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Little Muddle


KNP
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Quite :) Note Kelvin's Balls (any excuse!), on the arms which allow their proximity to, and therefore effect on, the compass needle to be adjusted. Red and green paint is not a practice I'm a fan of, but it is common*. Note also the lamp box back left (/fwd port), above the compass disc so the light provides illumination, and the glass, without which the whole thing would be a little pointless :) Perfectly typical, and although there are always exceptions are we not told it is rather more convincing to model the rule than the exceptions...?

 

But, as above, really very minor points on a minor bit of detailing on an enclosed and so rarely seen corner of a boat on a model railway. I'd call it a job bloody well done, and spend time trying to find convincing crew ;)

 

*EDIT: and perhaps more effective on a model, particularly in close-up photos?

Edited by Schooner
Thought on balls. You heard...
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A really great boating scene. Lovely to see it develop.

 

I have done a bit of motor yacht cruising in the Brizzle Channel and I have huge respect for the men who traded there in the days of sail and steam. It's always summer in Little Muddle but imagine her skipper bringing Snowflake across from Swansea on a dark night in November, low in the water with a load of coal, on the first leg with the tide coming in, a nor-easterly blowing, wind-over-tide kicking up a swell almost enough to broach her, no weather forecast, no autopilot, no radio, no radar, no GPS.....  Imagine being the stoker, below decks with the ship pitching and rolling and cork-screwing, not much light (were paraffin Tilley lamps used on ships?), trying not to fall against hot pipework and valves.... And all the crew on meagre pay from an employer who might go bust at any time, no health service, probably no pension (and not much life expectancy after retirement).

 

Nobody has mentioned the other prototype for a puffer in the channel, Black Dwarf: '...an ex-Clyde puffer, which was bought by William Jones of Lydney in the 1890s and traded out of Lydney docks for the next fifty years.' (Lightmoor Press website).

 

I took some photos of an old Puffer in Plymouth in 2016 - might just possibly be of some interest. A good colourised view of a Thames tramp steamer here. Not greatly different to a Clyde Puffer except that a lot of the tramps didn't have the "luxury" of an enclosed wheelhouse. At least Snowflake has some shelter at the wheel.

 

 

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What an enticing and romantic picture you paint of life at sea in the 30’s.

I have never sailed the Bristol Channel but was aware it was not for the feint heart and tide awareness was critical.

We did once plan to sail up to Gloucester Docks from Chichester where the yacht was based but we got as far as Dartmouth then the weather turned with an Atlantic gale rolling in so we immediately left and raced back to Weymouth in of heaviest but most exciting seas I have sailed in. We where reaching at the time but where having to ‘spill the wind’ as the the yacht was charging along and starting to overtake the waves which is not safe thing to do. That was a balancing act that went  on for hours, seas where so big that we could only see where we going when on the top of a wave. Never had DR been used so much, to be safe Dad decided to go further out to sea to clear the shallows then we then tacked crashed our way through heavy seas breaking over the bow and drenching is in the cockpit.

We cleared Portland Bill and the wind and waves just died and we had lovely calm sail into harbour.

The sun was out and people sunning themselves and we arrived in full wet weather gear, safety harnesses, extra safety lines rigged fore and aft. Moored alongside another yacht where they looked at us with surprise as they sitting having drinks in shorts and tea shirts - within hours it was a different picture as the gale and heavy rain hit Weymouth.

Fun - you bet..

Frighting - at times as you must never take your eye of the sea and always give it total respect.

Do it again - did many times but that was the first in the 35’ yacht that Dad and I built.

 

Ahhhh.....memories.

 

 

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Glad you didn't get churned up in the Portland Race! We left our boat in Portland for weeks once, waiting for a weather window to go west across Lyme Bay in comfort.

 

In the Little Muddle harbour there's a clear high water mark and the water is only a foot or so below, so we're either at or very close to high water on a spring tide. If it hasn't got a gate it will be a drying harbour but it just doesn't look the sort of place to have 35ft of wall. So my guess is that Little Muddle is some way up a river or creek and Snowflake will gently fall about 10ft or 15ft to sit (probably) on mud. I know she's only a puffer, but her skipper will want to fend her off those boltheads on the quayside baulks so they don't catch on her rubbing strakes. What did they use for fenders in the late thirties? When did old tyres start being used? Did they use fenders at all? I have a colour photo of a tramp steamer at Wells-next-the-Sea in 1939 lying against a (smooth) stone wall with not a fender in sight. Most of my photos of harbours are earlier so I really don't know what was being done in your time period.

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Good question about fenders.

It was going to be one my internet research subjects, I do have pictures of car tyres being used but no date.

Woven rope was used but this will be tired run on shoe string operation so the chances of having any serviceable ones would be remote.

The answer is out there just have to find it.....

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Rope for fenders doesn’t have to be serviceable, and was one of many uses for worn and broken old rope.  So long as it could be knotted in sufficient thickness it would do the job, and there were far fewer used tyres around in those days.  More to the point, they were rubber and would perish. 

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It does seem like that but In reality I’ve had a bad cough and cold so working on Snowflake has taken a back seat for a few days.

Trying to do the rigging whilst coughing and sneezing was a recipe for disaster.

Work has recommenced this evening so I should have some pictures for you tomorrow 

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