Rye Castle Museum

 by Susanna Mayor

In medieval times the shipyard at Smallhythe was one of the most important on the south coast.
If you look at the landscape now it is hard to believe that the River Rother once flowed through Smallhythe and out to sea at Rye. In the 14th and 15th centuries the Rother was wide enough and deep enough for the largest ships of medieval England to be built and launched here.

Today, there are  fields where there was once a wide tidal channel.

Documents held at the National Maritime Museum dating from 1326 show that shipbuilding, fitting, repair and breaking were carried out at Smallhythe.  From these documents we are able to form a picture of the range of boats that were built here. We can trace the rise of the shipyard to the height of its success with the building of the Jesus, one of the largest ships to be built in medieval England.

14th Century Round Ship

The first detailed reference is to the Eneswithe, a barge built at Smallhythe in 1400 for the town of New Romney. This was a sea going vessel, not a river barge, that made its maiden voyage around Cape Finisterre to La Rochelle. In 1401 a town ship was built for Rye and it is likely to have been a Cinque Port round ship. These were the vessels most commonly used by the south coast ports to import and export goods from the Continent, particularly wine from Gascony.

 

                    

Royal Commissions: The Great Ships

In 1410 Henry IV ordered the Marie, a hundred ton boat, to be built at Smallhythe and four years later Henry V actually came to the shipyard to see two ships being built. It was the year after Agincourt and he had commissioned the Jesus, a 1000 ton ship, and the George, a balinger of 120 tons. A balinger was a craft that could be rowed as well as sailed. In the 15th centuy they formed the scouting and raiding forces of the English fleet.  Â
      

   Although Smallhythe coas a successful shipyard throughout the 1400s, by the 16th century came the steady decline of the river and the establishment of new dockyards elsewhere. The craftsmen had to look further afield for work and in 1514 thirty seven men from Smallhythe walked forty four miles to Woolwich to take part in the building of the Henry Grace a Dieu under the management of Robert Brigandyne; at 1400 tons it could accommodate up to 1000 men. The ship was commissioned by Henry VIII as a replacement for the 600 ton Regent which had been built downsream from Smallhythe at Reading Street in 1486 but which was lost in battle in 1512.

Ordered by Henry VIII in 1546 the Great Gailyon at 300 tons was the last large vessel to be built at Smallhythe. It was the last of the great ships and the last Royal commission for Smallhythe.

The Rother Barge

Small boats and river barges continued to be built at Smallhythe well into into the 17th century. There was a fleet of barges trading on the Rother; they were powered by sail and crewed by two men, each barge carried up to 30 tons of cargo. The cargo including coal, sand, salt and chalk was carried upstream from Rye, returning with timber, bricks, stone and hop poles.

The design of these barges remained the same from the 1500s into the 20th century and were amongst the last type of boat to be built at Smallhythe. (There is a model of one in the museum.)

An  End to the Shipyard

The decline of Smallhythe as a prosperous shipyard began in the 16th century. Smallhythe could no longer provide a haven for the numbers of ships that had once moored here as the River Rother had begun to silt up.

The river still remained an important highway for traffic, especially for cargo such as iron and wood, despite its continued deterioration.

After 1549, records of marrages, baptisms and deaths began to diminish in number suggesting a fall in the population. In 1636 the river was re-routed to the south of the Isle of Oxney and the land was drained in preparation for agricultural use and Smallhythe’s days as a Royal Dockyard were over.

  Fishing boats on the Rother at Rye Harbour.    Looking across to the Harbour Master’s Office.

Rye has always been a port, from the time it was an island. The Roman iron production in the area was under the control of the Roman Fleet, Classis Britannica, which exported it from here to the rest of Europe.  A senior Cinque Port from the 12th Century, it was the home of the Royal Galleys from 1240, and has been a fishing, shipbuilding and trading port throughout 1000 years. It has also been very involved with pirating, smuggling and also coastguard patrols! Pirating ships, cargoes and their sailors for ransom was a lucrative source of income for the Town and a legitimate one in time of war and when Ryers were licensed by the Crown as Privateers.

