On our way back from Cornwall last week we stopped off for a couple of days at Dorchester … but our arrival was interrupted by a small detour into Topsham. Why? Well, the spritsail barge Vigilant sits by the town’s wharf being rebuilt.
The Vigilant, the subject of a lovely little book, ‘Sailorman’ by E. G. Martin and published in 1933, came down from Essex (St Osyth) where she had ‘festered for some years becoming more and more dilapidated as time rolled by. Then came a saviour from Topsham … and, away she went under her own engine with shuttering boards fixed over the leaky bits…
The starboard bow of the Vigilant looking all but completed…
I photographed her on a visit a few years ago when the gear hung onto temporary fixings whilst side planking and frames were being renewed. Then, the hull had open areas awaiting new planks. Now she has apparently had all that finished. However, much still needs doing.
Here are some pictures.
Port bow, looking down side.
Port side of the Vigilant.
I then moved round the starboard side, the side to which she sits against the quay. I was immediately struck by the strange curvature to her body: this was, and should be, a shapely barge. She looks horribly hogged.
A gaze down the starboard side of the Vigilant.
An old section of her rail – new rail is made up of two sections, one above the other…
If you study this plate below it can be seen that the stern drops away with a ‘hump’ in way of the main sheet chock area. The covering board has a join here and it looked as if movement is taking place…
Starboard aft quarter…
Vigilant’s transom…
Vigilant’s new transom has been varnished in the fashion of Marjorie’s. Looking closely at the runs into the stern post it is clear that her bottom planking needs attention. For this a drydock will be needed. The barge’s hull reminded me so much of the way the May Flower went during the last decade or so of her life. (For those that don’t know – my childhood home)
Temporary bolts could be seen at both the fore and aft ends fastening new frames to planking needing renewal.
The project has an information board to ‘educate’ those that come to stop and stare: a spritsail barge was a rarity in these waters even in the days of trade. What hit me was the huge mistake over the Vigilant’s displacement. The barge was built by Orvis & Fuller of Ipswich in 1904 and is 74 NRT. She would have loaded 150 – 170 tons. Her light displacement will be around 140 – 150 tons, yet the information board records her as being only 4 tons!
Vigilant’s information board.
There wasn’t anyone around during my visit so I couldn’t challenge this displacement … or to discuss such things as ‘plans’ for her future. I do know that the crew of EDME are reported to have given an undertaking to show the owners how to sail her when completed … the basis of this only being hearsay!
I wish them well: a private rebuild is rare these days.