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Category: History/archaeology
VIC 96 steams to Ostend
VIC 96, a WW2 Admiralty “puffer” was seen today under steam leaving Stangate Creek for Ramsgate, en route for the Ostend At Anchor classic boat event before going to Vlissingen. This year’s trip will commemorate the voyage of the Defiance in May 1816, by Captain William Wager, who steamed from Margate to the Netherlands with the aim of introducing steam ships to Holland and Germany.
Bronze Age Boat discovered at Oare Creek
Archaeologist Dr Paul Wilkinson was contacted by Dan Tester, who owns a boatyard at Oare Creek, believing it to be an Anglo Saxon boat. However, Dr Wilkinson revealed that the boat is an important find dating from the Bronze Age (2,500 – 800BC) and is “rare as hen’s teeth”. . Read more at Kent Online
Nick Ardley extols the Swale
Run, don’t walk! Get the latest (“October”) issue of Yachting Monthly to read a two page article by Nick Ardley, who spoke at our Medway/Swale Boating Conference, describing in his unique dream-like style an idyllic sailing trip through the Swale with insights into its industrial past. Did you know there used to be a link between the Swale and Stangate Creek?
Medway YC on TV, 22 Sept
Medway Yacht Club will be featured as part of Penelope Keith’s Hidden Villages programme to be aired on Tuesday 22nd September at 9pm on More Four.
Boating on the Medway 1949-1995
Some fascinating old cine film from the Medway Archive and Local Studies Centre
These are large files (35-45MB) in Windows Movie format (.wmv). Definitely not HD!
Pump House to become Distillery
Planning permission has been granted for Russell Distillers to turn Pump House No.5 at Chatham Maritime into a distillery producing a range of spirits: premium vodka, gin and whisky. The Grade II listed Victorian building was used to pump water out of the docks. It will become one of the last of Chatham’s naval dockyard buildings to be brought back to use. Read more…
Raid on the Medway
In June 2017 the Medway will see the commemoration of the 350th anniversary of the Dutch Raid, known to our Continental cousins as the Battle of Chatham. The biggest humiliation of the Royal Navy was brought about by admiral Michiel de Ruyter, the subject of a new Dutch film: view the trailer for Admiral.
Dylan Winter spent some time in the Medway on his 19ft Mirror Offshore motor sailer and produced some excellent films for his Keep Turning Left series. This one deals with the embarrassing events of 1667:
Roman Settlements of the Medway, 22 Jan 2015
The Inland Waterways Association (IWA) Kent & East Sussex Branch, invite us to an illustrated talk on Roman Settlements of the Medway by Simon Elliott, a local archaeologist with a particular interest in Roman history in Kent. All are welcome to attend, whether IWA members or not, on Thursday, 22 January 2015, 7.30 pm for 8.00 pm at Strood Yacht Club, Knight Road, Strood ME2 2AH
The Accidental Death of HMS Bulwark, 26 November 1914
Clifford Mickleburgh, Secretary of the Cruising Association Kent Section, writes:
Many of you may be aware of the East and West Bulwark buoys marking the military wreck of HMS Bulwark at Kethole Reach on the River Medway, near Thamesport.
We have organised a small flotilla of pleasure craft to leave the pontoon at Chatham Marina at 06.00 on Wednesday, 26 November 2014 to proceed downriver to Kethole Reach to remember those who lost their lives when the 15,000 ton battleship HMS Bulwark blew up a hundred years before at 07.53 with the loss of over 738 officers and men whilst they were finishing breakfast and getting ready for work; there was only a handful of survivors.
We will be joined by other vessels from Medway Ports, Medway Pilots, Svitzer Towage and the PLA. It is hoped that some of you may wish to join us at the Remembrance Service
LW Sheerness 08.52 (0.7m) Sunrise 07.25
The service will be conducted by the Revd Alan Boxall and will be broadcast on VHF Ch 73, some of you may wish to bring a wreath to leave at the site.
We have also learnt that the HMS Bulwark Association has a programme of events taking place at the Chatham Historic Dockyard over the weekend. There is a memorial at Sheerness, but many of the relatives have never visited the site of where HMS Bulwark blew up with such a tragic loss of life.
It would help with the planning if you could let me know if you will be joining us in your own vessel.
Clifford Mickleburgh
mobile 07803 727350
email clifford (at) mickleburgh.me.uk