Wool smuggling

Smuggling began when Edward I imposed customs duties on wool to boost the royal revenue. Despite the penalty being death, almost everyone in the area was involved in ‘owling’ . This was the term for smuggling  here because of the calls between the men. A specialised lantern used for secret communication amongt the smugglers is kept in the Museum.

Wool was smuggled out in return for luxury goods, including spirits, tobacco and tea. There were few convictions as the juries were local,   and also because many buildings in Rye were modified–with secret cupboards, panels and ‘hidey-holes’ for the contraband, and secret passages and ways through the attics for the smugglers to escape capture.

 In the 1670’s it is estimated that 200,000 packs of wool were exported from Rye to Calais alone each year. Riding officers and later dragoons tried to control it, but by the 18th century, gangs ran the ‘trade’, using the inns in Rye as bases. The notorious ‘murder’ of Allan Grebell, Deputy Mayor of Rye,  by one John Breeds was possibly a smuggling-related crime. Whatever the reason, that killing resulted in Breeds being hung in chains and swinging on Gibbet’s Marsh for many years.

A blockade of the port in 1817 and the later establishment of the coastguard began the final defeat. A fight at Camber in 1832 was between 200 smugglers and coastguards. A boat with 26 casks of spirits was seized and several men shot and wounded.

Society then began to change, and the abolition of duties with a policy of  Free Trade helped in the decline. A long coastline, however, is always difficult to patrol and, in more recent times, drugs and illegal immigrants have been smuggled in.

Barges, boulder boats and ferries

Rye was a cross-channel port, especially to Boulogne and Dieppe, and was the main postal route for London-Rye-Dieppe-Paris and beyond for centuries. It was also a trans-shipment point where imported goods were put into river barges to be taken up the Brede, Tillingham and Rother; t wun be delivered to points inland.  These barges, used until the 1930’s, had not changed from the Middle Ages. Manned by a skipper and a mate, they were 50 feet long and carried 20 tons of cargo-usually coal, shingle and timber. The cargoes were loaded and unloaded in large wheelbarrows that held 4 hundredweight, which were pushed across planks between barge and bank. 

‘Boulder boats’ were loaded with coastal shingle, which was then transferred by men carrying the blue boulders in baskets suspended from yokes, to the railway wagons, to be sent to the Potteries.

There were ferries across the Tillingham on Ferry Road for traffic to go to Hastings via Udimore and across the Rother, as part of the route to the Marsh until 1893 when Monkbretton Bridge was built. The ferryman’s cottage is still there.

 The Rye Harbour ferry, run by the Cutting family for many years, ran until just after the last war,  when people were expected to ‘ go round’ via Rye, to the Camber side of the river.

Rye shipbuilding

Shipbuilding has been very important for hundreds of years. In 1377, when a fleet of 20 ships took troops to the Hundred Years War, four of them had been built in Rye. Most were about 40 tons, but the 1000-ton Regent  built at Smallhythe, was fitted out in Rye for Henry VII.  Another, of 150 tons, the  Hercules, was built and crewed in Rye to go on the Cadiz expedition in 1596.

 The peak of the shipbuilding industry was in the mid-19th century,e.g.

•  In the four years 1852-6, twenty-six vessels, schooners and brigantines were built.
• In  1856, three mortar boats were built for use in the Crimean War.
• By the 1870’s the main ships built were fishing vessels and sailing trawlers, especially for the North Sea ports.

 During the Second World War, extensions to the jetties, slipways and a turntable were built. G&T Smith built 8 MFV’s (Motor Fishing Vessels), for sweeping magnetic mines. At least two were sent to Singapore for the war with Japan. 

Small craft, mainly in fibreglass, and RNLI boats were built along Rock Channel until very recently..

All the associated trades were well established in Rye such as chandlers, blacksmiths and sail-makers, and, from the latter part of the 19th century,  iron founders. It is a sail-maker’s loft that now houses the Heritage Centre and Tourist Office.

