Crowblack
Active member
This mornings Halfpenny Pier WebCam. Live Stream Cameras - Harwich Haven Authority
Lovely to see Waverley back on the East Coast.
- Thread starter Crowblack
- Start date
tillergirl
Well-known member
Yes, lovely. I screen grabbed in case she was moving today?
MattS
Active member
Was lucky enough to have taken the Gravesend->Tower Pier->Gravesend trip on Monday night. It's a great trip to do as the boat is usually empty on the way back down to Gravesend, and steaming up through Tower Bridge is pretty special.
Steaming through Tower Bridge
Coming alongside Gravesend Town Pier
Steaming up the Thames
Ending the night back at Gravesend Town Pier
Steaming through Tower Bridge
Coming alongside Gravesend Town Pier
Steaming up the Thames
Ending the night back at Gravesend Town Pier
tillergirl
Well-known member
Lovely photos. She aways struck me as a very awkward vesssel to take alongside.
dunedin
Well-known member
She is - extremely so due to the fixed paddles (cannot work in opposite directions), very shallow hull, and tiny rudder. Extremely good seamanship by skipper and crew needed to berth her. But even then, will go wrong occasionally - and does.
Intended to go into piers that were designed specifically for steamers in the Clyde etc - which typically had room to abort and go rLund again. Rather more problematic when visiting piers designed for modern ferries.
MattS
Active member
They certainly seem to have it down to a bit of an art...
Coming alongside Gravesend and Tower Pier, they brought her alongside parallel to the pier, but at least a beam's width away, and then used alternating ahead and astern bursts on the paddles to keep her roughly stationary against the pier.
This certainly kept the Chief Engineer busy! It's interesting to see how they have to play with the controls to provide the alternating bursts of thrust so quickly. On a couple of occasions, you could tell that the engine was just not in the mood for switching directions, and they had to persuade it using bursts of power combined with using a swinging pendulum effect on the drive shaft to pick up the desired direction of rotation.
They then threw leading lines for stern and bow lines to the handlers on the pier, who got them over the cleats. They then used the windlasses at bow and stern to slowly bring in the lines, gradually pulling her in against the pier.
Where there was reasonable tide, they seemed to keep the paddles in slow ahead / astern to prevent too much pressure being put on either line.
At Tower Pier, there was a tug on standby but didn't seem to make contact when coming alongside.
For leaving Tower Pier and turning around, the tug attached at the bow. They released bow line, applied some astern against the stern line to spring the bow away from the pier. Tug pulled her bow out and round. When perpendicular to the river, she applied a bit of astern against the tug's pull to prevent her going too far across to the other side of the river. There were a couple of buoys that she had to skillfully avoid whilst the ebb was pushing her towards them.
Back down to Gravesend, she topped 17kts which really was quite something!
Yes, I did spend a large majority of my time down watching the engine room...
Coming alongside Gravesend and Tower Pier, they brought her alongside parallel to the pier, but at least a beam's width away, and then used alternating ahead and astern bursts on the paddles to keep her roughly stationary against the pier.
This certainly kept the Chief Engineer busy! It's interesting to see how they have to play with the controls to provide the alternating bursts of thrust so quickly. On a couple of occasions, you could tell that the engine was just not in the mood for switching directions, and they had to persuade it using bursts of power combined with using a swinging pendulum effect on the drive shaft to pick up the desired direction of rotation.
They then threw leading lines for stern and bow lines to the handlers on the pier, who got them over the cleats. They then used the windlasses at bow and stern to slowly bring in the lines, gradually pulling her in against the pier.
Where there was reasonable tide, they seemed to keep the paddles in slow ahead / astern to prevent too much pressure being put on either line.
At Tower Pier, there was a tug on standby but didn't seem to make contact when coming alongside.
For leaving Tower Pier and turning around, the tug attached at the bow. They released bow line, applied some astern against the stern line to spring the bow away from the pier. Tug pulled her bow out and round. When perpendicular to the river, she applied a bit of astern against the tug's pull to prevent her going too far across to the other side of the river. There were a couple of buoys that she had to skillfully avoid whilst the ebb was pushing her towards them.
Back down to Gravesend, she topped 17kts which really was quite something!
Yes, I did spend a large majority of my time down watching the engine room...
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Crowblack
Active member
Thank you for saving the picture.
She holds a special place in my heart as, as a young lad Ma, Pa and me, living in Scotland used to go "doon the watter".
