My father's father and his brothers and their father. They were the first crew to win Prunier trophy for scouring the seas of Herring. The old git grandad was actually at home in Portsoy faking the flu but when he found out they'd won he suddenly recovered and shot down to that there London to take advantage. I believe there was some resentment because one of my cousins managed to get an article in a Lowestoft paper not so long ago setting the record straight. Technically he was the skipper, he just wasn't there when they won. The boat was a steam drifter - he owned half of it and half the nets. It was commonplace to part own boats and nets to spread the loss if there was one. Here's something from the internet about the trophy. The herring industry, which was centred in Lowestoft and Great Yarmouth, was in decline during the 1930's. In 1935 Madame Simone Prunier opened a branch of the famous Paris restaurant Maison Prunier in London. Shortly after coming to London she was made aware of the plight of the East Anglian herring industry. Madame Prunier decided to award a trophy to the drifter that netted the highest crannage of herring in one shot, in one night. The trophy would be held for a year. With the trophy went a cash prize of £25, an invitation for the winning crew to dine at her restaurant in London whilst spending two days sightseeing in the capital all at her expense. The runner-up received a cash prize of £25. If an English boat took first prize then a Scottish boat took second prize and vice versa. The winner also received a weather vane to be fixed to one of the boat's masts. The trophy itself was made from Purbeck marble and was carved by Charles Sykes the sculptor.The trophy was unveiled at Madame Prunier's restaurant on 20th September 1936 and it depicts a hand rising from the waves holding a herring. The trophy can now be seen in the Maritime Museum, Lowestoft. The Prunier Trophy Winner 1936: The first winner of the trophy was the Steam Drifter Boy Andrew which was built in Aberdeen. The skipper was J Mair and the catch was 231 crans of herring.
Almost got it done. Dave is a fantastic worker, he starts and keeps going - twice as fast as me and did it better too.
The boat was comandered during the war and used as a mine sweeper and... boom that was the end of that. I think they got some compensation, but not enough, bought a crudier boat and carried on but by then the stocks were geting low and these chaps were getting old and it wasn't what it was. My fathers generation were sent of to uni and from there most moved to England, one to Canada and one to Australia to farm sheep. Bit like the pits closing - anyone with the wherewithal boogered off to find work because there really wasn't much else going on.
@theBusmonkey aka Mr gearbox. My files say I have a PRM150, it's manual says it should have 10w30 engine oil in it but it's leaking atf...or something is and can only be the gearbox? Do you know if it's common to ignore the manufacturer and use ATF?
I'd say not common at all. Hydraulically operated prm150 should use engine oil afaik. The manual 125s and below use ATF. Ours is a Hurth which uses ATF. Anything unusual about yours? Has it been swapped at some stage and the paperwork doesn't correlate with what's hanging off the engine
Thanks Neil. In the end after tying various pipes and stuff out of the way I dipped the gearbox and it's engine oil. A bit more head scratching I think the stuff in the bilge is last dregs from a radiator that sat in the back for a few days. Phew and and
I waited 12 years to do the rewire that was long overdue. Rewiring an occupied house is a challenge, so as soon as my three boys had vacated I got stuck in. It's nearly killed me, but it's done now. I will never forget the misery of it and the stupidity of spending nearly ten years house-bashing in my younger days!
I googled it - wikipedia says A cran, in use from at least as early as the 18th century, was a unit of measure of landed uncleaned herring used in the North Sea fishing industry. In 1852 it was defined to be the equivalent of one standard box of about 37.5 imperial gallons - typically around 1200 fish, but varying anywhere between 700 and 2500. In metric units it is about 170.5 litres.[1][2] The word is from Scottish Gaelic crann, meaning "lot, measure of herring, tree".[3]
First layer of insulation. Fart about day making props and getting into the swing of it so didn't get as much done as I'd like. None of the steelwork is square either so each piece has to be tailor made to fit.
Maybe thats where the word Cramming something in comes from ...all be it M instead of N. Forcing fish into barrels to maximum capacity .
More of the same. Guess what I'll be doing tomorrow... I should get top half first layer done I hope, then tape it up and do bottom half of left side on Tuesday. That'll make it 8 days to re-rust, treat and insulate and I'm happy I decided to go for it instead of potter. This is just round 1 though. Round 2 is battens, conduit and wiring. Round 3 another layer of insulation between the battens and tape again. Round 4 is the ply lining, paint and trim. Round 5 move the wall between this part and the bathroom 6 inches and get the doors/frames sorted and rehung. Round 6 is fit a multifuel stove which I have ready with all the fire proof slabs, flue, flue collar and chimney. After that... Rip out the bathroom, do all the above to that space and turn it from walk through to a smaller corridor one... which means I'll have to jiggle the kitchen... around a bit. That will be more than enough for this year.
I have my new rattle gun and bits for torx/hex and cross head ready to go, I hope it's powerful enough - it's rather smaller and cuter than I expected. 120ft/lbs-ish IIRC. Only one way to find out. That reminds me, I must get the screws.
While I'm destructing things in general I thought I'd dig for the elusive skin tank bleed valve. Looks like someone else had the same idea. After destroying the threshold strip and ripping back the carpet a couple of pieces of board unscrewed and there it was should be. Close, there's somewhere to fit one at least. Bad luck whoever cust the boards ou - I expect they were going for one board but they got the cut right above the bleed valve fitting so had to do another one too. Bodgers - no tape measure? More unthinking narrowboat fitting - You can see the doorway is cut through a steel bulkhead which is there for several reasons, one of which is to keep the engine room and cabin bilges separate. Some plumber has drilled through it at low level for their plumbing convenience. All those 22mm pipes are coming out in the fulness of time and I'll glue a plate over the hole. @Merlin Cat @Merlin Cat1 Nice little job for you if you're over this way, I'd like a steel pipe fitted where that stopper is, heading to the right, slightly up hill into the engine space proper with bleed valve on the end so I can lift the engine boards and bleed the tank without ripping up the carpet and removing those lumps of ply flooring.
