Revenue Cutters and Smuggling Luggers

These photographs follow the construction of the Alert and are arranged in chronological order left to right, top to bottom. Please click any picture to view a larger version.
New Dinghy	Bow View of Backbone with Moulds	Stern View, Lining out the Planking	Fairing the Garboard	Cleaning off the Rabbet
Thicknessing the Full Length Planking	Backbone for new HMS Victory Cutter	52 passenger ferry Gloria of the Calstock Motor Launch and Ferry Company relaunched with MCA Survey	New backbone and replanked Tamar Salmon Skiff	Garlandstone Bow
Slipway	Old cutter from HMS Victory to be replaced	Admiralty Pinnace built Scapa Flow in WWII having new sheer and upper works	'Garlandstone' blocks formerly green with lichen, bathed in oxalic acid, soaked in oil and varnished	Refinishing 'Garlandstone' mizzen
Ted Luck Steaming ribs for Tamar Salmon Skiff rebuilt from backbone up in our new Small Craft Shed	Duke of Bedford's Boathouse with restored Cornish Skiff	'Garlandstone' forehatch refitted	'Garlandstone' skylight refitted	'Garlandstone' aft cabin hatch refitted
Drake's Island, Plymouth Sound	'Garlandstone' spars refitted	Thurso Whaler on Boathouse slip and 'Garlandstone' stern on main slip	150 ton 'Garlandstone' (part of core National Historic Ships Rgister) on the slip for a refit	Exhibition of Saxon King Alfred's Jewels (Discovery Centre, Winchester) - Alfred's Jewel Unit
Exhibition of Saxon King Alfred's Jewels (Discovery Centre, Winchester) - Shield Wall Interactive	Exhibition of Saxon King Alfred's Jewels (Discovery Centre, Winchester) - Speaker Box	Exhibition of Saxon King Alfred's Jewels (Discovery Centre, Winchester)- Four Berth Seat in Workshop	Exhibition of Saxon King Alfred's Jewels (Discovery Centre, Winchester) - Exposed and Wedged Tenon	Exhibition of Saxon King Alfred's Jewels (Discovery Centre, Winchester) - Small Bench
Safely arriving back in Plymouth	John snoozes	Dried out in Tobermory to replace pin through propellor nut	Rain	Shiant Islands, Minch
Dinghy well hauled up against the rising tide	Father thry some fishing at anchor	Collecting driftwod for the wood burner	At anchor, Outer Hebrides	Stornoway castle
Stornoway harbour amongst the fishing boats	'I see no ships'	Seaman Hingley's stew and dumplings	Suduroy, Faeroes	Homebound, north east Faeroes
Borgafjordur, Iceland	Icelandic lighthouse	Motoring in a flat calm, Iceland	Father takes the helm, Iceland	Sedisfjordur, Iceland
Sedisfjordur, Iceland	A seaworthy vessel, well armed; safe passage, safe arrival	Sedisfjordur, Iceland	Sedisfjordur, Iceland	Sedisfjordur, Iceland
Sedisfjordur, Iceland	Sedisfjordur, Iceland	Sedisfjordur, Iceland	Approaching Iceland	Approaching Iceland
Approaching Iceland	Alongside a Grimsby smack in Torshaven, Faeroe (with grass roofs in the background)	Sunset en route to Faeroe	Novel use for an old boat in Lerwick, Shetland	Stromness harbour, Scapa Flow, Orkney
Scottish lighthouse	Internal lead ballast	Double berth aft of navigation area	Heads	Looking aft
Cooker (belfast sink under work top to left)	Chart table	Companion way	Saloon	Running a cargo on the top of the tide
Name plaque	Naming ceremony in the Great Dock	Lugger in the Great Dock	Sara names the boat in the traditional manner	Bow detail
Lowering the foremast into position	Old fashioned lucky penny in the foremast mast step	Looking up the mast from the dinghy	Foremast upright and waiting for Alert to be bougth alongside	Raising foremast
Shackling foremast onto Garlandstone mizzen gaff	Rowing foremast into Great Dock	Made blocks with Admiralty bronze sheaves	Bought blocks	The Blacksmith makes a piece of a raft iron around the manderil
