# Ports Nostalgia - Topsham Quay, Devon. Part 1.



## davidwheeler (6 mo ago)

Well, it seems that nobody remembers Topsham as a commercial port. So I am going to tell you what you have missed. What you will not see again. It will come out in bits because I have to type it and I am slow.

Topsham is a small town, lying where the River Exe becomes the Exe estuary. In the county of Devon, England. It is some ten miles inland from the English Channel coastline at Exmouth. Centuries ago it was one of the most important ports in the land, exporting vast quantities of serge to the continent, particularly Holland. At the end of the 19th century it was still an important shipbuilding town. But by the middle of the last century, numbers of ship movements were falling and by the beginning of the 1970s, regular trade had gone.
This is the story of one day in December 1968. On that day, in the very early morning, still quite dark, the 'Botnia', a Danish ship built in 1967, lay alongside Topsham Quay. She had finished unloading her cargo of timber from the Baltic. She was ready to sail on that tide. I was on the quay, under her floodlit mast. This is what I saw:

'Across the river, held by a single rope from the stern, her bows swinging round swiftly with the falling tide, her diesel engine throbbing in short bursts, nudging her ahead, snubbing against the stern warp, the stern mooring rope brought up to where the bow warp had been. Turning right round in a complete half circle and coming alongside the quay again. The officer in the bows asking whether he should put. a line ashore again. 'Yes'. Shaking his head. The 'Botnia', tall alongside the quay at highwater, almost, but the tide is dropping fast away. High tide at 0850 and a 12' tide but already fallen by a foot. 'Turned early.' The Botnia brought back upstream, back along the quay, her stern well beyond the end of it. 'Leave room for the other to get her nose in. There's not a lot of water here even at high water.' Nearly 9 o'clock but not yet daylight. The lights of a vessel going slowly across the estuary, downstream by Lympstone. The Botnia fast alongside now, two lines from the bows, one from the stern. Looking huge, towering above us, light, waiting for the pilot to come up on the other boat.
Then another vessel in the morning, quickly lightening and very cold. Then a third from Starcross gradually crossing towards Lympstone. 'That's the Esso'. Far too far for me to recognise it. Probably for him too. The first ship comes into sight again, crossing the estuary towards Turf Lock, the entrance to the Exeter Ship Canal. The 'SW2', light, on her way back to the sewage works. Exciting the number of ships on the river this morning. Then the other ships, close behind each other, still a long way away. One looks like the 'C. Herup'. The other is the 'Esso Jersey', short stubby hull with thick superstructure, with another load of petrol from Fawley to Exeter.'

Next time, the arrival of the pilot.


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## davidwheeler (6 mo ago)

Part 11. 
'It is very cold and very grey. No sunlight. Cormorants and ducks squabble on the other side of the river, by the old hulks. A man on his boat, upriver of the ferry, rocks it from side to side. The old engines of a DC3 Dakota roar in the quiet morning, flying over towards Newton Abbot. Now the second boat turns just short of Turf Lock and heads directly towards the Quay, a mile or more away. The Esso Jersey goes behind the breakwater down at Turf. The SW2 is already in the lock. Everybody is down here. The stevedores waiting to start on the new ship. Coming up against the tide very fast, cutting right across the river, almost in line with the Quay, a few hundred yards away, and then right out into the middle again, following the channel through the anchored boats. The Mette Pan. Loaded with timber covered by tarpaulins, looking quite smart, the sound of her diesels carrying clearly over the water, coming up very quickly. Now about parallel with the Quay, about thirty feet off. Brian the Pilot up in the bows directing the skipper to put the bows in under the bows of the Botnia. " If the **** hadn't turned I'd have had 'em just right." Brian the Pilot standing in the bows, looking at the distance to the shore. 6 feet out and 12 feet up. Too far. Signals with his hand to the skipper to put her in closer. " Can I jump?" " Go on Brian are you frit?" Hangs over the bows by his hands and scrabbles with his feet against the ship's sides...."Splosh!" Laughing, good natured jeering. Hands go out to him and he lets go, lands safely on the Quay and runs to the Botnia.'

next: The Mette Pan arrives, the Botnia departs.


