I did not return from my visit to the ship empty
handed. Simon gave me some homework to
do. About 9 inches of the base of both ventilation funnels had rusted away in
spite of being galvanised and some rust holes remained even on the main part of
the funnel. (Photo)
The rusty part was
cut away and two tubes manufactured out of 1mm galvanised sheet. The little
blue car you can just see in the photo is my Austin 7 and the chap who sold me
the sheet turned out to be an old car enthusiast. He was so enamoured of the
car that he cut the two bits I needed out of a new sheet, rolled them into the
tube shape required and charged me only £20. The deal is that, if and when I
sell the car, I have to give him first refusal! The new tubes were welded onto the cleaned-up main parts
and all bare metal and weld given a coat of zinc-rich primer. (Photo)
Everything will be given two coats of ‘High
Build Vinyl’ in a biscuit colour to match the original colour – less some of
the fading. We do not want the dreaded
rust to take hold again. Simon wants the interiors to be pillar-box red. I will
leave that to him.
Meanwhile, back on the historical front, the original
cabin door does in fact open (we thought it was sealed) and has its own little artefact
– a porthole. (Photos). Ignore the modern coat hooks; I am sure we can find
more appropriate ones! And we shall have to find a wing nut for the porthole as
well.
Finally there is one surviving ‘Deck Light’ which is not
the switch on/off type, but thick glass blocks set into a brass holder. (Photo)
This allowed natural light to get through to
the lower deck. It is only about 9 inches long, so not much light would be
getting through! The maker’s name is
HAYWARD and the other inscription is PATENT. Simon is installing his own 3 ft
long versions as you will have seen in an earlier post.
David
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