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As the restoration work on Ripple nears completion you can
see and feel what a double ended West Cornish sailing fishing lugger was like
back a 110 years ago.
Take a few minutes from the
hustle and bustle of the Fish Festival to go and look at Ripple. Let your
imagination take you to a time when the fishing industry here along with St
Ives, Porthleven and Mousehole boasted hundreds of these unique tarred black
boats with their tall slender masts and dark brown barked sails. They were the
pride and economic livelihood of the thriving fishing communities in West Cornwall.
The boats had no engines to drive them,
they depended on the wind. On land there were no cars for transport and no
electricity for power. Life was simpler and largely unchanged from the
traditions stretching back in time. It was a life of making use of the
resources to hand. With effort, ingenuity and hard-earned experience boats were
built, nets were made, fish were caught, cured and sold. The process of self-sufficiency
inspired a close knit community to be filled with initiative and
self-confidence. In their turn the schools of painters who settled here were
equally inspired. What they saw that they repeatedly recorded on canvas.
Newlyn Fish Industry Forum's regeneration
initiative to present the local fishing industry's heritage created a purpose
to restore Ripple back into full seaworthy condition. Forgotten by all except a
few old-timers, Ripple was a boat, which regularly fished from Newlyn and
landed its catch at the fish market here up until the end of 1933. Newlyn then,
as now, was the centre of the West Cornwall's
fishing industry, although boats owned and registered elsewhere such as Ripple
were operated from Newlyn as their base.
Ripple's story started in 1896 in
St Ives where she was first registered after Henry Trevorrow had completed
building her on the beach in St Ives harbour for the Barbers, a St Ives fishing
family. Betsy, daughter of William Veal and head of the family was the first
and only owner of Ripple throughout her 37 years as a fishing boat. It was her
sons William and Mathew who fished Ripple.
William was the skipper and Mathew fished with him until they fell out
in 1925 and could no longer fish together. As result ‘Mama' as they called her,
paid for a new boat ‘Our John' to be built in Porthleven for Mathew. Not long afterwards in 1927 William had
Ripple lengthened by adding ten feet in the middle at Peaks yard near the
Tolcarne Inn here in Newlyn. A new and more powerful engine was fitted at the
same time.
Originally Ripple was built for
sail as a Pilchard driver. Like nearly all fishing boats of the time, engines
were fitted as soon as they became available. Ripple had her first engine, a 16
hp Kelvin, fitted during the First World War in 1915. Then fishing was
relatively good, prices up and competition from the East Coast drifters down.
Ripple's main catches were Pilchard, Mackerel and Herring all caught with drift
nets according to season. Often it was necessary to go some distance to where
the shoals of fish congregated. Ripple regularly fished for herring off Plymouth during the
mid-winter months. The men and their boats were versatile too so when there was
no activity for drift netting they would go long-lining for other species such
as Ling, Skate, Conger, Pollock, Cod and other bottom feeding fish.
The restoration which started in
April 2004 has consisted of replacing almost all the 28 frames, new stem and
stern posts, new bow knee and deadwood, new beam shelf and stringers, completely
renewing the planking of the hull (15 planks plus two sheer strakes per side),
bulwarks (5 planks per side) and deck planking (2 ½ inches thick), fitting new
deck beams, rails, hatches and deck fittings. Where possible, old components,
which were in good condition, were retained. These are some lower sections of
the frames, some floors, the aft deadwoods and the keel which had been replaced
in 1927 when Ripple was lengthened. The hatches, wheelhouse, rudder, masts and
spars are all new. Inside, two new 50hp Beta Marine engines are fitted driving
two 18inch three bladed folding propellers. Extensive internal fitting out to
create suitable spaces for a crew of three and twelve passengers is well
advanced. The timber used has been English Oak (in the main grown in Cornwall)
for all the structural components, re-cycled Pitch-pine for the deck, hatch
coamings, skylight, wheelhouse and internal posts from English China Clay
buildings roof timbers, Scottish Larch from Dumfries for the hull and bulwark
planking, Douglas Fir (grown in Cornwall) for the stringers, masts and spars,
Cornish grown Elm to repair the damaged keel at the forefoot and make rigging
blocks and Cornish grown Ash for the tiller. No tropical hardwood or plywood
has been used. Structural fastenings are dump bolts of galvanised steel made up
by a blacksmith at Helston and the hull planking fastened with galvanised boat
nails. The hull planking has been caulked with Oakum (the fibres of the
Cannabis plant soaked in Stockholm Tar) then payed-up or sealed with hot Pitch
and finally tarred overall with hot Coal Tar. The rigging is secured to
eyebolts in the deck covering board bolted through the beam ends and beam
shelf.
Aloft there will be two masts (foremast 47ft,
mizzenmast 50ft) and two spars plus all the associated rigging. Extending from
the stern will be a 30foot mizzen-boom and on occasions a 25ft bowsprit will be
rigged run out over the rail and lashed to the mast. A suit of eight sails will
be carried comprising four lugs, a jib, a tow foresail, a staysail and a
topsail. In light weather a maximum of five sails giving 1845 sq ft of sail
could be carried, however usually two sails would carry a working sail area of
1245 sq ft or less. Ballast will be approximately 10 tons of pig iron and concrete
cast into place in the bottom of the boat. Displacement tonnage will be about
25 tons which makes Ripple now weigh an estimated 15tons.
Ripple is
now registered as a fishing vessel with the letters and numbers SS19. , under
which she was first registered back in 1896. When afloat, where the ballast,
masts and rigging will be added, she will be kept in Newlyn apart from voyages
elsewhere. The experience of what it was like to sail on one of these vessels
one hundred years ago and to fish it will be offered.
Regeneration is what Ripple is
all about and she is bringing along some other regeneration projects in her
wake. So visit Ripple, see what a contribution to now something forgotten from
the past can make and learn what the West Cornwall Lugger Industry Trust Ltd
has lined up for the next projects.
Contact: John Lambourn, Glenway House, Adit Lane, Newlyn, TR18 5DY Tel: 01736 366868 or 078
1305 0901.
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