Someone recently posed the question "Why was Pomagne invented?" – I had the answer.
Me and my mate always wanted a boat, for fishing. Old Tom had a 16' clinker-built rowboat, from Stromness in Scotland, on a mud berth in Langstone Harbour. Through neglect, it eventually foundered on a groyne and sank.
We paid a tenner to salvage it and proceeded to rebuild it from scratch and at minimal cost. Everything we used was begged, borrowed or 'liberated'. Using a now late and lamented fisherman's yard and knowledge, we learned how to construct pipe 'stoves' to boil and soften lengths of timber, to replace the ruined ribs ("cos there's no straight piece of wood in a proper boat").
Two killicks made their way over Harry's wall – the donors hopefully having checked that he wasn't about when they were dropped in. Warps were gifted to us, a cable roller for the anchor was crafted in aluminium for us and spare screws, nails and timber were left with Harry for our use. A hand-pump was salvaged from a yacht which had sunk nearby.
Everyone who called by to check on progress was convinced that when she was re-launched, she'd sink because the wooden hull was gradually drying out during the summer.
As virtually everything had been freely acquired, we decided to call her Bak'sheesh, which means 'gratuity', or 'free'. A good friend carved a snake, with her name, from a beautiful piece of hardwood and we were ready to launch.
A quick coat of anti-fouling was slapped on and she was trolleyed into the Solent – not a drop of water entered her! And the Pomagne? Well, we'd been given a bottle and weren't going to drink it, were we? So it was poured over her bow in a proper christening.
Soon after, a violent storm snapped her new anchor cable and she was smashed against rocks on the other side of the Harbour. One day, she'll be replaced, but it could never be the same…
Labels: Baksheesh
# posted by Mr.D. @ 10:12 AM
Drinking and Driving (but clearly not simultaneously)
