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KEY DATES FROM AMY HOWSON’S WORKING LIFE
1914 Built at Beverley by Joseph Scarr & Sons for George Robert Scaife of Beverley, rigged as a keel and named Sophia after his wife.
Sophia was used for general cargoes including grain to Sheffield and other
canal wharves, carrying coal back to Hull and Beverley. She was built
to what is known as Sheffield size, 61ft.6ins long, 15ft.6in. beam to
allow her to get as far as Sheffield canal basin and she was built with
extra depth in the hold to allow her to carry the maximum cargo to
the basin while still having briggage under Bacon Lane bridge ( the
lowest bridge above the Tinsley flight of locks.
1915. Sold to Ernest Wright who had the keel rig taken out. Sophia was re-
rigged as a sloop at Clapsons shipyard at Barton, using a reduced rig
from the sloop Success. She was then used for shoring work in the
lower Humber (carrying stone for river bank repairs) in company with
Gleaner (later renamed Madge Jarvill).
1920. Sold to Goldthorpe, Scott and Wright of Grimsby, where she was first
put on the Part 1 Register of British Ships so that she could be
mortgaged as security for a bank loan. She was given the Official
Number 140805, and with her name changed to I Know she carried
market goods and parcels between Pickwells Wharf, Grimsby, and
Hull. The Society have photographs showing her at this time without a
rig and being towed.
The parcels business not paying well, Barclays Bank, the mortgage
lenders, repossessed I Know and sold her.
1922. Sold to William Henry Barraclough. sloop and lighter owner of
Morpeth Street, Hull, who re-registered her at Hull and changed her
name to Amy Howson. Madge Jarvill and Amy Howson were the
new owner’s married daughters. She was now rigged as a sloop once
again.
1923. Amy Howson is now registered with the Port Health Authority as
required by the Port Health Act, and the register shows that she was
permitted to accommodate a maximum of two adults and three children
in the aft cabin, and two adults in the fore cabin.
Her cargoes now included phosphate for the chemical works at Barton
and Howden Dyke, and she was also a regular visitor to the Yarborough
Oil Mills at Brigg, delivering cargoes of maize or oil seed. The Society
have photographs of Amy Howson at this mill.
1935. On one of her trips to Brigg Amy Howson runs into the cast iron
swing bridge over the lock at South Ferriby, damaging it so badly that
it had to be replaced.
1939. Ownership now transferred to W.H.Barraclough (Hull) Ltd., and the aft
cabin is taken out to allow a 3-cylinder 30hp Ailsa Craig diesel engine
to be installed. The forward bulkhead was moved aft to give more room
in the forward cabin.
1953. The Ailsa Craig engine was taken out and a 30hp Lister diesel installed.
This meant moving the aft bulkhead one frame space into the hold to
enlarge the engine room.
1973. Patterns of trade are now changing in Hull with the big increase in use
of road transport, but with the biggest factor against her continued use
being company take-overs and amalgamations, Amy Howson is laid
up near Hennebiques wharf in the Old Harbour to await a decision on
her future.
1975. This is where our story starts………….
Amy Howson in 1975
HOW HKSPS GAINED A SLOOP
The keel Comrade was purchased by the Society in 1974, two years after the Society’s formation, and only four years after Cedric Lodge issued a ‘Prospectus for Preservation’ as the first serious attempt to save the Humber’s rapidly vanishing trading ships. One or two failed amateur attempts at keel preservation (notably with Annie Maud and Mayday ) had not impressed many of the old skippers, the vessel owners or local businesses.
By 1973 membership of the Society had grown steadily with 41 of the Society’s 100 members living on the South Bank.
It was decided to call a public meeting at the Angel Hotel Brigg, on 1 March 1975 to see what interest there was in looking for a sloop. So many enthusiasts turned up that a Sloop Committee was formed the same month. We were very lucky to have at that first meeting John Frank of South Ferriby, who from then on gave invaluable advice on details of rig, and criticism when the committee made a hash of things. John was a former brickyard owner and skipper of the sloop Nero.
Amongst the Society’s first members on the South Bank were Roy Rushby, skipper of Lady Ina, Pete Winship, skipper of Adlingfleet, Les Reid , skipper/owner of the wood ex-keel Vigilant, Eric Burton, one time mate of Amy Howson and then, at the age of 18, skipper of Madge Jarvill – the youngest skipper on the river, and Rodney Clapson, owner of Barton Shipyard.
Pete, Les and Eric, with Roy Smith a joiner and welder, Catherine Wilson from the Museum of Lincolnshire Life, Roy Archer from the Scunthorpe Telegraph, and Rodney formed the first Sloop Committee, with Les as secretary and Rodney as chairman, and the committee were given the task of finding a suitable ship to be rigged as a sloop.
