In March 2022, Des Pawson was at Chatham Historic Dockyard for the launch of their new gallery featuring exhibits from his renowned museum of knotting and sailor’s ropework and he saw this: a winch to drive a cable to a crane fixed to the Fitted Rigging House. The cast inscription dates the equipment to 1918.

 

 

In January 2022, Des Pawson got hold of a trade catalogue (c.1896-1901) from Thos & Wm Smith: wire rope makers of Newcastle. It finished up in Australia – where Smith’s had a large wire rope business – when he bought it via e-bay at quite a high price. It has three Ransomes & Rapier cranes illustrated (for the Manchester Ship Canal, for the Madras Harbour Board and for Harwich) as well as a full written description of the Harwich one and a testimonial to the quality of the wire rope. Many thanks to Des for sending this image from, possibly, a unique artefact.

Note the caps boaters, bowlers and top hats on the tiny figures; also the lettering on the stack: ‘Test load 37 tons at 35 ft radius’. This emphasises the enormous scale of some of the Ransomes & Rapier cranes built at the Waterside Works on Griffin Wharf, on the Stoke side of New Cut. The crane shown was built to deal with heavy goods of the continental traffic landing at Parkeston Quay, Harwich. See the full set of images, including the testimonial, on this web-page.

See also the letter to the Editor on page 15.

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