SB George Smeed
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 George Smeed in Maldon in 2005 | |
| History | |
|---|---|
| United Kingdom | |
| Name | George Smeed |
| Builder | Smeed-Dean Co Ltd (Murston) |
| Yard number | 83340 |
| Commissioned | 1882 |
| Status | Private use and private charter ship |
| General characteristics | |
| Tonnage | 59 rebuilt 64 |
| Propulsion | Sails and auxiliary diesel engine |
| Crew | 2 |
| Notes | Wood |
George Smeed is a Thames barge built in 1882 by Smeed Dean & Co. Ltd. in Murston.
The barge is named after the Sittingbourne entrepreneur, George Smeed (1812–1881) who began business in 1846 in Murston. The building of Victorian London created a vast demand for bricks. The yellow Kent Stock Brick which was cheaper to make than the more traditional red brick; Sittingbourne had the brickearth needed to make them, and easy access to the Swale and the London River. By 1860 he owned expanding brickfields, shipyards along the creek and barges. The business traded as Smeed-Dean Co Ltd until 1926 when it was sold.[1]
Owners
- 1882 Built for Smeed Dean & Co. Ltd.
- Passing to A.P.C.M.
- 1922 Rebuilt at 64 ton,
- Francis & Gilders
- Browns for lighterage.
- 1970s housebarge at Heybridge
- 1980 onwards Ken and Carol Greenhalgh for renovation
- 2017 Rebuilt and rerigged [2]
Based at Maldon owned by Carol Greenhalgh.
Description
She was built in 1881 [registered in 1882] in Murston Sittingbourne by Smeed Dean for their personal use. This meant she was a brick barge destined to take bricks from Sittingbourne or Snodland to London, and towns along the Kent and Essex coast. She was rated at 58 tons, and would carry a cargo of 110 GRT tons (the unit of volume). She was deep and did not have raised hatches or a raised cabin. She was steered with a tiller. Her compass was kept under the glass cabin hatch, so it could be seen from within and without. In 1922 she was rebuilt as a 64-ton vessel that could carry a 150 GRT tons cargo. However, she kept her original rigging and was under-canvased for this size of vessel, and very light headed, in that small corrections on the helm could cause large and unpredictable changes of course. By 1949 she was sailing with a crew of two, but earlier she had a skipper, a mate and a boy who acted as cook and tended the lamps. Her cabin was entered directly down a vertical ladder, though in later times, a wall was added to act as a vestible where the wet oilskins could be left. With a three-man crew, the cooking was done in the fo'castle where the boy had his berth. [3] She was spritsail rigged and had a bowsprit that would be topped in the harbours or along the quays. [3]
Although normally employed in the Thames, its estuary and adjoining rivers, she did venture further afield on occasions. Hedley Farrington recalls one voyage in the mid 1920s from Sittingbourne to Devonport in company with SB Gertrude May. They were loaded with cement. It was winter time and the voyage lasted three months.[4]
