All Quiet on Shamrock

Regular followers of this blog may be wondering why there has been no mention of any maintenance activity (painting) on Shamrock over the summer period. This is mainly due to the fact that she has been open for visitors on most week days and as we have found out visitors and wet paint don't mix very well.
The plus side of this is meeting lots of very interesting visitors from all walks of life and some inquisitive children who think it's great that they can walk below deck while the adults have to stoop. Either that or walk into one of the very low beams.
As plans are already being drawn up for winter working we are sure this lack of activity will soon come to an end.

Bonus Trip

Due to the success of the Nancy Belle river trips a bonus trip has been organised for Sunday 15th September. Don't all rush to the phone to book a place though as this and tomorrows, Thursday 12th, trips are already fully booked.

Early Owners and Masters

A list of known Shamrock's owners and masters from before the 1970's restoration.
This information was originally researched and compiled by Alan Viner of the National Maritime Museum.

Date	Owner(s)	Shares	Master
1899 4th September	Tom Williams Lighterman of Torpoint	64	Tom Williams
1907 27th May	Tom Williams Fred Williams Lighterman of Torpoint	32 32	Fred Williams
First Registry of vessel closed July 14th 1919. – Registered anew after structural alterations and the addition of a motor as a sailing vessel with an auxiliary motor.
1919 3rd October	William Betty Merchant Saltash William Betty Merchant St Germans Robert Telford Merchant Saltash	Joint 64 owners	James Garland
1920 20th January	William Betty Robert Telford	Joint 64 owners	James Garland
1926 15th February	Ethel Steed Widow of St Germans	64	Richard Hoskins
1928 4th May	Steed Bros. Notter River Quarries	64	Richard Hoskins
1932 23 June	Charles Dunn Company Secretary Saltash Arthur Russell Accountant of Bodmin Ethel Steed Widow of Plympton	21 22 21	William Trebilcock
1936 1st November	West of England Road Metal Company	64	William Trebilcock
1962 17th July	E. Richardson Horticulturist Falmouth	64
21st July	Costal Prospecting Co London	64	Ernest Stephens
Second registry of vessel closed 6th August 1963. – After the installation of two diesel engines registered anew as a twin screw motor ship.
1966 2 May	Richard Curnow Engineer of Helston	64
1973 28th April	Robert Fildew Driver of Plymouth	64
1974 11th February	The National Trust Westminster London	64

For the purposes of registration, a ship is divided into 64 shares; most maritime nations (the United States being an exception) follow this custom.

Why 64 Shares?
As normal there appears to be more than one explanation.
The three that follow seem to be the most popular.

1. The fact that ships traditionally had 64 ribs

2. Under Queen Victoria ship owners were taxed 36% and left with the remaining 64%.

3. Or maybe it's part of the easy maths way to divide up a unit
1
1/2
1/4
1/8
1/16
1/32
1/64
Originating in the earliest trading days when the owner wanted to split the risks of voyaging between his financial friends. No decimal or % business in them there days!
All the "sixty-fourth" shares were sold off and could be split again by the new purchasers, but so long as all the fractions added up to 1, the risks were properly shared out.

On a lighter note

This week has seen the arrival in the boat shed of one of Rob Roy sailing canoe's direct descendants.

Mutiny on the Shamrock!

Shamrock's weekend trip, to Plymouth's Royal William Yard, has been cancelled due to a variety of reasons, low tides, lack of tows and finally the lack of crew!! Most of the existing crew are either on holiday or entertaining guests and a press gang is no longer an option.

On a more positive note Nancy Belle has now completed three successful river trips to Morwellham and due to demand more trips are being planned.

Last trip

Shamrock is scheduled to have it's last trip of the year (unless Shaune knows different) to the Royal William Yard (RWY) Plymouth on Friday 30th August with the return trip on Monday 2nd September. She is due to depart Cotehele Quay at around 11am with signs of life, loading, coming from the boat shed from about 9am. The leisurely return trip should be leaving RWY at about 1pm on the Monday.

New Donations Box

A couple of weeks ago a half barrel type water pitcher arrived in the boat shed, in pieces. After a bit of soaking and a few aborted attempts it was finally assembled only to pose the question what do we use it for? Answer, lets make a rustic donation box which is going down very well with visitors to Shamrock.

River Tamar Trips

The National Trust property Cotehele is now offering a limited number of river trips, in the Nancy Belle, with the first one successfully completed on Tuesday 13th August.

Trip details:

Starting from Cotehele Quay the Nancy Belle will head up river past riverside woodlands, under the railway viaduct, past Calstock and deeper into the valley and on towards Morwellham Quay. Throughout the trip there will be commentary on the valley's fauna, flora and history. The trip will last approximately 2 hours and on returning to Cotehele Quay everyone will be invited to the Edgcumbe for a pasty lunch.

Trip dates:

27th & 28th August & 12th September - 10:30am to 12:30pm, 15th September - 2:30pm to 4:30pm.

Ticket price (includes trip and pasty lunch) £12 per head (sorry no price reductions).

To book please ring 01579 352720.

Proceeds from the trip will be used to help maintain Shamrock.

Shamrock Traditions

Since the completion of Shamrock's restoration in the late 1970's a couple of traditions have started to emerge.

Perkins Pile
This refers to the pile of gear that is offloaded from Shamrock on completion of a trip and just dumped in the boat shed ready to be stowed at a later date. This is named after Tom Perkins who started the pile tradition. Tom was the shipwright who spent two weeks patching Shamrock's hull to get her to float on Hooe Lake and then be allowed to be towed past Plymouth dockyard and onto Cotehele for the restoration. He was also the shipwright in charge of the restoration and worked and sailed on her for many years after the restoration.

Nutty Slack
A coconut and biscuit base cake covered in chocolate. Not sure of the exact recipe but on most trips Sarah, Peter's wife, usually supplies Peter with enough slices of this for the whole crew. He's not allowed to take it back so I am afraid that any extra just has to be eaten. What a shame!!