They knew that many sloops had been larger than Sheffield size, but decided that it would be advantageous if the Society’s two ships were the same size so that they could visit the same places. Lists of ships were drawn up for consideration.
The committee know that it was pointless looking at wood ships. Most of the iron ships had gone, so steel was the only possibility. James Barraclough Ltd offered Sprite. She had been the last sloop under sail, unrigged in July 1950. Amy Howson was suggested, but this went no further at the time. Other ships considered were Adamant, Annie H, Annie Elizabeth, and Fleetgate. The committee members travelled as far afield as Sutton Bridge and Wells in Norfolk to inspect Holt’s Emily
By this time ships were vanishing to the scrap yard at Stanley Ferry at an ever increasing rate, or suffering the even worse fate of being converted into houseboats. After the 1975 AGM at Beverley the committee decided to look again at Amy Howson. This meant climbing over high wire fences to get onto Hennebique’s wharf where they saw, in the last of the daylight, that her hatches had been broken by missiles being dropped from the surrounding warehouses, and that the steelwork on deck was very rusty. However, after going below into the hold and lifting the limber boards they could see that the frames and rivets in the bottom looked sound. A visit to Harold Barraclough, William Henry Barraclough’s grandson, was arranged and permission was given to start the engine and move her over to Barton for dry-docking and survey.
After a survey – including an ultrasonic inspection of the hull plating which was carried out free of charge by a local company – it was decided to offer £300 for the vessel, being about her value as scrap. Within a few days Amy Howson belonged to the Society.
The immediate urgent task was to clean the hold out by high pressure water jetting to remove any rust and chemicals, paint the hold and repair the hatches, and prepare the hold for keeping the Society’s exhibits safe and where they could be seen by the public while the important work of rigging Comrade went on undisturbed.
Luckily Amy Howson’s chemical cargoes had consisted of phosphate rather than the highly corrosive super-phosphate. This meant that hold cleaning was much easier than it might have been.
Now that the Society was seen to be working in earnest on a sloop offers of help came from all directions. Croda Paints gave 150 litres of paint, Nu-Swift gave fire extinguishers for both vessels, Dave Cook at New Holland shipyard gave valuable pieces of gear, Ken Osgerby provided road transport, and then, out of the blue came an offer of willing and unpaid labour from the South Lincoln Ranger Guide unit who adopted Amy Howson as their Jubilee Year project. They cleaned out the bilge’s – always a dirty job, but this time made worse by the debris from water jetting and rotten maize from old cargoes – and then painted the hold so that display panels could be fitted on each side.
At the same time as this work was going on, the sloop committee were fund raising by giving talks and setting up exhibitions in the libraries at Barton and Grimsby.
Amy Howson was now moored at South Ferriby where a power supply, boatyard equipment and a crane were close at hand, and where she could be seen by local and visiting yacht owners. New members were now joining the Society and helping with the work. Cyril Harrison joined the sloop committee in August 1976, his contacts at the steelworks providing the vessel with steel plate when needed.
The committee decided at an early stage that the eventual rig should be as authentic as possible, and in addition, that the interior of the ship should be restored as closely as possible to its original condition rather than make concessions to modern comforts. It was decided to move the engine out of the aft cabin and into the aft end of the hold. A Gardner 5LW diesel engine with marine gearbox was offered to the committee as a gift from the Thorne Sea Cadets, and this was installed on new engine beds welded in place by Roy Smith. The cabin bulkhead was moved back to its original position and preparations were made to install cabin woodwork which had been given to the Society by Victor Waddington of Swinton shipyard.
At this time it was possible to get government assistance under their Manpower Services Scheme to pay for labour for a limited period and the committee were successful in getting a 12 month scheme approved. Pete Winship and Chris Horsfall, former skipper and mate of Adlingfleet were by now without a ship as the relentless policy of moving all cargoes off the river onto road transport gathered pace.
With their help the cabin space was cleaned out and painted, the fuel tank moved into the hold, and the hatches repaired. A well deck was fitted in the aft end of the hold to provide seating space for passengers, and this formed the top of the new engine room. The forward cabin was stripped out and the space was fitted out as a very necessary bosun’s store. The Manpower Services Scheme contributed a total of £4184 to labour costs for this work. Unfortunately the scheme ended before the cabin was completed, but this work was finished by David Clapson, a shipwright at South Ferriby Marina.
