Tide floods between mud banks and wind-blown purple reed flowers as the audience carry chairs into Shamrock’s shed. Earlier, high water washed debris across the quay and into the gig club’s yard, and the possibility of more rain precludes the outdoor venue of tonight’s concert by the Polperro Fishermen’s Choir.
Inside the lofty slate-roofed building, beneath block and tackle sorted as stay, main and mizzen, we are entertained with songs and shanties; money raised will go towards repairs and maintenance of Shamrock, a renovated Tamar sailing barge.
Shamrock has been based at Cotehele since 1974, when it was towed upriver and away from abandonment in Hooe Lake. Restoration (by the National Trust and the National Maritime Museum) was completed in 1979 with the hoisting of new sails made in Falmouth.
Lately, a slipway track and cradle have been installed to winch the barge out of the dock and on to dry land so that rotten hull planking can be renewed and a new engine fitted to allow easier movement without complete reliance on wind and tide.
Before motorised transport this waterway was thronged with boats carrying grain, timber, ores, limestone and fish refuse for manures. Servicing involved pulling barges up on to hards to be careened, or guiding them to float towards and settle across huge tree trunks resting on sandbanks exposed at low tide. Some of the later “river lorries” included Mayblossom, Martin, Sirdar, Commerce, and Secret.
Myrtle, the last barge to ply the Tamar and dock at Cotehele, was destroyed during the blitz of Plymouth. The vessel had been built at Calstock in 1896 for Captain Bill Martin of Boetheric; later, my grandfather, of Cotehele Mill, bought it. An engine was installed and the barge continued to haul imported grains, unloaded at the quay for carting to the water-mill for grinding and mixing.
This evening, after a melodious celebration of Cornwall’s fishers, farmers and miners, of the county’s moors, meadows and seashore, we emerge into the quiet darkness. Flags decorating Shamrock are still, tree tops above the lime kilns are silhouetted against fading brightness in the west, and an owl hoots in the woods.
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