This is a view from "eighteen hundred and wartime," when the Dockyard at Plymouth was kept at full stretch building, repairing and provisioning His Majesty's ships in the long sea war with France. We see a perfectly miserable morning with southerly gales and rain lashing up the Hamoaze. Lying off the Dockyard, to the left, are a damaged 74-gun ship with her f oretopmast struck and, ahead of her, a threedecker taking on stores. Some smaller warships lie over on the Cornish side. Scudding between the two groups is a gale-tossed brig in the distance and a hard-pressed waterman's boat in the f oreground. "Blowing Southerly, Hamoaze ," watercolor, 11 x 16 inches.
The Scillies pilot gigs are aristocrats among pulling boats. Slender, f ast and amazingly seaworthy, this age-old type is enjoying a renaissance today, thanks to the skills of Co rnish boa /builders and the keenness of the oarsmen in a growing number of ports. Here is the Empress of St. Martins , built by the Peters of St. Mawes and employed f or years in piloting, salvage and gene ral carrying between the islands . "St. Martins Gig Empress, " water-color, 11 x 14 inches.
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SEA HISTORY 59, AUTUMN 1991