You learn something new every day. I thought that ‘caulking’ a ship was just
stuffing tarred rope into the cracks between boards. It’s a lot more
complicated than that! To start with you
have to remove what is left of the old stuff and that involves running an angle
grinder along the gaps plus a bit of sanding. Then, to stop gaps closing up and
boards perhaps shifting, pegs are driven into the gaps at intervals (Photo
1431). 
Hessian rope is twisted into a
series of ‘figure of eight’ and then forced into the gaps. Red lead paint is applied because putty
comes next and the paint stops the hessian rope sucking the oil out of the
putty (Photo 1432).
The whole lot is
then covered with tar-soaked hessian sheet which protects the copper plating
(the flattened domestic hot water tanks!). Then the large bolts
which hold everything together have to be supplemented, or even replaced (some
have crumbled to dust).
Another large
vessel has been brought into the dry dock and is of great interest to Simon
because it is having its insides coated with the foam insulation which Simon
wants to use on his ship. It certainly transforms the look of old structures
and walls (Photo 1433). Simon has of course made contact.
Meanwhile I am
chasing details of Lady Dixon’s brief career as a pirate radio ship. In
particular I am trying, through contacts in N Ireland and the USA, to find out
who bought her from G.A. Lee and Co of Belfast in 1961 and how she ended up in
the Thames Estuary belonging to John Thompson/Arnold Swanson. Then, when they
abandoned the enterprise, who bought her and where she went. She was reported as being owned
at some stage by Peter Horlock and moored at Mistley on the River Orwell in
England. Actually, Mistley is on the River Stour, not the Orwell, which does
not help my investigation! Does anyone know Mr Horlock?
David
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