Medway Jottings

Contributed by Frank Willmott.

The RAND, which Sid Wood was once master of, lies buried at Otterham Quay. She finished her days as an air-raid shelter for the men working in the near-by brickfields during the Second World War. She was fitted out with re-inforced concrete slab casts over her holds, and she used to lie at the top of the dock.
The barely visible remains of the barge off Gillingham Strand have been identified as the ALICE of Rochester, No, 67102, built in 1875, R.T. 46 tons. ALICE has been there for more than 30 years and formerly belonged to a Mr. Arthur Hart.
Vic Wanstall of Upchurch recalls an old time method of raising a sunken barge. When the JOHN & SARAH, owned by the Sheppey Glue Company, sank in the mouth of Queenboro' Creek laden with a freight of coke, she was raised by lashing barrels round her which were put on at low water. Captain Wanstall later went master of the SIR WILFRED LAWSON, owned by Shaws. The barge was fitted with a really un-nautical engine - a 110 h.p. motor which cam out of a World War II Tiger Tank. The barge was recently broken up at Battersea.