 Replica Foyboat Bonny Tyne displayed in Tyne & Wear Archives & Museums Discovery Museum, Newcastle Upon Tyne. |
A foyboat is a small vessel primarily used to assist the mooring and servicing of a larger vessel. It is not a tug per se. The word has often been associated with the rivers of North East England.
The etymology directly ties this dialect word [1] [2] to a workboat of the River Tyne (and also the Wear [3] and Tees [4] ) used to assist larger vessels. Foy has been said to equal "fee" and these small boats might go as far south as the Tees seeking work and then returning with the vessel they had contracted to. [5] The exact origins of this humble boat type are lost but as the collier trade in sail developed out of the rivers of the North East of England, there would have been a great need for small vessels to tend larger ones. [6] The work involved would typically be handling lines between shore and vessel (and later to tugs), handling anchor [7] and buoy work, acting as informal ferries taking crew and provisions to anchored vessels and to each river bank. The reason a distinct vessel and type of crew evolved was down to an association between families and the job and the need to evolve a design whose first requirement was ruggedness and stability. [8] Before the mechanical tug evolved a rowing boat was the only way to tow sailing vessels in and out of the river estuaries during periods of calm or contrary winds.
The Foyboat was recognised in local dialect by the turn of the 18th/19th century. By then "at that time on the River Wear, we had about one hundred and fifty foy boats built on the same plan as a man'o war's gig but much neater (they) were very fast pulling boats". [9] Under sail the performance of the Foy boat was not exceptional, but under oar it was a different matter – they were excellent rowing boats. They could be rowed conventionally or sculled. [10] During the second half of the 20th century, the triumph of small scale marine diesels or petrol engines ensured the end of the traditional Foyboat. Yards would however still use the outline in a motorised form and offer a "Foyboat". An example was Robson's of South Shields in 1979. [11]
Within the Port of Tyne, foyboats evolved differently from the River Wear where the hull design was more closely associated with the Coble to create the foy coble. The surviving Peggy is to this design. Both types have been studied by Adrian Osler who worked at Tyne & Wear Museums. [12] It is Osler who mentions an association between the foyboatmen and publicans in the sense that the latter provided capital for boat construction and ownership. [13] The link is interesting in that this ties into surviving usage in public houses in Kent.
A notable change which is reflected in the pattern of the current day River Tees operation (see Further reading below) was the shift from racing competitively to secure work to the adoption of a rota system of work. [14] The process of regularising the procurement of work owes much on the River Tees to the formation of the first Foyboatman's Association. This and much else about the everyday lives of Tees Foyboatmen was recorded in a 2013 feature whose verdict is worth quoting "Although it is one of the most obscure occupations on the River Tees, or anywhere else for that matter, it is also one of the oldest and most vital". [15]
Published material in 2013 reveals that eight licensed foyboats work on the River Tees. As build costs accelerated, the river's own foyboat association commissioned and owned its own boats rather than the private individuals. The first example in 1964 cost £1,100 then. In 2013 the rough replacement cost of a Tees boat is £200,000 with a planned working life of a decade. In that year the association employed ten people with a further forty "members". It has become a form of co-operative. [15]
The term is known to have been used elsewhere in Britain. Around Ramsgate and Margate is one example. The presence of anchored vessels in The Downs would explain the need for such service. [16]
For a humble work boat and not one that translates into any form of popular or racing design, a surprising number feature in museum collections. They are:
A wherry is a type of boat that was traditionally used for carrying cargo or passengers on rivers and canals in England, and is particularly associated with the River Thames and the River Cam. They were also used on the Broadland rivers of Norfolk and Suffolk.
A rudder is a primary control surface used to steer a ship, boat, submarine, hovercraft, airship, or other vehicle that moves through a fluid medium. On an airplane, the rudder is used primarily to counter adverse yaw and p-factor and is not the primary control used to turn the airplane. A rudder operates by redirecting the fluid past the hull or fuselage, thus imparting a turning or yawing motion to the craft. In basic form, a rudder is a flat plane or sheet of material attached with hinges to the craft's stern, tail, or after end. Often rudders are shaped so as to minimize hydrodynamic or aerodynamic drag. On simple watercraft, a tiller—essentially, a stick or pole acting as a lever arm—may be attached to the top of the rudder to allow it to be turned by a helmsman. In larger vessels, cables, pushrods, or hydraulics may be used to link rudders to steering wheels. In typical aircraft, the rudder is operated by pedals via mechanical linkages or hydraulics.
A watercraft or waterborne vessel is any vehicle designed for travel across or through water bodies, such as a boat, ship, hovercraft, submersible or submarine.
Turbinia was the first steam turbine-powered steamship. Built as an experimental vessel in 1894, and easily the fastest ship in the world at that time, Turbinia was demonstrated dramatically at the Spithead Navy Review in 1897 and set the standard for the next generation of steamships, the majority of which would be turbine powered. The vessel is currently located at the Discovery Museum in Newcastle upon Tyne, North East England, while her original powerplant is located at the Science Museum in London.
A pilot boat is a type of boat used to transport maritime pilots between land and the inbound or outbound ships that they are piloting. Pilot boats were once sailing boats that had to be fast because the first pilot to reach the incoming ship got the business. Today, pilot boats are scheduled by telephoning the ship agents/representatives prior to arrival.
The coble is a type of open traditional fishing boat which developed on the North East coast of England. The southernmost examples occur around Hull ; the type extends to Burnmouth just across the Scottish border.
Eppleton Hall is a paddlewheel tugboat built in England in 1914. The only remaining intact example of a Tyne-built paddle tug, and one of only two surviving British-built paddle tugs, she is preserved at the San Francisco Maritime National Historical Park in San Francisco, California.
