I’m honoured today to welcome back the novelist Richard Abbott as a guest
blogger. You can out more about him at the end of this article. When he last appeared
here (on 1st March 2016) he brought us back to the period of the
earliest civilisations but on this occasion he tells us about some beautiful
traditional boats – many specimens of which are almost two centuries old – which
are still in active use, and participating in in well-contested competitions,
in the South West of England.
Over to Richard!
The Gig – an elegant and durable
link to a past age
Antoine has kindly given me space today to talk about gigs and their use in
south-west England, specifically the Scilly Isles and Cornwall. So far as I am
aware these have never been used in war, but their history is no less exciting
or varied for that.
 |
Gig Lyonnesse on
St Agnes
|
First, what is a gig in this context? Picture something that looks roughly
like a clinker-built rowing eight. Keel to gunwale depth is around two feet,
and once crewed, the waterline is almost exactly at the mid-point. At 32' long,
just under 5' beam, but with elm planks only 1/4" thick, the boat is
light enough that the crew can pick her up and carry her into the water.
Many years of experience mean that a gig has been built robustly enough to take
on the Atlantic swell, despite the apparent flimsiness.
Like an eight, each oarsman has a single oar, and they sit to row
alternately port and starboard facing the cox'n. But curiously, they have only
six rowers, reflecting part of their history. A mast and lugsail could be
fitted if desired, though in commercial practice this was rarely done. They are
fast, tough little boats, and at one stage played a crucial role in the
economic livelihood of the islands. Today they have retired from commercial
use, but have found a new lease of life in competitive sport. The annual world
gig racing championship is held on Scilly every April/May. In 2016 it attracted
more than 150 boats from many different countries.
 |
Some of the
3000+ rowers in the 2016 races (ITV West Country)
|
We can trace the history of the gig back to 1666 at least, when
vessels from St Mary's were involved in rescuing the crew of the Royal
Oak, wrecked out at what is now the Bishop Rock lighthouse. We have no
reason to suppose there were not earlier vessels of essentially the same
pattern. All modern gigs are based on the lines of an early 19th century design
by William Peters. They had two principal uses, the main one being to get local
pilots out to incoming ships as quickly as possible. Whoever got there first
got the contract, hence the need for speed. Scilly was one of the major
landmarks for vessels inbound from the western trade routes, but the seas are
treacherous here, with countless rocks and reefs. Even with modern navigation
aids they are hazardous: how much more so in former days? So families or
village groups would aim to spot new arrivals as early as possible, and get out
to them as quickly as possible.
 |
The St Agnes
gig, Shah
|
The other use, more humanitarian than commercial, was as a kind of early
lifeboat system. Gig crews over the years have saved a great many lives by
going out - frequently in horrendous weather - to rescue crews and passengers
suffering shipwreck. Cargo could also be brought back, and an 1887 rescue of
450 cattle from the Castleford involved lashing the animals'
heads and horns to the sides of the gigs Gipsy and O&M,
and towing them to a handy nearby island! Such rescues were fearfully
dangerous acts, and the churches on Bryher, St Agnes and elsewhere remember
many who never returned.
Now, gigs came to the attention of the revenue authorities, who suspected that
they had a third use – for smuggling. Certainly they would have been capable of
it, with their proven seagoing capability. Even the Cornish coast was within a
day from the Scilly Isles for a good crew - the 40-odd mile trip to Penzance
typically takes under 10 hours, and Newquay was within comfortable reach. Gigs
could easily make the 250-mile round trip to France’s Breton coast by staying
out at sea for a day or so, and were robust enough to cope. Bonnet (of
which more later) rode out a thirty-hour storm on one such trip by keeping head
to wind until conditions improved. A good crew can sustain speeds of around 7
knots, but speeds of nearly 10 knots have been recorded over a measured mile
with racing crews rowing at 40 strokes per minute. But therein lay a problem –
an eight-oared gig was faster than the customs cutters of the time. This was
clearly unacceptable, so a law was passed in 1829 limiting the crew to no more
than six oars per boat.
Time passed, and both piloting and rescue ceased to be the responsibility
of the islanders. The last recorded pilotage was in December 1938, when the
Bryher boat Gipsy went out from St Agnes. As for rescue, the
last known one was of the Panamanian steamship Mando in 1955.
For a time, it seemed possible that gigs in the traditional sense would die
out. Some of the older craft were laid up in storage, others suffered the usual
fate of wooden boats which are not constantly cared for.
 |
Bonnet pulling
ahead of Golden Eagle
|
Then competitive racing emerged, giving a new lease of life to the design.
Informal races had been part of gig culture for a long time: now it has become
organised. Inter-island men's, women's and mixed races take place weekly during
the tourist season, quite apart from the challengers coming from further
afield. And here, the robust nature of the vessels is once again proved. Bonnet still
races today - she was built in 1830 and had a long and busy working life. She
is heavier than her modern siblings, but if there's a bit of a sea this might
not be a disadvantage. Back in August, I saw her beat a dozen other boats to
win her race. The Cornish gig Newquay was built back in 1812,
and is claimed to be the oldest ship afloat which is still being used for
broadly the same purpose as when she was made. Appropriately, she is owned by
the Newquay Rowing Club, who also look after Dove (1820)
and Treffry (1838) - all still racing.
So, this brings us to Antoine's own protagonist, the naval officer Nicholas
Dawlish, and the timeline set out for his life. Bonnet had
been working for 15 years when Dawlish was born in December 1845, and for over
fifty years at the time of Britannia's Spartan. There's a fair
chance that Newquay was built before Dawlish’s father was
born. On the assumption that Dawlish passed the Scillies at some stage during
early career - and it would be wildly improbable if he had not had cause to see
them at close quarters - he would have seen gigs in active commercial use. I
wonder, with his eye for design, if he took the time to appreciate their blend
of speed, strength and elegance?
Finally, for those who want to look at videos, this video has the 2016
men's final and lots of links to other clips:https://youtu.be/cCPqIJ50ziY
About Richard Abbott
Richard lives in London, England. He writes historical fiction set in the
ancient Middle East - Egypt, Canaan and Israel - and also science fiction about
our solar system in the fairly near future. Research in progress for the next
historical novel, which will explore the Late Bronze Age tin trade between the
British Isles and the eastern Mediterranean. It is provisionally called A Storm of Wind, and is at an early
stage.
His novel The Flame Before Us
covers, in part, another bronze age group for whom the Mediterranean was
important – The Sea Peoples, who settled in the coastline along from Gaza after
a tumultuous approach disrupting cities from the Hittite realm down to the
borders of Egypt.
No comments:
Post a Comment