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## davidwheeler (6 mo ago)

Part 111
'Botnia's lines already slackened, bows already 25 feet from the Quay, the stern held in. Brian the Pilot jumps onto a rope and climbs aboard, Botnia's screw thrashing, gunning her away from the Quay. "How long to Exmouth, half an hour?" "Hour". Tide fallen foot and a half, maybe two. " I've known the *** on the mud at Exmouth you know. If you're on at Topsham, what's *** Exmouth like?"

The Botnia, much larger, glides past the Mette Pan, a few yards of water between them, the Botnia picking up speed. The cook of the Botnia gives a single wave to someone on the Quay already 100 yards astern. The Mette Pan using the full power of her engines to drive her further up the Quay to where the Botnia had been, the water surging from beneath her stern, away from her propeller, still aground, men heaving in the slack on her ropes, engine slowly shoving her closer to the Quay, thick black water oozing and bubbling up. The SW2 passes silently up the Canal, along the top of the far bank of the river. The Mette Pan of Faaborg, a new small Danish coaster. Two youths on the stern, pulling on the ropes. The cook in his galley just above them, cooking bacon and eggs and the smell of it drifting over the Quay. The Master on the bridge looking anxiously towards the bows as he tries to get his ship close enough to the Quay to allow her to rest safely on the bottom when she dries out, asking the stevedore foreman "Alright?" " O.k. now." The main engine fades away and stops. The auxiliary motor putt-putting out of the silence. The Rickards Wallington crane lorry drives up and positions itself carefully, parallel to the ship. The stevedores step across the gap between the ship's side and the Quay and climb aboard. Some throw up the wooden blocks on which the timber will be laid. The first lengths, holding down the tarpaulins, are stacked. The gangway is put across. The SW2 passes through the canal swing bridge and on up to Limekilns. The Esso Jersey is in Turf Lock. The Botnia has turned at Turf and heads across the estuary again, towards Lympstone and the sea. One man in a small dinghy tows a motor launch upriver against the tide. It is 9.40 a.m.'

Next, and last: Was this an ordinary day?


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## davidwheeler (6 mo ago)

Part IV
No, not an ordinary day. By 1968 both ports served by the Exe estuary, Topsham and the Port of Exeter, were in terminal decline, in their last few twilight years. Exeter was still receiving a few 200 ton coasters, with timber and the odd cargo of oyster shell, with petrol, carried by the Esso Jersey, the most frequent by far. But that trade came to an end in July 1971, after 606 visits to the city. The last dry cargo ship, the Dutch Jenjo, the last foreign carrier, left the canal on 17.12.1973. After that the only commercial vessel to enter Turf Lock was the SW2, later renamed Countess Wear, a classic coastal tanker built by Bolsons of Poole in 1963. After some 5000 voyages from the sewage works, a mile or so up the canal, she left Turf Lock for the last time late in 1999, bound for the West Indies. Where, for all I know, she may be still.

Topsham, in the late 1960s, had annual arrivals numbering in the late teens - 1968, 18 visits; 1969, 17 visits: 1970, 19. Of these, four or five each year were lager cargoes, carried by the Danish coasters C.Herup, the first, of 300grt dating from 1957 - the year the lager trade came to Topsham - making some 100 visits, the second the renamed Charlotte Dreyer, just two visits in 1970 and 1971. Then the trade stopped. Of other trades, timber was the most frequent, with ships calling at any time of the year. One or two, perhaps three, ships with potatoes. An occasional import of barrels. A couple of export cargoes of sprats. Timber imports became more economic in packs, and in larger ships. So that stopped in the early 1970s, as did everything else. Apart from a very occasional visit, for a specific purpose, or because of a strike elsewhere. That was the end of Topsham as a commercial port.

So, to have four commercial vessels on the estuary on the same tide was, by 1968, unusual. Once only during the three years at the turn of the decade, were two ships at the Quay together - the C.Herup and the Danish Othonia.

