What 's Round the Prop ?

[Richard Lacy]

I notice the Historic Narrow Boat Owners Club are holding a survey as to what is the most unusual thing that has been ever wrapped round a propellor and I thought it would be an interesting question for this forum.

 

To kick off - on route to Tysley on Grand Union we had just passed Catherine de Barnes and came to a shuddering halt . Three Hours down the weedhatch removed a tightly packed sari , apparently some locals use the Grand Union as a substitute sacred river for religous ceremonies.

 

I remember seeing a picture of a dead python that someone had got round their prop near London I think - I have to admit to being a bit nervous sometimes putting the hand down the hatch . The G & S has a colony of terrapins living in it , the bigger ones the size of a dinner plate , which can give you a nasty bite as some of the local anglers will testify . I have also seen a 3foot Cayman in the cut which had been dumped by its owner when it got to big to be kept at home - mind you by the time the press had finished that had grown into a 15 foot man eating croc.

[Bernie]

I suppose this is not really unusual but several years ago in Middlewich I had walked down to set Big Lock and was waiting for Colin who had just set off from below Town Bridge, he was absolutely ages Big Lock was emptied and the gates open ready. I thought where the heck is he, so shut the gates and walked back. Well he was stuck fast and couldn't move, but had picked something up as he had set off and had to pole back to the side. Being the littlie that I was (well slimmer than him anyway) I volunteered weedhatch duties. Got my hands down there and felt something soft, fiddling around my hands went into some wooly material and in the darkness down there I couldn't see and it felt like some sort of fur. My heart went cold, I thought it was some sort of animal and couldn't shift it. After about an hour cutting and pulling little bits up it actually was somebody's padded jacket, now cut and ripped to shreds. I remember thinking well I hope they got home freezing cold for the problems they had caused.

[John Orentas]

I had a not too dissimilar experience, moving my boat a matter of a few metres from my mooring to the water point the prop' suddenly locked up solidly.

 

Feeling around in the weed hatch I felt what what I could only describe as a 3-4 inch diameter soft but tough item. Now I have led a fairly sheltered life and have had little experience in handling dead bodies and things, but I knew with total certainty that I had hold of an intact but somewhat decomposed human arm.

 

I of course resigned myself to setting wheels in motion, but before making the fateful phone call, my fear of looking a total pratt over-came my revulsion of again touching what was down there.

 

By this time some of the mud had settled out of the water and I could look down at the macabre sight. I could just make out the tightly wound sightly rotted anorak.

Edited February 8, 2005 by John Orentas

[David Schweizer]

Worst thing ever found round the prop? Get ready with the sick bag.

 

Back in the 1960's we caught a dead King Charles Spaniel in a sack round the 27" prop on our Northwich Star Class Working boat. Those were the days when there were no such things as weed hatches so it was a case of Alan and Graham getting into the water and removing it physically I made myself busy in the engine room replacing the Prop Shaft shear pin ( boats don't seem to have those these days)

[Alan Saunders]

Other people have all the luck - I have only had weed, rope & plastic bags.

 

Could be a canal-oriented party game - "What's in the Weed Hatch"? Place object in bucket, blind-fold victim & laugh at their revulsion, stupid guesses etc.

 

Alan

[nbtafelberg]

My worst thing was about 30 feet of parcel tape, we were on the Slough Arm of the Grand Onion Canal. sorry Union.

 

I saw it following the boat and getting shorter and shorter. ... then the boat slowed down and bingo... into the weed hatch I went.

[Sue]

This took 5 hours of cutting! Caught in the centre of the canal with it round the prop..

 

 

 

[Oliver]

What is (was) it?

[James York]

Thats a good question! Its certainly not a jacket or parcel tape! Maybe a matress, has the size but not the shape or colour though. Its amazing what you can find in a canal!

 

PS: Could it be some of that insulation off a roll?

[bottle]

Maybe a matress,

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

 

Well spotted James I've blown this up and it a mattress

[nbtafelberg]

Ah, I forgot I had this picture of Tafelberg after she's been naughty with weeds...

 

http://www.tafelberg.co.uk/html/maingallery_19.html

[Liam]

Hmm, let's see..

 

1: A log which was about 3ft long and 6 inches wide caught between the prop and the inside of the weedhatch

2: A double matress

3: Numerous plastic bags

4: That industrial orange heavy duty plastic netting

5: Yards and yards of fishing line complete with several hooks.. OUCH!

6: Telegraph pole complete with yards and yards of cable. It chewed up and spat the pole out, it was the damn cable that was the prob.

 

A friend of ours, years ago, actually pulled a big sack off his outboard which contained kittens!

 

All in all, been quite lucky really lol

[Tim]

Coming out the bottom lock of the Aston flight, a car tyre which fitted itself perfectly around the prop blades. Took around 4 hours to cut through the reinforced wires around the rim.

[Derek]

Halfway down the Atherstone flight I pulled a "welcome" mat out of the weed hatch. I have to say that it wasn't very.

 

Derek