A maritime pilot, marine pilot, harbor pilot, port pilot, ship pilot, or simply pilot, is a mariner who has specific knowledge of an often dangerous or congested waterway, such as harbors or river mouths. Maritime pilots know local details such as depth, currents, and hazards. They board and temporarily join the crew to safely guide the ship's passage, so they must also have expertise in handling ships of all types and sizes. Obtaining the title "maritime pilot" requires being licensed or authorised by a recognised pilotage authority.
Zodiac is a two-masted schooner designed by William H. Hand, Jr. for Robert Wood Johnson and J. Seward Johnson, heirs to the Johnson & Johnson pharmaceuticals fortune. Hand intended to epitomize the best features of the American fishing schooner. The 160-foot-long (49 m), 145-ton vessel competed in transatlantic races. In 1931 the vessel was purchased by the San Francisco Bar Pilots Association, brought from the Atlantic, modified and placed in service as the pilot vessel California serving as such until retired in 1972.
The Keelmen of Tyne and Wear were a group of men who worked on the keels, large boats that carried the coal from the banks of both rivers to the waiting collier ships. Because of the shallowness of both rivers, it was difficult for ships of any significant draught to move up river and load with coal from the place where the coal reached the riverside. Thus the need for shallow-draught keels to transport the coal to the waiting ships. The keelmen formed a close-knit and colourful community on both rivers until their eventual demise late in the nineteenth century.
The National Maritime Museum, Cornwall is located in a harbourside building at Falmouth in Cornwall, England. The building was designed by architect M. J. Long, following an architectural design competition managed by RIBA Competitions.
The Falmouth Quay Punt was a type of working sailing vessel in the port of Falmouth, Cornwall in the 19th and early 20th century. They would be hired by merchant ships anchored in Carrick Roads – to carry stores, mail and passengers. Falmouth, with a good deep water harbour situated near the Western entrance to the English Channel, was a popular port for merchant sailing ships to call "for orders". Before the days of radio, captains would often not know which port their cargo would be destined for before they arrived in the country, and needed to collect instructions before continuing.
Roseway is a wooden gaff-rigged schooner launched on 24 November 1925 in Essex, Massachusetts. She is currently operated by World Ocean School, a non-profit educational organization based in Boston, Massachusetts, and is normally operated out of Boston, Massachusetts and Saint Croix, U.S. Virgin Islands. She was designated a National Historic Landmark in 1997 as the only known surviving example of a fishing schooner built specifically with racing competition as an objective. In 1941, Roseway was purchased by the Boston Pilot's Association to serve as a pilot boat for Boston Harbor, as a replacement for the pilot-boat Northern Light, which was sold to the United States Army for war service.
Sandy Hook Pilots are licensed maritime pilots that are members of the Sandy Hook Pilots Association for the Port of New York and New Jersey, the Hudson River, and Long Island Sound. Sandy Hook pilots guide oceangoing vessels, passenger liners, freighters, and tankers in and out of the harbor. The peninsulas of Sandy Hook, and Rockaway in Lower New York Bay define the southern entrance to the port at the Atlantic Ocean.
The MV Murree was a 1981 ship of the SD18 type, which sank in the English Channel in 1989.
A Bristol Channel pilot cutter is a type of sailing boat used until the early part of the 20th century to deliver and collect pilots to and from merchant vessels using ports in the Bristol Channel. Each pilot worked individually, in competition with other pilots. Especially after 1861, the level of competition required larger and faster cutters, as pilots went "seeking" at much greater distances. The resulting boats were known for their ability to sail in the most extreme weather, for speed and sea-kindliness. They were designed for short handed sailing, often manned only by a man and an apprentice, with one or sometimes two pilots on board.
Ship and boat building in Whitby was a staple part of the industry of Whitby, North Yorkshire, England between the 17th and 19th centuries. In 1792 and 1793, Whitby was the second largest ship-building port in England and Wales. Building continued throughout the 20th century but on a smaller scale both in terms of output and overall size of the vessels being built.
The Dancing Feather was a 19th-century pilot boat, built in 1853 at the Dennison J. Lawlor shipyard in East Boston, Massachusetts. She went to San Francisco in 1853. The Dancing Feather met up with the wreck SS Yankee Blade in 1854 and was able to raise four boxes of treasure from the sunken vessel. In 1857, she went ashore on the beach north of Point Bonita in San Francisco Bay.
The Thomas F. Bayard was a 19th-century Delaware River pilot schooner built by C. & R. Poillon shipyard in 1880. She spent sixteen years as a pilot boat before being sold during the Yukon Gold Rush in 1897. She was sold again in 1906 for Seal hunting, then purchased by the Department of Marine & Fisheries where she guided freighters into New Westminster, British Columbia for 43 years. She was then acquired by the Vancouver Maritime Museum in 1978. When she sank at her mooring in 2002, the International Yacht Restoration School, Mystic Seaport and the Vancouver Maritime Museum, removed the vessel in pieces for the archeological teams to study and document the remains of her hull. The Thomas F. Bayard Collection, at the Vancouver Maritime Museum, contains the documents, history and preservation efforts.
The John McKeon was a 19th-century New Jersey pilot boat built in 1838 by Webb & Allen for the New Jersey Pilots Association. She helped transport maritime pilots between inbound or outbound ships coming into the New York Harbor. Her short career ended in 1839, when the John McKeon was shipwrecked in a hurricane that swept the New York coast. The pilot boat Gratitude was lost in the same storm.
"Not Quite a Sagger Maker's Bottom Knocker but a Foyboatman would run it close" page 52 (print) or page 22 (online) : The literature of the Foyboat is not extensive which makes this three page feature worth study.