Fast forward 35 odd years and wife and I having completed purchase of our latest boat were standing on a pontoon at Wolverstone admiring our purchase when a beat beat beat could be heard coming upriver - a sound from times past - without turning round to look I said that's Waverley - and turning there she was - magnificent sight in the dusk on her way up to Ipswich.
Several years ago transitting the Caledonian with said boat shared a canal side pontoon with a chap from a rather nice motor crusier. Turned out he was something of an experienced mariner who kept his boat in the Clyde and had skippered the Waverley for a short time. He too said she needed careful handling in coming alongside, particularly in difficult conditions. Apparently one solution if conditions demanded was to approach a pier at speed judging the moment to throw her into reverse to gently come alongside. Often he said you'd see folk on the pier retreating somewhat as they saw the initial approach speed then relax as they saw the way being taken off.
She's a very special boat to many people, he also thinks so
MattS
Active member
I did in fact remark that she "seems to be coming in awfully fast" when she was approaching Gravesend on Monday!
Capt Popeye
Well-known member
WAs this the Paddle Steamer that was laid up on the River Medway marshes some years back ?
Capt Popeye
Well-known member
Ahoy Capt Matt , did you have your camera on 'Camera Shake' ready for the bump /collision , then ?
Just_sayin'
Well-known member
tillergirl
Well-known member
'Allision', allision, old boy. That's what happen here on the East Coast.
LONG_KEELER
Well-known member
It's a fantastic day out.
We went from Harwich to Tower Bridge.
There was also a guide on a mike giving all the history of the Thames River and buildings.
Apologies. Double posted also on Thames Forum. I don't always know where I am .
We went from Harwich to Tower Bridge.
There was also a guide on a mike giving all the history of the Thames River and buildings.
Apologies. Double posted also on Thames Forum. I don't always know where I am .
RivalRedwing
Well-known member
AntarcticPilot
Well-known member
She is. Pretty much every pier she uses has had a ding from her at some time or another. The problem is that she has a very small rudder, and of course, there's no prop-wash over it, so rudder authority at low speed is minimal; she's basically unsteerable until she's got speed up. Also, of course, it takes a little while for the engines to reverse; no shoving the Morse control from forward to back! She looks lovely under way, but she's a nightmare in close quarters. In the Clyde she's well known as a vessel to keep well clear of in close quarters. I had a few worrying moments once in Rothesay Harbour; she was alongside and had to be manoeuvred out of her berth - and I was on a pontoon opposite her berth! All done using warps ashore along the lines of springing off a pontoon. All went well that time, but even then I knew her reputation.
AntarcticPilot
Well-known member
I understand that there are safety reasons why the paddles on a steamer like the Waverley are fixed; apparently, it is possible to overturn a paddle steamer where the paddles can operate in opposite directions. I've been told that paddle tugs could have independently operated paddles.
Just_sayin'
Well-known member
Just … wow
PeterWright
Well-known member
While it may be a good idea for safety not to contrarotate the paddles, paddle steamers are that way because nobody had worked out how to build a transmission for the steam engines when they were built. Effectively the hull was the crankcase and the crankshaft was installed athwart the hull, generally a two cylinder arrangement with one main bearing amidships and one on each side, The ends of the crankshaft poked out through the sides of the hull into the paddle boxes and the paddles were bolted onto the ends of the crankshaft, If the engine runs ahead, both paddles go ahead and vice versa. to contrarotate the paddles would mean cutting the crankshaft in half! Early propellor driven ships were equally without a gearbox, the propellor shaft being bolted solidly to the crankshaft of the engine, be it steam or diesel. It was a long time before gearboxes became capable of handling ship engine amounts of power, diesels were cunningly arranged so they could be run rotating either way, just as steam engines had before them.
Peter.
Peter.
AntarcticPilot
Well-known member
I was given to understand that in the early days, some paddle steamers were fitted with the ability to operate the paddle wheels independently, but that it turned out to result in more problems than it solved, not least dangerous instability. Obviously operating them both on one shaft is mechanically far simpler, too, but there are obvious schemes to do that would not be substantially more complex - for example, instead of having two pistons connected to one shaft, split the shaft and have one piston on each shaft. That would probably come with an efficiency cost. Someone here once pointed out that paddle tug boats sometimes had independent paddles.
DavidonMersea
Active member
I did this trip last year and would agree with everything you say ,,,,,, although 11 hours was a long day and we were getting a bit bored by the time we arrived at Tower Bridge. The final move through Tower Bridge was quite spectacular, and the highlight of the trip ....... as you say the commentator was first class, and well informed