Simon’s poor luck with his tradesmen continues. He
thought he was having the odd bit of good fortune. Searching for some slate
tiles for his new kitchen floor, he found 475 going for free in London. In
addition, he was anxious to get rid of several large and very heavy sheets of
rusty iron (old bulkheads?), which he could not manage on his own. A London
scrap merchant agreed to come to Hoo and remove the sheets as a quid pro quo
for collecting the tiles and bringing them to the ship. A good deal all round –
but they didn’t turn up, so Simon had to go and get the tiles! On the other hand, Simon needs only 250 of
those tiles and has still got the scrap for sale, so may well end up in profit!
Continuing my examination of the blueprints, I was
interested to see that on the plan view of the galley the cooker is labelled
‘Aga’, while on the elevation it is labelled ‘Agha’.
Accepting the first as the
correct one, I contacted Aga and sent them a photo of the cooker, in the faint
hope that they may still have some record of their 1940s products. They were
extremely helpful and identified the cooker, not as an Aga, but as a Rayburn –
a No3 Rayburn in fact. Not only that,
they actually sent me a photocopy of a user’s handbook for that model and
indicated that some parts may still be obtainable!
Well with his new kitchen he does not need any more
cooking appliances, but the words ‘all the hot water you need’ are very
welcome. Besides the traditional background heat, this could supply a few
radiators below deck. Mind you, moving 1.5cwt (75Kg) of fuel along that 400ft
of causeway once a week ………
Although we accept that restoration as a lightship is out
of the question, we are both determined to preserve anything that remains of
the old Cormorant / Lady Dixon. So the Aga/Agha stays and I have been looking
at the mizzen mast with its two booms.
The anchor points of the two booms are still there, fore
and aft of the mast, but there are also a number of other anchor/securing eyes
close by, the purposes of which are not apparent. I have inserted a fake mizzen
mast at the point it obviously emerged.
Note also the temporary (nick) name plate hung there by a
not-to-be-identified family member!
David
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