LIGHTSHIP CORMORANT / LADY DIXON - Chapter 121

My aim over the past week (apart from trying to get my phone and broadband reconnected !) has been to pinpoint that area of damage at the bow. It has been a fascinating exercise – am I turning into a Nerd?  I started with one of Simon’s photos taken by him from his canoe. Although the bow is not actually in the photo, it was the only shot showing a full-on side view (Photo 1211).

   Now this shows a long, slim craft (hull in need of a lick of paint) with an extensive superstructure. Next I took the 1943 blueprints and pasted the hull from those onto the photo, adding bits from other photos to complete the bow (Photo 1212).  The waterline is in red. Chubby isn’t she?

    Emboldened by this, I did the same to the bow, pasting a blueprint extract onto a photo of the damaged area (Photo 1213).  

 This shows that the main damage area – along the bottom edge of the bow doubler which I have outlined - is where the lower deck meets the stem (?) at point A. The waterline is again in red and the ‘mudline’ is in brown – so that is quite a trough she is sitting in!

  Quite fortuitously, Simon discovered a trapdoor in the lower deck, up at the bow and went down exploring. He took a good photo of the inside of the bow/prow, which shows I think that girder in Photo 1213 curving up towards point A along the centre-line of the ship (Photo 1214).

The damaged area must be further up than A and off to the right where I have no doubt that a similar girder curves in a horizontal plane into the stem.  I have tried to indicate that area with B, but it will be behind that cross strut. He needs to crawl a bit further forward next time and photograph what is right up at the front.  One reassuring thing is that there is no evidence of water ingress anywhere.

   The horizontal beam I mentioned can be plainly seen (or can it?) in the outside shot taken by Simon some time ago (Photo 1215).

   While he was down there, he turned around and took a couple of interesting shots of other things lurking, but they will have to wait until next time.

David