Reminder is also unusual among Thames barges because she has overnight accommodation – cabins, heads (loos), a messdeck and a kitchen fitted into what was her gigantic hold. So she accommodates groups like the SHTP trainees over a number of days, hosting extended courses – this one run by the Sea Change Sailing Trust. Meanwhile Sea Change’s Richard Titchener (at the helm) puts the SHTP team through their paces. In the eyes of those who used to crew such barges, mind you, Reminder would look overstaffed: in the heyday of the Thames barge, a skipper and a boy did everything – with the boy often standing on the great bales of hay for London’s horses that was a regular barge cargo, shouting to the skipper (who couldn’t see over the cargo from the stern), which way to head the ship!
All mod cons
24 December 2015
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About Rob
Rob is a TV producer, reporter and camera operator with 30 years of experience at the BBC, Channel 4 and ITN, in news, factual and documentary production. He is a four-time award winner, whose awards include a coveted Royal Television Society award for his work on Channel 4 News. His association with the Maritime Foundation goes back to 1995 when he won the first Desmond Wettern Maritime Media Award for a series of reports that led to a major documentary on the loss of the bulk carrier Derbyshire.