made by the Countess Wear that day. On 28th January 1999 she went up the canal from the water treatment plant wharf to the Canal Basin, only her third ever visit, for a civic farewell celebration and returned that day to the wharf. I was on her. Later that year she was sold, left the canal and the Exe Estuary and went out to sea. Where she went I do not know. At the time it seemed a bit mysterious.

[davidwheeler]

I like the photo of the Tagus lighter Sotero. This was part of the Museum's Ellerman Collection. There were twelve of them and many were quite beautiful. Money to buy them was provided by the Science Museum and the Gulbenkian Foundation. But every one of them was brought to England by the Ellerman Container Line. The Sotero was due to be landed in London, but when the Maritime Museum discovered that the boat was too wide to bring by road, the Ellerman's ship City of Lisbon diverted to Devonport specifically to unload it. As Major Goddard said, the help the museum had from shipping companies was almost unbelievable. The Brunel dredger from Bridgwater is astern of the Sotero. And in the upper photo, at the Fish Quay in the background is the Bedford lifeboat.