Kukri
Well-known member
Owned a schooner named “Scandal”, so called “because nothing travelled faster out of Woodbridge”, and had a paid hand who called him “Old Fitz”.
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Literary Merit.
- Thread starter Kukri
- Start date
Owned a schooner named “Scandal”, so called “because nothing travelled faster out of Woodbridge”, and had a paid hand who called him “Old Fitz”.
Poignard
Well-known member
I thought "Crossing the Bar" was written by Tennyson.
Leighb
Well-known member
I think he is buried in the local churchyard.
Leighb
Well-known member
I may well be wrong, about that, but Fitzgerald wrote something about his local yachting experiences I think.
Poignard
Well-known member
"I think you will like Bawdsey, only about a dozen fishermen's houses built where our river runs into the sea over a foaming bar; on one side there is sand to Felixstowe and on the other, an orange-coloured cliff towards Orford Haven; not a single respectable house; no white cravats, an inn with scarce a table or chair and only bread and cheese to eat. I often lie there with my boat; I wish you would come and do so." Edward Fitzgerald 1863.
https://debenestuarypartnership.fil...rtrait-of-the-river-deben-final-sept-2012.pdf
I would like to read anything else he may have written about sailing. If you find anything, please let me know.
Dan Tribe
Well-known member
More offerings.
Gotty and the Guvnor; about a leigh fisherman.
The Singing Swan, A P Herbert. Spritsail barges and Backwaters. Not great literature but a pleasant read.
I'm trying to recall a half remembered passage. A sailing vessel [smack /cutter ?] is being chased down the Thames, sails into a rain squall and disappears, it is assumed she has gone into Havengore. Anyone remember where this id from?
Gotty and the Guvnor; about a leigh fisherman.
The Singing Swan, A P Herbert. Spritsail barges and Backwaters. Not great literature but a pleasant read.
I'm trying to recall a half remembered passage. A sailing vessel [smack /cutter ?] is being chased down the Thames, sails into a rain squall and disappears, it is assumed she has gone into Havengore. Anyone remember where this id from?
Kukri
Well-known member
It’s from Conrad. Can’t recall which novel at the moment
Poignard
Well-known member
Heart of Darkness
Kukri
Well-known member
Edward Fitzgerald, writing to his great friend Alfred Tennyson. Tennyson stayed with Fitzgerald in Woodbridge. Fitzgerald asked the landlord of the Bull what he thought of the Poet Laureate... “He don’t know much about horses” was the reply.
Kukri
Well-known member
Kukri
Well-known member
Kukri
Well-known member
“Peter Grimes”. Both the 1810 poem by George Crabbe and the 1945 opera by Benjamin Britten.
Black Diamond
Active member
James Wentworth Day is worthy of mention, for capturing the essence of the East Coast, and its indigenous tribes. Rum Owd Boys is a good read, a collection of short memoirs of wildfowling, fishing and also a few about the Fens. And the writings of Jonathan Raban in his book 'Coasting', which curiously misses out the Blackwater from his circumnavigation until the final chapters, when he reveals being captivated by Bradwell, and subsequently residing there.
Poignard
Well-known member
Another book I shall have to buy and smuggle past The Old Guvnor (she's beginning to complain about the piles of dusty old books all over the house).
Whilst trying to find more information about it I found this intriguing website
Archie White
Kukri
Well-known member
Then we have the anonymous writers of much of the extant literature of the Anglo-Saxons. On linguistic evidence, “Beowulf” is thought to have been composed in Rendlesham, seat of King Raedwald who is thought to have been buried at Sutton Hoo, “The Battle of Maldon” concerns Maldon, and the tide, and “The Seafarer” must surely describe the North Sea!
Poignard
Well-known member
Radweld? I tried that when I had a leaking radiator. It didn't work.
Hydrozoan
Well-known member
He took over Shoal Waters from the late Charles Stock - author of this: Sailing Just for Fun: High Adventure on a Small Budget: Amazon.co.uk: Stock: 9780953818068: Books
Gary Fox
N/A
This is the first page of his 'Chance'.
'Chance'.
Kukri
Well-known member
Thank you. I knew I had read it! Oddly “Chance” was the first of his books to sell really well, though nobody thinks much of it.
I suspect that the “riverside inn” is not the Butt and Oyster which so many of us know but the Lobster Smack on Canvey Island which was well used by yachtsmen in Conrad’s day. Indeed my late father on his first single handed cruise in the Thames Estuary in 1919 in his brother in law’s 18ft half decked day boat went out of his way to visit it.
(edited to add - oh no it’s not. You can’t see the river from the pub windows, as it is below the sea wall. But it does have a pier. So, a small literary mystery, as the Butt doesn’t have a pier. Another contender might be the Anchor in Brightlingsea (now flats) if the higher bit of the hard can count as a pier. I think the Burnham pubs are all behind the sea wall, too. The Shipwrights’ Arms at Oare would qualify...
Suggestions...)
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Dan Tribe
Well-known member
Probably the sea walls were much lower in those days. Even during my drinking career you used to be able to see the Crouch from the White Harte and the Anchor in Burnham.