Dick Wynne
05-08-2006, 08:19 AM
Not a great deal about wooden boats in this, but it seems worth recording somewhere.
Sometime around 1949 my Dad, Deane, crewed for a friend Chris who owned a 40-odd foot wooden fishing boat called the Valkyrien. The two of them trawled off the Sussex coast out of Newhaven and Rye, selling their catch door-to-door from a 3-wheeled motorcycle van affair, and sharing the proceeds three ways - between themselves and the boat.
One day a film company offered to hire them and their boat for a movie called Green Grow the Rushes (http://movies2.nytimes.com/gst/movies/movie.html?v_id=20880)- aka Brandy Ashore (US?) a comedy about smuggling on the Romney marshes. One of Richard Burton's first films, and his last before moving to Hollywood, the stars were Honor Blackman & Roger Livesey. The exterior shots of the boat leaving Rye Harbour, also those in impressively rough seas offshore, are courtesy of Dad and skipper Chris. (The studio interiors featured an upright piano played by skipper Livesey...every boat should have one)
One evening the film company requested the boat out at sea off Newhaven next day for some final shots, and the skipper was unavailable, so Dad took her west from Rye alone at night, under her ancient hot-bulb paraffin engine. It began to blow from the west, water got in the fuel and the engine failed. He had no choice but to heave up her massive lug rig and run back to Rye. Too dangerous to get upriver to the harbour under sail, so he anchored in Rye Bay and, exhausted, fell asleep.
Unfortunately she was not not far enough out, and as the tide ebbed she pounded out her keel on the hard sand and was lost, my father almost with her. The boat was not insured, but Chris the owner took it very well, being the son of the local bishop probably helped. Not to mention the film company fees, which at £800 probably exceeded the boat's value. Had she survived I would not be here as the plan was for Dad and Chris to sail her to Australia and make their fortune there.
Sometime around 1949 my Dad, Deane, crewed for a friend Chris who owned a 40-odd foot wooden fishing boat called the Valkyrien. The two of them trawled off the Sussex coast out of Newhaven and Rye, selling their catch door-to-door from a 3-wheeled motorcycle van affair, and sharing the proceeds three ways - between themselves and the boat.
One day a film company offered to hire them and their boat for a movie called Green Grow the Rushes (http://movies2.nytimes.com/gst/movies/movie.html?v_id=20880)- aka Brandy Ashore (US?) a comedy about smuggling on the Romney marshes. One of Richard Burton's first films, and his last before moving to Hollywood, the stars were Honor Blackman & Roger Livesey. The exterior shots of the boat leaving Rye Harbour, also those in impressively rough seas offshore, are courtesy of Dad and skipper Chris. (The studio interiors featured an upright piano played by skipper Livesey...every boat should have one)
One evening the film company requested the boat out at sea off Newhaven next day for some final shots, and the skipper was unavailable, so Dad took her west from Rye alone at night, under her ancient hot-bulb paraffin engine. It began to blow from the west, water got in the fuel and the engine failed. He had no choice but to heave up her massive lug rig and run back to Rye. Too dangerous to get upriver to the harbour under sail, so he anchored in Rye Bay and, exhausted, fell asleep.
Unfortunately she was not not far enough out, and as the tide ebbed she pounded out her keel on the hard sand and was lost, my father almost with her. The boat was not insured, but Chris the owner took it very well, being the son of the local bishop probably helped. Not to mention the film company fees, which at £800 probably exceeded the boat's value. Had she survived I would not be here as the plan was for Dad and Chris to sail her to Australia and make their fortune there.