Tag: Surlingham

Yesterday I enjoyed what is likely to be my penultimate sail of 2019. I know, I know yet again I’m deviating from the intended order of writing. That’s the joy of being the Editor though.

Yesterday was glorious. Bitterly cold, clear, sunny and calm. Very calm. We rigged whilst tied to our mooring, and headed off upriver to Surlingham Ferry, for the Turkey Race – next weekend.

I found myself checking and double checking the rigging again – I’m not sure if I need to re-order and change the cleats on the tabernacle, now the topsail is there. Currently the peak halyard is lead onto the port face, with the throat on the starboard face. The topsail spar has a neat trick of capturing the peak – at the lower end of the spar, which can make lowering the mainsail tricky.

This definitely needs looking at, for two reasons. One – the rig should work, and this is dangerous. Two – when you sail on/off moorings, I find the best way is to keep the way on as much as possible, and to be able to drop the sail – bloody quickly if needed.

The rig did present a more amusing quirk – if you tension the topsail forestay just right, it ‘thrums’ and buzzes… Took me ages to work that out, including removing the floorboards and checking on the bilge-pump to see if that was running!

Heading upriver, we were lucky enough to be photographed by a friend, whose currently building a house for his family. The scaffolding made an excellent platform, although if I’m critical – that peak is about 1 or 2 inches ‘out’ by the look of the creases.

I’m struggling to find superlatives to describe the day if I’m honest, it was perfect.

Typical of the season, a North wind with no warmth, a clear sky and a medley of colour in the riverbank, reds, browns, yellow and oranges all competing in the remnants of summer foliage. We sailed every inch of the way, and we knew we’d taken the best of the day for ourselves.

But. I wanted to talk about the starfish.

This links with the subtly of the Broads rivers – and the villages which surround them. There are features worth exploring, and a hidden history. There is a tenuous link to Chumley & Hawke as well…

Surlingham has a starfish. Something which shows the far-reach of war, into the boring fields of Norfolk. In truth both Norfolk & Suffolk were riddled with military action during WW2, and you’re never far from it.

Starfish sites were large decoys – developed in WW2 to act as a distraction to enemy bombers. Norwich took a pasting, in what’s known as the Baedeker raids, with the railway station/yard & nearby engineering works of Bolton & Paul being prime targets.

The solution was to create a decoy – which could emulate (from afar) what bomb damage might look like, including fires. The deception went further – it had to look realistic. There was a network of lights rigged, which could replicate the cadence of lit railway carriage passing by at night. Or a red glow to simulate a fire-box door being opened on a railway locomotive.

For reference – here’s a 1946 aerial photograph of Norwich railway station;

Interestingly – the 1946 aerial photographs also show the deception required. Outside of Norwich, you can just see a crude attempt at censoring the existence of what is either a fuel installation, or the present-day sewage station at Whitlingham;

Surlingham was chosen to host a ‘starfish’. Local firms such as the Rockland Reed & Rush company would supply bundles of reeds to act as ‘wicks’ for the fires – whilst the pyrotechnics were handled through a series of heath robinson-esque contraptions – mixing oil & water to make dramatic explosions.

Interestingly – the knowledge & expertise behind the starfish sites is credited to expertise within the theatric industry – being able to use lights, smoke & explosions to good effect on stage can enable a mimic on a much larger scale.

It’s no exaggeration that these sites were vital. Norwich became so battered and bruised, you would see families walking out on the Drayton & Dereham roads on a nightly basis – preferring to sleep out in the open than risk another night of bombs.

Today – the site of Surlingham’s starfish is much quieter. I stopped by, and knowing where to find the bunker – managed to capture it in its slumber;

Again – the hidden detail, and history of Norfolk’s rivers & surroundings amazes me. You can walk quite easily from Surlingham Ferry, and walk past this 100 times without knowing what it’s about.

I can’t imagine what it would have been like, orchestrating a site like this in the war – knowing it’d lure enemy bombs to drop adjacent to you instead of on an already burning city.

The link between this starfish and ‘Corsair’ is tenuous – but there. It links to Joseph Lejeune – foreman at Chumley & Hawke in the pre-war years, and the heyday of Alfred Lloyd Braithwaite’s design experiments. Lejeune’s & Braithwaite’s most extreme experiment was undoubtedly Khala Nag;

I’m fortunate enough to own that photograph, which is to my knowledge the only extant photograph of Khala Nag – it was part of the treasure trove of ALB’s possessions which I found earlier this year, in Milford on Sea. See here for the highlights of that; https://broadssailing.blog/2019/07/18/on-the-trail-of-a-l-braithwaite/

‘KN’ was a flier.  27ft long, with only 4ft 6” (yes) beam and 3ft 6” draft she carried 2 separate rigs, one for the Broads, one for coastal waters.  The extent of his commitment to balance, weight, sails & hullform is evident in this design & build.

Whilst Joseph Lejeune built the yacht, Braithwaite assisted throughout.  Notably he weighed and recorded each and every component of ‘KN’. This eventually lead him not only to knowing the exact required weight of the ballast keel, but also how to trim the vessel, so that her centre of gravity could be altered to 1” in advance of the centre of buoyancy, calculated to counteract the weight of any crew.  This simple calculation is often overlooked by designers, and pays dividends when sailing. 

At the time of the outbreak of WW2 Joseph Lejeune was the foreman at Chumley & Hawke, and unquestionably there must have been a close working partnership between him, and Lt Cdr Braithwaite.  They were close in age – and clearly shared a passion for experimenting with the limits of design at that time, to create some unique, and exciting craft.

For example, the noted cost of JL’s time during ‘KN’s’ build was £117, 4s 10d (!) The lead for KN’s keel only cost £7 9s 0d. ALB must have valued his input as a designer.

Sadly, this evidently close partnership wasn’t long lived.  Whilst Lt Cdr Braithwaite went back into active service, Joseph Lejeune stayed in Horning.

I know that Alfred Lloyd Braithwaite felt very strongly about returning to active service. His age would have discriminated against him at the outbreak of war, and in fact I notice on the 1939 return there is a note which reads; ‘RNVR in Great War, but refused for present war’. ALB was not to be deterred, and was posted in 1940.

In Horning, during the evening of April 26^th 1941, Horning village was subject to a stray bomb attack – which disastrous consequences.

(I actually sit, reading notes I first wrote – April 26^th 2016). 

It isn’t clear exactly, but it’s likely a Luftwaffe bomber was jettisoning bombs on the way back to the coast.  And their attention was sufficiently drawn to drop their remaining payload of 15 bombs around Horning.

I wonder if they were aiming for the ferry itself – which may have been silhouetted. Else perhaps it was a chink of light as someone slipped into the pub?

Whatever the circumstances, the most unfortunate target was the Horning Ferry pub, and amongst the 22 fatalities that night was Joseph Lejeune, aged 50.

The devastation was instantaneous;

The link between Surlingham’s starfish and this, is that sites like that, their flashing lights and theatrical pyrotechnics were desperately trying to stop destruction and loss of life like this. Sadly it’s reckoned that Starfish sites only drew 5% of the intended bombs away from the actual targets.

This accounts for how ‘Corsair’ came to be built post-war by the apprentice at Chumley & Hawke – Tim Whelpton, directed by the then yard foreman Alfred Yaxley.

Anyway – In a roundabout way, I hope I’ve explained another bit of Norfolk’s hidden history, and some more of ‘Corsair’s’ story.

Goodnight.