An age and a whole way of life which has long since vanished, it is remembered in Mousehole-based film-maker Theo McNab's Barnabas; A St Ives Mackerel Driver, now available on DVD, which "brings to life the Cornish fishing industry in its heyday and the people who built and worked the boats."
Perhaps the best known of the few such vessels that have survived, the story of Barnabas SS634 was told in a book, written by the film-maker's wife Sue Mcnab and published a couple of years ago by the Cornish Maritime Trust. An author and art historian with a sea and salt background who was born and bred in Plymouth, where her grandfather was a Barbican fisherman and sometime coxswain of the Plymouth lifeboat, she studied at Trinity College, Dublin. She later lectured on art history at Dublin's National College of Art and Design before coming to Mousehole with her Irish artist and film-maker husband Theo, a retired professor of fine art at the National College of Art and Design in Dublin and a member of Aosdana Ireland.
It was as a member of the Cornish Maritime Trust's Board of Trustees, alongside well-known Mousehole-based painter Tom Rickman who has provided the music and sound for the film, that she became involved with the restoration of Barnabas. As well as writing the aforementioned book about this former St Ives mackerel driver, she has now written the film script which is narrated by Brian Stevens, honorary curator of the St Ives Museum.
Built in St Ives in 1881, in an area above Porthgwidden Beach known as the Island Wastrel, by Henry Trevorrow for Barnabas Thomas, a family boat, its owners were devout Methodists and the Barnabas was given the number 634, that of Will your anchor hold in the Methodist hymn book. It was to hold, in fact, for more than 70 busy fishing years until, sadly, with the decline of the fishing industry it had to leave its home port. In 1954 she was sold, converted to a yacht and kept at Falmouth, a move which, happily, helped save her from the fate which befell most of the luggers when these sail-worked boats were superseded by engine-powered trawlers. Fourteen years later she was recognised as a rare and historic survivor of the Cornish fishing fleet and taken over by the Maritime Trust. Thanks to the generosity of Peter Cadbury she was restored in 1980 and in the following year returned "in a triumphal visit to St Ives for her 100th birthday".
Subsequently, as flagship of the Cornish Maritime Trust, she merrily sailed the Cornish seas until 2002 when a survey showed that, in order "to return her to a seaworthy condition and conform with modern safety needs", a major restoration was essential. It was not until three years later that the Trust gained a substantial award from the Heritage Lottery Fund which enabled work to begin. So it was that, on October 19, 2005, "Within nine days of the 124 years since she was first registered on October 28, 1881", that the Barnabas entered Penzance Dry Dock where, fortunately, for the next nine months every stage of her restoration, each step as she was taken apart and rebuilt from stem to stern, was filmed by Theo McNab.
Selected for screening at this year's Cornwall Film Festival where it was well-received, his film tells her story in, as it were, six chapters from the beginning of her restoration to her return to St Ives. Interspersed with shots of her sailing before and after her restoration in Mount's Bay and in St Ives Bay, plus archival images, while it shows all the attractions of Barnabas, above all, it pays a tremendous tribute to the skills, care, craftsmanship and precision, of Bob Cann and the members of his team who did the actual restoration work.
From the discovery of "nail sickness", something engendered by the meeting of wood and metal, to the laying of her new keel, from her graceful lines displayed when she was hoisted by crane into Penzance wet dock, watched, among others, by a curious seal, to her sea trials and her eventual return to her home port of St Ives on September 8, 2006, when "she entered St Ives harbour for the first time since her 100th birthday", Theo McNab's film is a "must" for all with a love of the sea, but especially for those with a love for luggers.
Excellent value, a 2 disc set, the running time of disc 1 is 54 minutes, while that of disc 2, which records the restoration in even greater detail, is 100 minutes, supported by the Heritage Lottery Fund, Theo McNab's fine film Barnabas; A St Ives Mackerel Driver is available from CMT Film, 6 St Clements Terrace, Mousehole, TR19 6SJ. Price £16. including post & packaging. Cheques should be made payable to The Cornish Maritime Trust, all proceeds from the sales are going to the Trust. The DVD is also on sale at Penlee House Gallery & Museum, Penzance, and at the Sandpiper Gallery, Mousehole.
article copyright THE CORNISHMAN