Turks Auction Viewing

This blog visited the Turks auction of boats used as film props in Chatham today, in the company of Mr Intheboatshed.net and the ever-charming Mrs Intheboatshed.net. It was a grand day out looking at some fabulous boats and, as an unexpected bonus, ferreting through one of the finest collections of boat junk maritime memorabilia in the world.
The collection includes some luscious examples of Victorian craftsmanship that will be posted in the next few days but first I want to alert boat nuts to the fact that Turks is clearing a vast quantity of fittings from binnacles to fairleads, and the Turk family is open to offers on the lot.
The biggest collection is rowing gear. There is an incredible variety of oars on racks, from huge sweeps for barges to little paddles for miniature canoes. Condition varies from a bundle of about a doz unused Plastimos to some shards of wood that must have been oars at some time in the distant past. There is even a rubber oar that must have been made as a background item for a film set but would make a superb prop for a jape.
As you see, Mr Intheboatshed.net bought a pair of nice blades and I acquired two pairs of short oars, one for Simbo and the other because they will probably come in handy some time. The lot put me back 25 quid.
Other rowing stuff includes riggers from old shells, brass rowlocks, sliding seats, stretchers and even a selection of coach's megaphones. There is a rich choice of presentation oars for forgotten bumps races, and a few bows from defunct eights with mounting plates ready for hanging on the clubhouse wall.
Turks are moving out of the shed because they have received 'an offer they can't refuse' from a riverboat operator who needs a place to service their fleet, so the whole lot must go. Get down there now!
Footnote, Lot 114:

There is a fine stuffed chavender, a chavender or chub,

Hangs in our local pavender, the pavender or pub,

Wherein I eat my gravender, my gravender or grub.

Rowing on Telly (cont)

By popular demand, here's a still of Dan Snow from Empire of the Seas on the Beeb earlier this week. He is rowing down the Medway past Upnor Castle, where Nelson was rowed to his ship as a new midshipman. Except that Snow is rowing a plastic repro lugger with the usual stump things that sailors buy from the chandlers and never use (I have seen pairs of Plastimos in mint condition in the bottom of many a hard-sailed dinghy). They are far too short to be of any use whatsoever and as a result he is thrashing away like a good 'un but going nowhere.
Upnor is a lovely place - I played bat and trap in the Kings Arms there once. My team won convincingly, but at the end of the evening I still had no idea how the score was calculated. I think they went out the back and sacrificed chickens.