Draft:Humber Sloop

Comment: almost certainly notable. minor fixes needed DGG ( talk ) 00:15, 25 November 2013 (UTC)

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The Humber sloop was a cargo carrying vessel on the River Humber commonly refered to as a sailing barge used for the transport of goods along the east coast as well as the river.

Basic structure

They were a strong and seaworthy vessel built of oak frames with planking 2" thick with a round stern and bluff bow, and a single mast that carried a topmast or could be of a single length (pole mast). The cargo area was devided into two, one large hold aft of the mast and a smaller hold forward of it. The area between the holds was called the sparring deck which supported the strong wooden lutchet in which the mast was stepped, at each side of the mast was a triple roller arangement for the purpose of contolling the sails. The loose footed gaff main sail and the triangular foresail were treated with an organic preservative that made them ochre in colour while the jib on the standing bowsprit was left untreated, as was the topsail. They could also have a second jib or jib topsail hanked to the foretopmast stay or set flying, again left untreated. The heavy built leeboards were pitch pine with an oak top plank and were hinged with a large chain at the forward end, they were controlled by means of a small vertical roller set into the port and starboard after rails that used pully blocks reeved with wire rope to a tail chain that ran though a pully fastened to the side deck toe rail and led down to the after end of the leeboard. The sloops, with their gaff rig were able to carry sail in all but the roughest of conditions, they were also relatively easy to handle around the shallows in the Humber estuary.

History

The sloops of the early 18th century were clinker built and later a mixture of the two but ultimatly by the end of the 19th cenury were fully of carvel construction generally of between 57ft and 68ft Loa Humber sloops traded within and between the Humber and other east coast regions, the larger being able to carry about 170 tons. They were significant in the evolution of national and international trade on the Humber from the early 18th century as a valuable tool to the merchants who traded goods to home and foreign ports. They were therefore the region’s forerunner of the modern day coaster, providing a means of transporting large and mixed cargoes between ports on the Humber and along the east coast where shallow drafted flat bottomed vessels were essential to navigate small creeks, havens and inlets.

Sloops up to 68ft were common and the eventual use of iron to build them by the 1880’s brought cheaper ships, steel vessels were soon to follow. Those not in the regular coasting trade had less rigging to cope with, just a well-peaked main sail and a foresail with perhaps a yarded topsail depending on the captain, they had a single full-length hold. Double rollers for hoisting the sails were set against the coamings (the sides of the hold), because they were mounted sideways on they were known as “crab” rollers. A removable mast-way provided in the hatches allowed the mast to be lowered aft between a set of short hatches. The mast stepped in its lutchet some 3ft below the hatches was lowered by means of the permanently rigged forestay blocks controlled by a fore roller attached to the headledge. The sail would first be unlaced from the mast hoops, and then the gaff and boom removed together with the sail and stowed on the hatches. There were many small sloops built to carry cargoes from the Humber ports into the inland system, Over time this brought variations of the Humber sloop, named depending on where to and which river or canal they traded on. There were ten differing sizes of sloop (and keel) used for trading inland from the Humber named accordingly, none being greater than 15ft 8” beam or used in the regular coastal trade. The most common variation of Humber sloop was designed to trade to the city of Sheffield, their dimentions were 61ft 6" in length by 15ft 8" beam with a depth of hold no more than 8ft.

Unlike the inland types of sloop, the Humber sloop was built with sailing capability in mind rather than the means to carry as much cargo as possible. They are clean forward with a rounder bow, going aft the run starts half way along the hull and ends high on the quarters cutting down drag and the resulting long skeg gives more grip in the water. All very subtle differences to the untrained eye but these differences gave good sailing qualities. The inland working sloops had boxy hulls with a very bluff bow that brought the ship almost to a stop in the heavy swell of the Humber. Their wooden hulls were extremly stongly built and the later steel hulls had rails on the outside of the bow for strength and protection in the locks known as “whiskers”, going aft, the run is more abrupt, a shorter run made more space for cargo but compromised sailing qualities. Because of their restricted beam the hulls on a inland size sloop could be as much as 8ft deep to compensate enabling some Sheffield sloops to carry up to 117 tons, this being governed by the depth of water in the canals they worked. Their leeboards were also made very broad, some with cutwaters to increase the area in the water and help balance the ship.