Why get nostalgic about it? Trading vessels have plied the Exe estuary and river for hundreds of years. Thousands of years - Exeter was an important Roman town provisioned via the Exe. But set that aside.
The arrival of a ship in Topsham was an event. They came from exotic sounding places - Halmstad, Kotka, Oskarshamn, Haugesund, Yxpila. They brought new sounds, new smells, new languages, new faces. They brought colour. And challenges: lorries of Baltic timber trundling through the narrow winding streets, lorries laden with barrels of sprats, the product of a local business. An export trade from the port. A bit of exuberance, sometimes - there were many pubs in Topsham. And then after a few days, back to the normal. Until the next time. Every visit was an adventure, with a purpose. A connection with a world much wider than the town. Something to look forward to. All that ended in the mid 1970s. Was that a loss? It was for me.


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## a1946 (Apr 4, 2010)

yes I was a deckhand on the Esso Jersey for awhile ,many recollections of Topsham lock and the Turf hotel,after rocking and rolling on our 10 hours at sea voyage from Fawley,a very relaxed Captain Stan Haddy, taking time out to go home to mum in Brixham with the ship ! from time to time ,good fun days


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## a1946 (Apr 4, 2010)

hi I was a deckhand on the Esso Jersey in the 60;s frequent vistor to the Turf Hotel, after 10 hours rocking and rolling voyage from Fawley, sometime Captain Stan Haddy would take the ship home to Brixham for the weekend where he lived with his mum,quite a character but fun times


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## davidwheeler (6 mo ago)

Well, well. On 18th February 1967 Capt Stan Haddy gave me a lift on the Esso Jersey, from Exeter Basin to Brixham, Devon where the ship was to have a 48 hour engine service at the Fish Quay. He was an interesting character. He had some good stories to tell. This may bring back some memories:
" They chopped twenty-seven tons of steel off this ship, you know, she was that unstable. I remember some trips back from Jersey when I'd swore we'd not make it back. She still rolls 40 degrees, but she was **** terrible then. The weight's too high!"
Any memories of the Esso Jersey to tell? The ship was an important factor in the continual debate as to the Ship Canal's commercial future in the 1960s. Until the M5 viaduct sealed its fate. But that is another story. Come to think of it, that is worth telling.


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## steveneale339 (11 mo ago)

I was on the Guidesman during 1958-59 as a OS the vessel was under the command of Captain Bernard Crowhurst and
the Mate was Steve Pond, and I have very fond memories of the Exeter canal especially the Welcome Inn where the
Gas works special was Rum and Coke, Captain Crowhurst was a brilliant Master like most of the master's on the coast,
The Guidesman had no radar just rod and chain steering and a RT, If I could go back to those times I would away from
the BS of today.


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## davidwheeler (6 mo ago)

The Guidesman, a Rowbotham tanker of 233 grt, built in 1938, was a frequent visitor to the Ship Canal and Exeter Basin.
First visit: 27/8/1938, Last, 11/10/1963. Apart from the war years, this ship made at least 697 visits to Exeter, all from the Thames, I think Canvey Island. For a short period, from May 1961 to October 1963, three petrol tankers were transiting the canal and if you happened to be travelling on the GWR/ Western Region main line railway, from Plymouth to Bristol hauled by, say, A School-, or Hall- or Castle - class team locomotive, then if, after passing Dawlish Warren station and Powderham deer park, you happened to glance out of your window to the right, smoke permitting you might well have seen one, if not both the Rowbotham tankers with their yellow funnel with black top, passing along the fields. A very much rarer sight, during August 1954 you might have seen at much closer quarters, the two small Rowbotham tankers, Guidesman and Tillerman, shuttling between Exeter Basin and two somewhat larger tankers, Helmsman and Quarterman, anchored in the Exe Bight. You would have been lucky because this experiment was not repeated. It was just one more attempt to make the run to Exeter profitable. And sustainable. But all failed.


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