Northumbrian Cobles & The Unit of Tigris Boatmen - South Side of the Tyne

This afternoon we crossed the River to South Shields, planned destination the Arbeia Roman Fort (any excuse for a go on the boats, though).

A huge fort, built to defend the Mouth of the Tyne and store supplies for garrisons right the way along Hadrian's Wall. We did some 'excavating' in the visitor centre, unearthing many 'shards', and possibly a sheep's skull, before climbing up inside the restored West Tower to learn more about the pre- and post-Roman history of the Lawes area. Too busy for ghosts - more likely to encounter those on the extant stretches of Roman road up country - as always struck by the cosmopolitan nature of the Roman Empire... Arbeia, overlooking the Tyne, takes its name from 'Bet Arbaye', the Aramaic name for the Tigris, the fort being staffed by The Unit of Tigris Boatmen.

Making our way back down towards the ferry landing I persuaded Vjollca into a tiny museum between boatyards, crammed with paintings, newpaper cuttings and boaty odds and ends but that was not all, as soon we found ourselves on a guided tour of the North East Maritime Trust's workshop, where work was progressing on the restoration of the Henry Frederick Swan, the original Tynemouth Lifeboat, and various Foy boats and Northumbrian Cobles. Although we were given a thoroughly technical explanation of the differences between scarf and clinker joints, et al, and shown why boat builders of the 19th c and earlier took their templates to the forests (timber already growing in the required shape without the need for jointed sections being stronger), the restorers describe themselves as 'romantics', insisting, for example, that the design of the Northumbrian coble derives from the Viking Longships and their bright colours from the boats on the Bayeux Tapestry. Also an explanation of the use of the three lighthouses along the river mouth - navigators must 'line them up' in order to negotiate the curve of the river and the spiky rock formations known as the Black Middens.

http://www.twmuseums.org.uk/arbeia/

http://www.nemaritimetrust.co.uk/2011/02/henry-frederick-swan-restoration-on-full-ahead/
http://www.nemaritimetrust.co.uk/2010/08/and-now-for-something-very-different-the-boomerang-boat/
(For a photo of the fabulous 'Boomerang Boat'. Built for the 16th Biennale of Sidney, 2008, it explores the idea of turning and returning to the same point.)

Moths and Ghosts

Ghosts wash into my dreams here, seems only natural.

Last night my brother, John, looking younger, sitting beside the storage heater with no shirt on, waiting happily for someone to dress him, big daft lad. Had we not walked around Newcastle all afternoon seeing his name on plaques - John Dobsons everywhere. Then another, waking me to remind me of the first, slipping away behind it.

Near 6 I gave up on lying in the dark and went into the garden. Light breaking over the mouth of the river ('moth' according to the est. agents' ad) in shell pink streaks, unknown birds calling, beautiful and strange. And a dragging, shuffling sound I thought was from the path that runs alongside the garden but did not pass by as expected (I wasn't afraid of it but preparing a shy and stealthy peek when it should pass me). Someone in the market garden across the way working early, perhaps, in the dark, though it sounded like something huge hauling itself from the sea - the Moth of the Tyne itself, maybe.

But moths and ghosts are forgotten as fast as nights end here, before it occurred to me to fetch a torch I realised I could already see the remains of rain water on the table top in front of me, no sign of anything or anyone it might have been, and daytime things to be done.

Moving to Tynemouth

Thursday evening - leaving Blenheim Primary School

So long old friend.

Last walk down the Brambly Path...

Carl's titchy removals - 'It looks small but you'd be surprised' ?!

Splodgy arrives in his Muji Fish Transporter/Cereal Storage

Soon we find a new Tin Fish...

then home to watch moonshine on the river... much later I go outside again, thinking I see ghostly gulls flying past the end of the garden at rhythmic intervals - beams from a lighthouse.