'Alert' dwarfed behind the 150 ton 'Garlandstone'	Deck view from aft	In the mud	Deck view from on the 'Garlandstone's' counter	Afloat in the Gerat Dock in company with the lugger 'Andorra' and the ketch 'Garlandstone'
Hours of shavings	Fore mast and mizzen	View from aft at top of slipway	View on quarter at top of slip	Slipped
Makeshift greasy turntable with ungreased pivot mid ships	Swiveling vessel to be positioned stern first down slip	Forward view as she comes through the hole in the wall	Negotiating the ramp and gap	Moving down the irregular ramp
BBC film Alert as she moves towards the slip	Having turned 90 degrees anti clockwise, preparing to line up with gap and move down bumpy slope	Making 90 degree turn to point at hole in wall leading onto slipway	Preparing to turn to line up with gap in the wall	Stern view at end of first day
Just avoiding the overhead railway	View from aft at end of first day	Deck view having left the shed on the first evening	Leaving the shed and Bowsprit the puppy	Preparing to move Alert who weighs approximately ten tons (final displacement will be 14.2 T)
View aft to galley (cooker will be installed)	Saloon	Forepeak (heads to port, drying locker starboard)	Down the hatch	Fitting stopwaters in stem and stern post tenons and then caulking back to rabbet
Detail of outrigger fitting on taffrail	Beginning to jack boat down to launch position (boat weighs approx. ten tons at present)	BBC begin filming	Bowsprit aboard on a rare sunny day, (spar not fully run out)	Interior wood work almost complete (looking forward through saloon to forepeak)
Drilling slot in bowsprit to take bronze sheave for traveller outhaul	Making the first rough face on the fore mast	String lining the fore mast before rough cutting the first face	Tiller and Water Baillif's slipway (an appropriate place to launch a smuggling boat)	Galley structure
Outrigger and bowsprit	Tony Sharp, author of Distance Run (the definitive work on ship's logs) begins the spars	Joshua Preston of the Calstock Steam Packet Co. lines up the 40hp Yanmar diesel	Bulkheads looking forward	Bulkheads looking aft
Making the rudder pintels	Skylight half finished	Foredeck	Hatches	Sara and Will in November
An empty interior	Deck and capstan	Starboard quarter	Sheer profile	Starboard bow
Stern view	Bow view	Mast step	Drilling the lead to take bronze keel bolts	Jacking the lead ballast into position
Carving on Hawse pads	The Harbour-Master and a Miner	Putting up the bulwarks	Foredeck	laying the deck
Deck beams and mast partners	Rudder fittings	Profile view of hull	Masts and complete hull	Planking complete; stern view
Proping the shutter into place	More steam!	Bow view	Steaming the planks around the lute	Fitting the oak whales
Blacksmith begins the metal work	Westcountry ketch 'Garlandstone'	Douglas fir masts arrive (70 rings on the mizzen tree and both felled January before the sap rose)	Rescuing 'bitts' during the equinox tides	Port Bow
Quayside view	Morwellham overshot water wheel	Bow view	Bronze screwing the hood ends	Melting pitch for the bilge so that it drains to a single point
A head of steam to bend on the planks	Stbd Quarter	Port Bow	The night shift	Starboard quarter
Through the frames	Port bow	Oak sheer plank hooked scarf	The price of boatbuilding today (horn timbers)	First of the frost
A frosty morning at Morwellham	Driving in the well greased rivets at the stem	Shaping the rivet in the Blacksmith's shop	Offering up the stem	Stern post mortise
Rabbet and deadwood	Squaring the keel	Timber pile and timber hauler	Pinning frames with copper rod	Assembling the frames
Dry fitting the frames	Stack of futtocks for framing	Cutting the futtocks	Roughing out the futtocks	Lofting out the shape