Whelkers

Bessie

Bessie is another Dunkirk Little Ship, and our next project.

We are very pleased to have acquired whelker Bessie from Trevor Farman in Yarmouth, from where she was delivered to Morston Quay by Abbey Transport Ltd on December 7th 2011.

Her history 

Bessie is one of the last remaining Johnson-built whelkers.  She was built  in 1935 for the Cox family (G.H.Cox and Sons) who whelked with her out of Wells-next-the-Sea for 30 years, license number LN 16. 

She is 26 ft long and 10 ft broad, built to the traditional double-ended design that was prevalent along the North Norfolk coast, and made of larch and oak with an inboard engine and an auxiliary dipping lugsail.

She was named after George Henry Cox’s wife, Bessie.  Later, when the Cox family acquired three Liverpool-type ex-lifeboats she was retained as a reserve vessel.  She was well regarded by the family and considered a fine sea boat.

Squeakie Bishop then bought her and used her for angling parties, first from Blakeney and then Gorleston, where she was used as a pleasure and fishing boat until acquired by Rescue Wooden Boats. 

Dunkirk connections 

In 1940, Bessie was taken from Wells-next-the-Sea to Ramsgate as part of Operation Dynamo to help evacuate the British Expeditionary Forces from Dunkirk.

She was chosen for a special sub-mission to collect a party of men.  She crossed the English Channel and had to lie off the French coast in a vulnerable position.  There is a detailed and exciting account of this mission in the 1946 book Storm on the Waters by Charles Vince (click on the bold title to read), in which it quotes,

“It was rumoured that he (a VIP within the party to pick up) was Sir Launcelot Oliphant, British Ambassador to Belgium, who was made prisoner by the Germans when trying to get from Bruges to le Havre.” (p. 42)  

But the time after the signal passed and there was no sign of the party, so Bessie returned home.

There is also an account of the expedition in local paper The Journal, dated Friday 9th July 1954, an account based on a report written by Dr. E. W. Hicks, dating from 18th April 1944, and we have copies of three dated postcards (plus transcripts) from Billy Cox to his wife, posted from Ramsgate, Dover and Harwich - click on the text in bold to read.  Bessie is also listed in Alphabetic List of The Little Ships in Christian Brann's book The Little Ships of Dunkirk (p.229; Collectors' Books, 1989).

Many thanks to Billy Cox's granddaughters, Geraldine Green and Caroline Gittens, for helping us with the research into Bessie's history.

Work needed

During the winter of 2013 and 2014 essential work was carried out on Bessie to repair damage and keep her stable.  At the same time the added wheel house was removed and her decks strengthened, so she looks much more like her original 1935 self.  David Hewitt and Tom Gathercole carried out the work, with plenty of help from volunteers.
Since then she has sustained some damage and any progress was delayed by the pandemic. She has been ashore under cover for several years and like all wooden boats she has deteriorated badly so we have had to modify our original plans. 
We are now aiming for structural stabilisation starting later this year (2026) by:

If all goes well with this we can then consider what options we have for further work. 
We have received some small grants to help with this first stage (eg for the wood for a new keel) and are applying for bigger grants. We of course need to match these funds so welcome contributions here 

We regard Bessie as a very important boat. we are very keen to be able to display and tell her story publicly and hope this will be possible.

See photographs of Bessie here 

Watch films in which Bessie is discussed here

Become a "Bessie Benefactor" and support our work on her here

 

Harvester


October 31st 2015                                        

Harvester is now being used afloat by a local family.

Whelker Harvester has been generously donated to Rescue Wooden Boats by Graeme Peart. She was built in 1951 by Emery of Sheringham and her first owner was Sid "Custard" Cooper. David Hewitt restored her for Graeme Peart as a pleasure boat with a gaff rig.   We since then have converted her to a more traditional rig with a lugsail and jib as shown in the photograph below. She takes part every year in our Maritime Heritage Festival in Wells and is one of the few whelkers remaining afloat. We have regular maintenance and running costs to keep her in good shape so if you’d like to help keep Harvester afloat you can donate here. 

See more photos of Harvester here

Take a look at some of our films featuring Harvester here

Sally

Wells Whelker. 28ft. Build 1939 for Jim Shrum by Reggie Emery. Later owned by Gully Grimes and worked by Tony Jordan. Now owned and skippered by Ben Riches in Wells-next-the-Sea.

Knot

Whelker. 26t. Build 1938 for Gerald Bullard as a pleasure boat by Reggie Emergy. From 1942 used by “Diddy” Cooper whelking from Wells-next-the-Sea.

Salford

Brancaster Whelker. 30ft. Built in 1950 for Alf Large by Worfolk Brothers in Kings Lynn. Now owned by Henry Chamberlain of Coastal Exploration Company in Wells-next-the-Sea.

Isobel

Brancaster Whelker. 26ft. Built 1938 for Cyril Loose by Reggie Emery. Now owned by David Parkinson of Fosdyke.

 

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