Meanwhile, Yorkshire Dry Dock Ltd. had sold their wood bulk creosote lighter Yorkist1 and one of the subsequent owners purchased a large pine pole to make a mast with the idea of rigging her as a keel. The idea never came to fruition and Yorkist ay abandoned on the River Hull with the pole lying on deck. When she broke adrift at Wawne Ferry blocking the river the Docks Board offered her to the Society on condition that she was removed from the river. Jumping at the chance to get the pole for a mast, Amy Howson was taken to Wawne in October 1978 and Yorkist was towed to Barton where she was moored. The pole was dropped into the water and towed to South Ferriby. Cyril squared the pole up and took off the chamfers and it was then moved into the Marina workshop where David Clapson finished the mast to measurements which the yard had used since before Sophia, as she then was, was first rigged as a sloop in 1916. Yorkist was sold, at a profit, for breaking up in 1982.
Standing rigging was ordered from Halls Barton Ropery, and with the mast now stepped the committee decided to take Amy Howson to as many different fund-raising events as possible and hopefully as far afield as she could originally have traded. Rodney Clapson was appointed sailing master (‘skipper’ in boatmen’s language), and her travels started.
She visited Lincoln Water Festival using the recently vacated Hovis mill berth, Torksey where a disco was arranged, Newark where Les Reid (single handed) organised two open days, Nottingham, Sheffield, Wakefield, Leeds, York, Beverley and Hull. These events proved to be very good fund raisers. Cyril’s wife Floss was by now kept busy as Sales Officer and disco organiser, and Dave Robinson joined the sloop committee, giving invaluable help with turning up a new propeller shaft, and becoming an enthusiastic crew member.
These visits were very important to the Society, not only from the cash point of view, but because many old sloop and keel sailors were very pleased to see our restoration work, giving us photographs for our archives, and telling us their life stories. The visits also gave us the opportunity to see many of the old canal-side industrial sites and wharves before planners and developers turned their backs on the water and built supermarkets everywhere.
The visit to Sheffield was our first long canal journey, and we were the first vessel to travel to Sheffield canal basin for many years. We had to wait at Plumpers while the top pound was filled with water for us. The present sales counter in the hold used to be a tally clerk’s desk in the old canal warehouse at Sheffield. It taxed the ingenuity and strength of the whole sloop committee to get it down from the top floor in one piece.
The Mikron Theatre Company used Amy Howson’s hatches as a stage during this visit. Their narrow boat was too long for the Tinsley locks, so Les Reid brought the company up to Sheffield basin on board Charles William.
At Wakefield we had to dismantle contractors scaffolding to get under the last bridge before the basin, and again to get out, but on this visit we were able to see the ex-Billy Boy Sara in a derelict state, the last surviving example of these seagoing ketches.
Amy Howson had the privilege of being the last vessel to use the old Stanley Ferry viaduct on the way back down, before it was closed for rebuilding.
On our run to York we paused at Selby to look at Brilliant Star the last of the seagoing sloops, laid up just below Selby Bridge.
The last port of call every season was Brandy Wharf at the top end of the River Ancholme where several successful open days were held – including passenger trips to Caistor canal and attempts to use the almost derelict lock at Harlem Hill. It was here that Amy Howson gained her Waterway Pioneer Award for the epic voyage that her cog boat made to the head of navigation at Bishopbridge. We had been given an authentic 12ft. cog boat which had been repaired and restored to its original condition, and true to custom, this went everywhere with us.
After the Brandy Wharf event Amy Howson was always beached on the Chequers near Ferriby Cliff where she was cleaned, chipped and painted before winter. One of the most essential things about steel ship maintenance is to prevent rust forming.
At the same time as these publicity /fund raising trips were taking place, the ship was open regularly to the public whilst moored at Ferriby, and we had many school visits. We printed illustrated booklets for children and their teachers used drawings produced by Colin Screeton, and later by Phil Twining. We were always pleasantly surprised by the intelligent and searching questions that we were asked by the children.
Wood for lee boards was obtained from New Holland shipyard and Rodney, Cyril and Dave made these up to measurements taken from a surviving lee board from Barton shipyard. The wood was sawn by Eric using his portable rack bench saw, and the convex iron for the boards was rescued from Vigilant after she was finally laid up at Farndon, and donated by Les.
The most expensive item of restoration was the sails. These were made by Jeckells of Wroxham, Norfolk to original measurements, and the foresail was set for the first time in Swinefleet Rack on the way back down from York on 23 August 1980. At this time we had not finished the boom or gaff.
The enthusiasts carried on with the restoration work. Steel billet off cuts were provided from the steelworks for ballast to trim the vessel correctly. A wood barrel was obtained from a brewery to represent the water cask which was always carried on the starboard side of the aft deck of keels and sloops to store drinking water - only for exhibition purposes now.
We now went on the slip at New Holland shipyard where some doubling plates were welded onto the bilge, and then Cyril and Rodney water jetted the bottom, and coated it, and themselves, with epoxy tar which had been donated by Croda. The winter of 1980 was spent making the gaff and boom and organising the remaining rigging.
