I love boats! Messing around online the other night, I came across two short videos of old moving picture film that show women working on narrowboats in England during WWII in the 1940s. Women operated the narrowboats/barges to move coal and wood and food and steel and copper and porcelain dishes and other resources (wool for clothing and fuel for houses and for boats and for industry), while the men who usually did that work were off fighting the war. Women had already been running narrowboats, perfectly well, but more of them stepped up to do the job.
The first video has no sound. The second video does have sound.
In the video below, there are three women. One of the narrowboats leaves the moorage with one woman at the helm … the other boat leaves with one woman at the helm also, but that second boat has a “butty” boat being towed behind, and that towed boat needs a person (the third woman) at its helm to steer it around tight turns in the canals since that butty boat did not have its own engine, it was simply being towed. Some turns are so tight that the butty boat too needs steering … rather like some really large/long fire engines here in the USA where someone steers the rear end of that rig around tight corners. We’ll have to pardon the narrator who calls these very professional women “girls” … sigh.
Here’s one more tidbit for you history buffs (or boat buffs) … here (below) is a movie (yes a real, commercially produced movie) that was made in 1944 (before the end of WWII), and then it was released in 1945 (one month after the end of WWII). It’s called “Painted Boats”. It’s about two narrowboat barge operations run by two different families during the 1940s. There’s some romance involved (hey, it’s a movie after all), and yet there is lots of history and narrowboat stuff. The women and men do the same work on the boats in this movie, as they did back then, and as they still do. This movie is only an hour long. HERE is a wikipedia article about the movie.
There’s a link to the movie below, but read this first. You might notice at about 21:10 that the boat is about to enter a long tunnel, and the narrator keeps saying “boat-men” or “man-power”, as that’s who “legged” the boat through the tunnel … but then the video shows one man on the starboard side and one woman on the port side (likely the husband and wife who owned the boat), both moving into position in order to leg/walk the boat through. And yet the video then shows one man talking (not the husband) but he was looking UP in this video/movie, and he would have HAD to have been lying sideways to “walk” or “leg” through the tunnel, so he was not the person “legging” the boat, don’t know why they didn’t simply show the woman. I’ve seen a photograph of two women legging their own personal boat through a tunnel back in the early 1900s. Men and women, both, did this work, don’t you kid yourself. 🙂
Later in the movie, there’s an official fellow who comes to chat with our boat owner, and tells the owner to “wind” your boat, which means to turn the boat around by going to the nearest wide area in the canal and then turn the boat around there. It isn’t “wind” as in wind your watch … it is “wind” as in the points of the “wind”, north, east, south, west … and then head in the opposite direction. And so our boat owner did that, in order to go to a shipyard and get an engine installed so he no longer needed to use a horse walking along the tow path to pull the boat. Lots of details here, and lots of things to watch out for when you’re “on the cut” or “on the canal”. This movie is an extraordinarily excellent view/description of boating on the canals in England (and Scotland). A few things have changed, but not much.
And, finally, at last!, here is the link where you can watch the movie for free (don’t use your phone, use a real computer or laptop/tablet) … and turn your sound on! https://ok.ru/video/4212773161499?fromTime=0. WARNING!! BEFORE YOU CLICK ON THAT LINK! I can’t get this movie to start with the sound ON. So as soon as you open that link, STOP the movie by clicking on the two small vertical lines on the left side of the screen. Then, to the right of those vertical lines, about in the center of the screen, there is a solid thing that looks something like a megaphone that has a white X next to it. Click on the X. That will turn the sound on. Then go back to the left and click on the solid white triangle. And be sure to turn your computer’s sound on too.
Three of my most favorite boating vlogs (video blogs) that I follow are produced by people in England today who live on their narrowboats full-time and travel the canals and rivers of England. All three of these vlogs are listed on the right side of every page here in my blog, under the heading “Other Blogs and Vlogs That I Follow”. The three are … (the name of each one here is a link to that vlog).
The world is so full of interesting things, isn’t it? For those of you who live in (or visit) western Washington State, an interesting place to visit in Seattle is the Hiram Chittenden Locks (sometimes called the Ballard Locks). The best days/times to visit the Locks are late Friday afternoon or any time on Sunday afternoon. That’s when a lot of pleasure boats are heading out, or returning home. There’s a fish “ladder” next to the locks that allows salmon and other fish to by-pass the locks when the fish are heading upstream or downstream. You can walk down a set of stairs to view the fish through thick glass, if the fish happen to be running when you’re there. Pick a nice sunny day and check out the Locks!
Fair winds and calm seas, everyone! Watch the bow and stern of your boat, don’t hit that bridge! 🙂