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Burnham Art Trail

I can’t believe the Burnham Art Trail is here again...where did that year go!

Apart from all the artwork on show there is lots for visitors to do this year, with extra music events, demonstrations, workshops and film. I will be heading off to the Burnham Allotments again for a morning of informal sketching on Thursday 26th June 10am - 12noon.  Come along and join me, it’s a lovely way to spend the morning. All the details are on the Burnham Art Trail website: burnhamarttaril.co.uk

There is one very important change - after the guide was printed my venue, Burnham Dental Practice, 89a High Street, withdrew from the Art Trail but, luckily for me, Lauren at Lauren’s Ladies & Babies Boutique kindly stepped in and offered me some window space.

LT 1212 Pilot Jack

Built by Colby Bros., Oulton Broads, Norfolk in 1920 and then sold onto Podds of Lowestoft in 1928. Although built as a sailing trawler she was converted to diesel power in 1928 with a 75hp Deutz engine by Richards and then re-engined in 1934 with a 34hp Allen by George Overy.

During World War II the Lowestoft fishing vessels owned by the Podd family were requisitioned for mine-sweeping duties and Pilot Jack, under the management of Edward William Podd, was one of six sent to Milford, Wales. In 1941, the Podd fleet transferred to Padstow, the east coast fishing grounds being too dangerous for fishing. In 1946 Pilot Jack, together with the rest of the Podd fleet, returned to Lowestoft and was sold.

I am not sure what became of her after returning to Lowestoft in 1946 but in 1962 she was sold for use as a houseboat in Essex.

In 1980 she moved to Woodrolfe Creek, Tollesbury, Essex, where the remains of this beautiful wooden fishing trawler still lie today.

If you have any additional information about the history of Pilot Jack, please contact me as I would be very interest to find out more about her

Hans Egede

A little bit of background with regard to one of my recent boat paintings – it is the stern view through the hull of the wreck Hans Egede, a Danish-built ship which currently lies half destroyed and rotting along the north Kent coast. There’s no hope of her ever being used again and she has been left for nature to continue eroding her.

 She was named after a Norwegian Lutheran missionary working in Greenland and is a wooden, auxiliary steam powered 3-masted schooner, built in 1922 by J. Th. Jørgensen at Thurø, Denmark. She was reported damaged by fire on 21 August 1955 and towed to Dover where the fire was extinguished. After being towed out of Dover in 1957 she then spent some years in the Medway as a coal and/or grain hulk before being towed to Cubitt Town on the Thames. However, the strain on Hans Egede’s structure, which had become weakened over the years, proved too much, causing her to take in water and sink. After grounding on the Blyth Sands she was beached on the shore near Cliffe Fort, where she has remained ever since.