In May 1981 Amy Howson took part in a film being made for a BBC programme, ‘The Past Afloat’ by Anthony Burton, and finally, on Sunday 14 June 1981 she was taken on her first sail, just six years and three months after the first sloop meeting at the Angel Hotel and thirty one years after Sprite, the last trading sloop, was unrigged.
In our enthusiasm we managed to get stuck on Reads Island, earning a caustic comment from John Frank, though, like all his criticisms, delivered with a smile.
Polyester sails are much more efficient than the old flax sails used to be, and we found that the drive given by a full sized mainsail was giving her a lot of weather helm. This was cured by taking one cloth off the mainsail leach, and she was then found to handle much better, being well balanced, easier to tack, and allowing us to keep the mast vertical in the traditional way rather than raked forward.
In July 1981 Richard Baker from the BBC opened a new exhibition on board at Ferriby, and in August 1981 we attended the IWA rally at Leeds with an exhibition depicting marine restoration projects around the country.
A run to Bridlington was also made, with £1471 raised, and about 7000 visitors on board, Cyril, Dave, and their families spending their holiday tempting the seaside crowds on board. The bluff shape of Amy Howson’s hull, together with the effect of her short run aft is not suited for sea sailing, the waves knocking all way off her and making it a very uncomfortable twenty one hour trip. A small modern yacht can do the same trip from Ferriby in about twelve hours.
Later that month, 11 July, Amy Howson was the first ship to sail under the Humber Bridge after the official opening by the Queen. This was a memorable occasion with John Frank on board, and Fred Schofield alongside with Comrade.
In September 1981 Amy Howson was in York to take part in the film ‘Boat of Fools’, a modern interpretation of the painting by Hieronymus Bosch of 1494. With Rodney at the tiller she had to sail under full sail between Skeldergate Bridge and Ouse Bridge under the incredulous eyes of the skipper and crew of Recklaw who were discharging sand on Queens Staithe. When we went round to talk to the skipper during our lunch break, dressed in our medieval knitted costumes with torn knees he laughed and said “The job doesn’t look to be paying too well, does it” Well, in fact filming jobs do not pay too well, but not many people get the chance to do that sort of sailing in places like the centre of York, and with the increase in the number of passenger launches now, it probably could not happen again. Amy Howson left York soon afterwards with seven feet of fresh pushing us downstream, and everyone feeling that they had learned a lot about handling the vessel in confined spaces.
Another milestone was reached in March 1983 when Rodney and David Clapson penned Amy Howson out through South Ferriby lock to celebrate the official opening of the new lifting bridge, forty eight years after she had demolished the first bridge by colliding with it.
The intention at the outset of the restoration project was to restore Amy Howson to a condition as authentic and as close to the original as possible, with only minimal concessions to the late 20th century, and at the same time to draw on the expertise and knowledge of the remaining keel and sloop men who could still be found in the canal and riverside towns that we visited.
On many occasions during the work the Society was very short of funds, even diesel fuel was a drain on our resources, and had to be supplied by Eric Burton once when there was no money in the kitty to buy any. Generous help was received from local businesses and boat owners, and without this Amy Howson would not have been sailing so soon.
The sloop committee members showed unflagging enthusiasm and gave their time willingly despite other commitments at home and at work. They proved to be eager listeners when John Frank and Fred Schofield were passing on their knowledge. The restoration work was sometimes difficult, and conditions on some of the canal trips were primitive to say the least, but we all had a lot of fun, and managed to chalk up a lot of ‘first times’.
Of course Amy Howson’s story did not finish when she was rigged out with sails again. This story only tells of the work that was carried out by the Society’s members in the early years. She has continued to sail on the Humber, with groups of up to 12 passengers on every sail, and to attend rallies and festivals up and down the river and canals. Our biggest task now is to build on that early success and enthusiasm. We have to attract new members to the Society and continue to raise money to maintain both Amy Howson and Comrade and to build up reserve funds to cope with emergency work
We must devise a training programme, so that the sailing skills will not be lost but passed on to future crews, and an educational programme to promote knowledge of the Humber vessels and their history and to expand our valuable archive section. Maintenance will have to continue to make sure that both vessels remain in seaworthy condition.
There will always be rust to chip, steelwork to paint and gear to be repaired, as though John Frank was still walking along the towpath top check on progress and urge us on to greater efforts. If we can successfully pass on our sailing knowledge to members of a thriving and financially sound Society, there will always be sails on the Humber, river and canal trips, all the excitement of travelling by water on the last fully rigged Humber keel and sloop, and the same sense of achievement which Comrade and Amy Howson’s first crews felt.
© 2003Rodney Clapson
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