Some of the sloops became known as “Billy boy sloops”, one reason for this is thought to be a reference to King William III (King Billy) who, in 1734, had a statue unveiled to honour him in Hull and to show the peoples support for his policy of free trade and tolerance. Because of Hull’s vast trade interest with the Dutch and local traders avid support of the new king, “Billy boy” was the nickname given to a man who came from Hull. The term “Billy boy sloop” was probably first coined by the Lincolnshire sloop men as the majority of sloops were owned and operated from the Lincolnshire side of the river cheifly at Barton and would be the term used to describe a sloop owned or captained by someone from, as it would be said, “tuther side a river”. The "Billy boy" although being a designe of vessel in its own right was ketch rigged and described as a ketch on their registration documents. Some were about 80 foot in length, they traded far afield onto the near continent and as far north as Greenland.

Although iron ships were being built in Hull from 1831 by James Livingston, the adoption of iron or steel to build barges was much slower. Richard Dunston’s yard at Thorne didn’t build steel barges until 1917; some yards like Brown and Clapsons of Barton only ever built wooden barges, the last being the sloop “Peggy B” in 1935. The use of steel in the construction of barges in the Humber region didn’t commence until around 1880 when the coasting trade for the sloops was fading and merchants demanded cheaper ships. Steel vessels were similar to the wooden sloops but with one continuous hold, this gave the vessel the ability to carry more cargo and to lower its mast more readily. With topping-up or steeving bowsprits they had a degree of flexibility in the cargos that were undertaken and could navigate at least some of the inland rivers, something that was required in the battle with the progress of the rail network, although not many of the steel sloops worked coastal.

The sea going Humber sloop with their contrasting white and tan sails were disappearing by about 1910. By then the sea going trade for the sloops had gone to the faster and more able ketch rigged Billy boys, steamers and schooners. With rail connections spreading fast and the rail companies now controlling the canals there was no requirement to use the creeks and havens of the east coast to deliver or collect produce and materials. Many of the Humber's sailing barges built after this time to work in the Humber were of Sheffield size and motor barges were starting to appear in greater numbers. Gone was the sight of the powerfully rigged Humber sloops with their huge sail area beating to windward in Hull Roads through the short Humber swell. The threat of being sunk by mine or U-Boat at the start of WW1 brought an end to the Billy boys also, never to return after the war, again being converted to motor barges, lighters or dumb barges. By 1939 the majority of sloops on the Humber had also been de-rigged and fitted with an engine under MOD grants, most were fitted with a wheelhouse at the same time or soon after. So came the demise of trade under sail on the Humber that concluded with the de-rigging of the last sloop sailing, J.Barracloughs “Sprite” in 1950 her captain was J Chant of Barton on Humber. She had been built at WH Warrens yard in 1910, origanally for Scotts of Selby at 68ft x 17ft 6" x 7ft 6".

References

Barges (John Leather). Barton and the River Humber 1086 – 1900 (Rodney Clapson). Bricks and Sail (John Frank IX). Hull Maritime Museum. Humber Keel and Keelmen (Fred Schofield). Original research by auther. Military History Encyclopaedia on the Web. Mercantile List. Rodney Clapson. Original research on existing vessels. The Humber Keel and Sloop Preservation Society. The Ramblings of a Boatman (A. L. Hill). The River and John Frank (John Frank IX). Yorkshire Stone to London (Christine Richardson).

External links

http://www.keelsandsloops.org.uk http://www.hullcc.gov.uk http://www.sloopphyllis.com http://www.portcities.org.uk http://www.historyofwar.org http://www.clapsons.co.uk

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