For a detailed article  go to Shipbuilding

Rye ships and mariners sailed the world

Rye’s mariners have always been intrepid. A Rye ship went on a voyage of exploration to Brazil in 1539; a sailor went with Captain Hawkins to Guinea in 1567 and yet another went with Drake on his round the world voyage from 1577-80.

A Rye ship, the Cadborough was bought by the Hudson Bay Company and used to explore and mapthe coast of British Colombia, and another became the first European ship to sail direct to Chicago in 1859.

Emigrant ships from Rye took local settlers to Rye, New Hampshire in the 1620’s, Rye, New York in the 1670’s and to Rye and Winchelsea, New South Wales, Australia in the 1830’s and 40’s.

The shipwreck details and pictures are taken from Peter Marsden’s booklet The Historic Shipwrecks of South East England. The booklet is available from The Shipwreck Heritage Centre, Rock-a-Nore Road, Hastings, Sussex. TN34 3DW. Tel: 0142 4437452

Shipwrecks as History

Detail from Admiralty chart

One of the greatest known concentrations of historic sunken ships lies off the shore of south-east England, particularly where it borders the English Channel, one of the busiest seaways in the world. The enormous wealth of historical information preserved in these wrecks is incalculable, and they form part of the ’new frontier’ of archaeological exploration – underwater.
 

There are records of about a thousand ships having been swallowed by the Goodwin Sands off east Kent alone, and many of these will be well preserved since the geology of the region especially favours the preservation of shipwrecks, which are often buried in soft sands and silts. Wrecks as old as Roman and prehistoric times are known, but the bulk of discovered wrecks date from the nineteenth and twentieth centuries.The detail from an Admiralty chart shows some of the known shipwrecks. 

Ships are the buildings of the sea, and it is by studying their surviving remains as wrecks that we can better understand and illustrate the history of mankind’s long association with the sea.

Detail from Steve Martin's Sussex Shipwreck poster

This is particularly so in the south-east region where there is an exceptional shoreline concentration of historic shipwrecks that can be visited by non-divers at suitable low tides. Between Camber in the east and Cuckmere Haven, just west of Beachy Head in the west,  there are preserved the substantial remains of large ships of the seventeenth, eighteenth, nineteenth and twentieth centuries. This range of age for ships visible at low tide has no known parallel in Britain, and may be unique in Europe.

Visitors can trace in at least seven wrecks extrthe development of ships from wood and sail to steel and engine. The extraordinary nature of this group is underlined by the fact that two of the three protected historic wreck sites that are visible at low tide in the whole of the British Isles lie in this area.
 

 

The Historic Shipwrecks of East Sussex

The historic shipwrecks of the last four centuries which have survived in the tidal zone of East Sussex, between Camber in the east and Cuckmere in the west, form a unique record of international seafaring history.

Until recently the sites were plundered for the valuables that they contain, but nowadays, with two of the shipwrecks protected by law as historic monuments, it is appreciated that they are as much worthy of preservation, research and display as are historic sites on land.
 

This group of maritime casualties may be unique in Europe, for nowhere else between the tides is such a concentration and range of age and variety known to exist, and it is hoped that in the future these parts of the tidal zone of East Sussex will be officially adopted as a conservation area.

The geology of the zone, which has been primarily responsible for the excellent state of preservation of the shipwrecks, is equally important and unusual for it provides a fascinating window on the coastline in the distant past. In particular it concentrates around the seventeenth- and eighteenth-century wrecks in the Hastings area, and includes the extensive remains of a now-submerged prehistoric forest 5000 years old, and rocks of about 120 million years old which contain important traces of dinosaurs.�
 

The Wreck of the Warship Anne 1690

The Anne was named after Princess Anne (1665-1714). Launched at Chatham in 1678, she was 150 feet long, 40 feet wide, armed with 70 guns, and was one of Samuel Pepys’ ‘standard’ warships, of which 30 were built.         

