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Thames Sailing Barges - history Historical origins of Thames sailing barges The craft today known as the ‘Thames sailing barge’ is also known as the ‘spritsail barge’ or just as the ‘Thames barge’. The generic description ‘barge’ covers a vast number of different types of craft and is defined in the Oxford Dictionary as “…a long flat-bottomed boat for carrying freight on canals and rivers…”. Most people’s vision of a barge is a canal narrow boat with gypsy style flowers painted on it being towed by a horse! The Thames sailing barge could not be more different from that image. The origins of the Thames sailing barge lie in the 17th and 18th centuries when flat-bottomed wooden craft evolved for use in the River Thames and its Kent neighbour the River Medway. They were used to lighter cargo from ships to the wharves along the banks of the rivers in the developing ports of London and Rochester. The ships were too deep to lie alongside the shore and had to anchor in deep water where the cargo was loaded into the lighter barge, which was then rowed to the wharf and unloaded. The craft were flat-bottomed with flat ‘swim’ heads and ‘budget’ sterns. They were literally floating wooden boxes. Over the years they evolved so that they got bigger and were rigged with sails. The spritsail rig which consists of a large wooden spar called the sprit, which supports a rectangular fore and aft sail is believed to have its origins in Holland as do the leeboards which were also fitted to barges. Leeboards are literally a wooden board which drops down the side of a vessel to provide lateral resistance- the force that prevents a sailing boat sliding side ways and enables the force of the wind in the sails to generate drive to take the vessel forwards. By the mid 1800’s the old swim headed barges were often rigged with a sprit mainsail, a foresail and leeboards together with a smaller spritsail mounted on the rudder head to assist steering. Some were built with a rounded ‘Dutch’ style bow and from this evolved a straight stem bow and transom stern with longer runs of planking from the ends to the still box like section in the middle of the craft. The Thames sailing barges that had so evolved were actually coasting craft capable of taking cargo that arrived in London from all over the Empire and delivering it along the coasts of England and Europe. By the 1890’s the development of the Thames sailing barge was at its peak with the small coasters built in Ipswich and Harwich developing a style of their own. These were true coasting sailing ships that traded across the North Sea to Holland and Germany, down the English Channel to Belgium, and France. They delivered cargoes down the East Coast from the River Humber down to the South Coast with freights to Cornwall becoming quite normal. In 1907 there were 2090 Thames sailing barges registered. They covered a wide variety of sizes from small river barges that carried less than 100 tons of cargo to large coasters that could carry 300 tons. A typical barge would carry about 140 to 170 tons. Thames sailing barges were unique for so many reasons. No other craft was ever developed that could sail light without ballast with her shallow flat-bottomed hull giving the ability to get up shallow creeks of Essex and Kent drawing as little as two feet unloaded. Because of their unique rig barges could be sailed by in the case of a ‘small’ river barge, a man and a boy and even in the case of the larger barges by two men and a boy. Barges were very handy and manoeuvrable so they handled well both at sea and in the London Docks. With their large cargo hatches, cheap construction and the unique rig which stowed all the sails out of the way of loading and unloading cargo Thames sailing barges were perfect for the job they were designed to do. No other craft in Europe ever attained the numbers that the Thames sailing barge did. They carried a variety of cargoes. Barges delivered the stone bricks and timber from which London was built in the 19th century. The city depended then upon thousands of horses for its transport and it was the Thames sailing barge that delivered the huge requirements of hay and straw from the farms of Suffolk, Essex and Kent. Essex and Maldon in particular evolved a special variety of barge called the “stackie” designed to be shallow and wide for sailing with a haystack on deck. The Ipswich barges particularly specialised in carrying flour and malting barley. Many were owned by the millers Pauls and Cranfields. The latter operated barges under sail until 1960. Barges also carried timber, stone, sand, cement, ballast, bricks, oilcake, oil, plastics, in fact everything that small ships can carry, was carried regularly by barges. After the second World War many factors hastened the demise of the Thames sailing barge as a sail trading vessel. Although the fleet had dwindled to 34 sailing barges, 44 with auxillary engines and a further 82 trading as pure motor barges with their masts and sails removed by 1954, the survival of what was now the largest fleet of trading sailing vessels in Europe was a uniquely British phenomenon. The development of the diesel engine in small ships and in large lorries meant that most of the trade that barges had depended on was now carried in lorries by the newly developing road system or by coaster. In the 60’s and 70’s the development of containers and demise of the London docks killed off coasting work as most goods came on large container ships and then travelled around Europe by road. The larger modern steel coasters did not require the skill of the “sailormen” (as London’s dockers had traditionally called the barge crews) and a powered ship was able to run relatively according to