Sailing Barge `HYDROGEN'
- some of her history.
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Arthur Coward - skipper of `Hydrogen' from 1912 to 1932. |
Hydrogen in all her splendour about 1910, when she was nearly new. |
`Hydrogen' about 1920 at a time when she was giving Smeed Dean's office staff their annual day-trip. |
Harold `Jack' Butcher at the wheel of `Hydrogen'. |
Arthur Coward with son Harold on his left, at the wheel of `Hydrogen' about 1930. |
In 1906, the Hydrogen slipped down the ways at the yard of Gills in Rochester. At 94' long and 22' wide she was a fine example of a boomie riggged coasting barge capable of carrying 200 tons of cargo. Her working life began with her carrying tar and oil from the Thames and Medway to Scotland. In 1912, the respected racing skipper, Arthur Coward, was offered shares in the barge and became her skipper, a position he held for 20 years. The barge was converted to the more easily handled spritsail rig and traded regularly to the Humber, once making the return passage from Spurn Head to Kent in 24 hours. The Hydrogen continued her coastal trading under the flag of G.F. Sully and spent the war years working for the War Department on the Firth of Clyde. She continued to carry cargo until 1976, but latterly, as engines replaced sail, purely as a motor barge. In 1978 she was sold and her new owners returned her to sail. She regularly sailed round the UK coast and became a well-known visitor entertaining guests at many ports en-route. In 1992 the Hydrogen was bought by the Blackwater Company and she is now chartered as one of the Topsail Services fleet of Thames barges. |
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`HYDROGEN' as motor barge at Shipyard, Milton Creek, May 22nd 1950. |
Photographs of `Hydrogen' under sail during her years trading under sail. |
`HYDROGEN' as a motor barge at Crown Quay, Milton Creek, September 25th 1948. |
Acknowledgements:
Some of these photographs have
been published by Alan Cordell and Leslie Williams in their book
"The Past Glory of Milton Creek" (Meresborough Books, 1985 ISBN 09481 93042)
which contains additional
material from some of the men who sailed the `Hydrogen' and other sailing
barges. All these photographs
are reproduced from the collection of Alan Cordell, and individual credits
for some of the photos can
be found in the above book.
