Short planks being unloaded from an onker onto a lighter at the Surrey Commercial Docks |
This post looks at onkers, sailing vessels that were still visiting the Surrey Commercial Docks in the late 1930s at a time when steam ships had long taken over the main cargo and passenger routes around the world's oceans. In the London docks, onkers were the last sailing ships to compete with the reign of steam. These survivors of the great age of sail were often very old but were used for carrying Balitc short timber, which was neither very valuable, nor particularly perishable and was not time-sensitive. Sailing vessels were cheaper to run than modern ships and continued to provide income for their owners. They must have been a splendid and, for many, a nostalgic sight amongst the more conventional steam tramps, cargo cruisers and the superbly elegant Cunard liners at the Surrey Commercial Docks.
Fred, onker barque. Photograph by A.G. Linney 1929 |
Windmill pumps were common on older sailing vessels. Ships registered in Scandinavia were required to have windmill pumps if they were reinforced by frapping. The term frapping describes the process in which ropes or cables were passed around ships' hulls to keep them intact - a terrifying thought - and such ships were often referred to as floating coffins. The pumps were driven by wind power and were used to expel water from the old wooden hulls. As David MacGregor says that "Many were old wooden vessels and leaked abominably, and the windmill saved the crews from continual pumping." I've tried to find out what the wind pumps looked like, but haven't been able to find a picture, so if you know of one please do let me know.
Alastor by Pelham Jones from Frank C. Bowen's London Ship Types 1938 |
David MacGregor says that regular visitors were Prompt, Varma, Fred, Plus, and Shakesepeare, but in Frank Bowen's opinion the best known visitor to the Thames was Alastor, an iron barque build in 1875 in Sunderland for Robert Penney of Shoreham, who had a small cargo fleet. The pride of his fleet, with a gross tonnage of 874 she was under the same captain for two decades, carrying cargoes to Australia and New Zealand. In 1895 she was sold to a Norwegian ship owner, M.F. Stray, and made considerable income for him during the war. After the war she ran between the West Indies and France and in 1923 was sold to another Norwegian owner who used her to run short lengths of wood between the Baltic and London and Rochester. The illustration of her above, by Pelham Jones, comes from Bowen's book.
The barque Plus, an onker registered to Finland and wrecked in 1933. |
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