a timetable in conditions which would have kept a wooden barge wind bound for days or weeks. The rise in living standards and increased standards of safety and comfort in the workplace left no place for the often dangerous and uncomfortable life of the coasting seaman in the days of sail. The final end of the road came in 1955 for the 5 barges still operating under sail from Colchester. They were unrigged and sold to become lighters at Heybridge Basin carrying timber from ships in to the lock for transport by canal to Chelmsford. It was a strange twist of fate that these fine barges returned to the work that had spawned the evolution of their kind as lighters. This left the 5 Ipswich barges (finally all sold off by 1964) and the Cambria. The latter was a big coaster that was to continue until 1971 carrying occasional cargoes and eking out a meagre living in the hands of Bob Roberts who became famous as an author when he wrote a book about his experiences entitled the “Last of the Sailormen” in 1963. A few auxillary barges and motor barges continued in to the sixties and seventies. Barge trade finally ended when Wyvenhoe was sold out of trade in 1982. The passing of the days of trade under sail was notable enough given the maritime heritage of Great Britain but the fact is that the barges died as the way of life of which they were an integral part died too. Whole communities in the late 19th and early 20th century were based around the ownership of fleets of barges which were essential to the whole commercial infrastructure of the areas where they were found. Barges were far more than the articulated lorries that have replaced them. The skills in building and maintaining them, sail making and shipwrighting and above all sailing them were spread across the communities generation to generation. The agricultural and industrial communities that were building up were dependent on the Thames sailing barge to get their harvests and products to the markets and to get deliveries of the essential supplies of food and materials. The spread of far greater employment and social mobility, building of factories and spread across the country of industrial society saw these communities change beyond recognition and the loss forever of established patterns and traditional ways of life. The survival of Thames sailing barges today However the danger of the complete loss of the traditions and skills of sailing for a living and barging in particular was not unnoticed. The Colchester barges and others used at Heybridge were saved from being broken up or rotting as houseboats like so many others before them. Some enthusiasts at Maldon did not want to see barges die and the best of the Heybridge barges were rerigged in the mid 1960’s and began a new lease of life carrying people on weekend charters in place of the cargoes they had carried. The holds were converted in to basic cabins and these old ladies were once again under sail on the traditional waters of the Thames sailing barge. Among these was Kathleen a wooden barge built in Kent. Her restoration by Richard Walsh in 1965 led to his purchase of Wyvenhoe in 1982 and the use of much of Kathleen’s sailing gear in her restoration to sail. And so the traditions of the sailormen were kept alive by enthusiasts and many former trading bargemen who went back to the craft they had so skilfully handled under cargo to pass on the traditions to new generations of bargemen. The foundation of the Sailing Barge Association to represent owners and the Association of Bargemen to represent crewmen has successfully lead to a system of self regulation under the auspices of the Maritime and Coastguard Agency. Barge Skippers have to pass strenuous examinations of their skill and prove years of experience under existing skippers as well as attaining an HGV style medical standard. Safety standards are set regularly by negotiation with the MCA and barge owners who carry passengers have to ensure that their craft are up to the required specifications. Barges also have to have a strict out of the water survey every 5 years to ensure seaworthiness. Today there are 30 Thames sailing barges currently in sailing commission with about the same number in various states of repair or restoration and a number of hulks and houseboats that are unlikely to sail again. The renaissance of sail at Maldon - a barge port for three centuries - is a phenomenon unmatched elsewhere in Europe because a fleet of craft remain sailing their traditional waters as they have done for centuries having swapped their cargoes of goods for cargoes of people. The barge races (which bargemen always called Matches) have been revived on the Thames and Medway, at Pin Mill and Maldon, Southend on Sea, The Swale and The Colne. There is even a Passage match from London to Harwich which echoes the truly competitive nature of barge sailing when bargemen did race each other to get to port first and get the next cargo. The Society for Sailing Barge Research, was founded in 1963 as the Society for Spritsail Barge Research by a band of enthusiasts concerned that the rapid decline and possible extinction of these splendid and historically significant craft would pass largely unrecorded. Now reflecting a broadening interest in other allied craft, the ports from which they sailed and the men who built, owned and sailed them, the Society organises walks, talks and exhibitions and publishes various books and journals on sailing barge related subjects. Amongst these is "Topsail", a regular treasure chest of sailing barge history, profusely illustrated with fascinating photographs of long lost craft and the ports they once served. External links: The Society for Sailing Barge Research.
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