However, I wondered why she looked rather dishevelled and neglected, and the licence disc in her cabin was last renewed in 2007.
Her varnished decks were peeling, and her winding gear looked as if it could do with some maintenance,
her brass portholes were verdigrised,
though her carefully stitched sails looked well-ordered and still sound.
As I've found before, an unusual boat can often be easily researched on the internet. I found from the on-line newsletter (that's a PDF file, btw, so a bit slow) of the Lympstone sailing club that the Queen of the May was built,owned and sailed by one of their long time members, a well-known and liked man by all accounts, but then he and his wife, and the boat, moved to Brittany, though they all travelled back and forth regularly, as we are fairly much on a straight line down from that part of Devon. Sadly, he died in 2007, and it seems that the Queen of the May goes to sea no longer. I couldn't find out anything much more.
It doesn't look as if it would take much to get her seaworthy again though...
12 comments:
It's amazing that I was too drawn into taking boats pictures even though mine were not as detailed as yours..it's nice to know that everything has it's history. I love the refelctions!
You ought to look into buying her ...
What a romantic name. Gather ye rosebuds while ye may indeed.
Sounds as if you're tempted. The sails look new, even unused. The shackles (I'm using the word generically) untouched. Seeming to suggest an even sadder story. During the winter months the owner perhaps had the boat re-rigged for the coming summer and then had the misfortune to die before being able to take advantage of the renovations. Man proposes...
You're definitely sounding as if, for two pins... I love boats as long as they're someone else's to look after.
Thank you so much for your very lovely comment on my blog. I really enjoy reading yours too, with your multi-talents of art, photography and writing. And your comment was my 30th! I've never had 30 before - very exciting!
A boat without a sailor? Horrible!
A sad time for a pretty craft... perhaps you should consider what JC proposes.
The brass portholes seem to be crying. Perhaps for her former owner.
Haunting vignette. I wonder.
(o)
Thanks all, welcome JC.
No, it's just more dreaming. We haven't the means, the skills nor the time to take on such a thing, and I imagine a wooden boat like that takes a lot of looking after. In another life maybe. I was kind of wondering if anyone might look in and give me a it more information about her. It is a sad tale, piecing together the info I do have Mr Venton, the owner, can only have had a couple of years here before he became ill and died.
Poetry in a boat - and probably on it - wonderful!
A melancholy tale to which, in our imaginations, we'll all have to attach our most positive resolutions.
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