         Sketch of the ‘Anne’, circa 1685

On Monday 30th June 1690  the Anne, with her captain John Tyrell and 460 men went into battle against the superior French fleet as part of the Anglo-Dutch fleet under Lord Torrington. By 9.30 a.m. on that day the Anne was engaging the enemy, and the battle continued all day until 9 p.m. when the combined Anglo-Dutch fleet found itself so seriously damaged that it had to retreat eastwards to anchor. Several Dutch ships were lost, but of the English ships only the Anne had suffered extreme damage.

On Thursday, 3 July, the wind returned and the York reported that in the afternoon ‘it blew so hard we could not tow her so we took all the soldiers from them [i.e. the Anne] and then stood in between Farlee [i.e. Fairlight] and Winchelsea Castle, and run ashore the ship.’

The remains of the 'Anne', off Pett Level, 1984

 

After beaching the ship at high tide, the crew had to wait until the evening low tide before they could walk ashore. That evening Tyrrell wrote to the Admiralty: ’I lie within pistol shot, at high water, of the shore, and at low water one may walk round the ship. If the French fireships do not come in and burn me I hope to save her, though the water comes into her as the tide ebbs and flows.’

 

The 'Anne' at Pett Level in 1984

 

 

The French ships attacked Hastings and Rye on the next day, Saturday, 5 July, and that afternoon Tyrrell reluctantly decided to burn the Anne so that she could not be taken as a prize. Curiously, it was soon after this inconclusive stage in the battle, when the French were winning, that they sailed away back to France.

The burnt-out remains of the Anne faded from memory, though around Fairlight local people never forgot her name. She was photographed in 1913 and later, but in 1974 treasure-hunters took a mechanical excavator out to the ship at low tide and dug into her remains. 

In order to stop further vandalism she was that day protected as an historic monument, and ten years later the Ministry of Defence transferred her ownership to the Nautical Museums Trust, which also owns the Shipwreck Heritage Centre where the Anne’s story is told. 

The Wreck of the Amsterdam 1749

The Dutch East India Company ship Amsterdam, with 54 guns, has been entombed in the beach at Hastings since February, 1749. She was run ashore by a mutinous crew during a severe gale whilst on her maiden voyage from Amsterdam to Java.

There was good reason for the mutiny, for in two weeks disease had killed 50 of her complement of 335 and her rudder had been torn off.

Captain Willem Klump beached his ship between Hastings and Bexhill on 26th January, 1749, and the Mayor of Hastings took charge of the survivors and guarded the ship from plunderers.

When salvage eventually commenced, the ship was found to be sinking rapidly into the beach, and the cargo was inaccessible. 

Today two-thirds of the hull survives, with the keel about 30 feet (9 metres) deep in the beach, and inside is most of her cargo and the possessions of the people on board.

Bottle of wine from the Amsterdam

Discoveries in 1969 of bottles still full of wine, bronze guns and a great variety of other objects, drew attention to the wreck, and an archaeological and historical study followed.

The ship was found to be the only known well-preserved example of an East Indiaman in the world, and was definitely worthy of preservation.

In 1973 she was protected as an historic monument under a new law, and in 1975 a ‘Save the Amsterdam  Foundation’ was established in the Netherlands, to study how to excavate, raise and preserve the ship and its valuable contents, and return them to the city of Amsterdam.

 The Foundation decided to undertake the first archaeological excavation in 1984 by using a Dutch- British team of archaeologists and divers to uncover part of the lower gun deck. 

Although all discoveries will leave Britain for the Netherlands, the Foundation has offered to return a representative selection for permanent display in the Shipwreck Heritage Centre at Hastings.

  Rye’s Shipbuilding Industry

Rise to Importance

The shipbuilding industry in Rye and the estuary of the River Rother, together with the manifold trades required to meet maritime requirements, has for centuries undergone phases of boom and depression. Its varying fortunes have been brought about or accentuated by physical changes in the Harbour, by wars, by technological developments and by trends in the national economy.

In the Middle Ages two factors were immensely favourable to shipbuilding in the Rother estuary, neither of which can be said to obtain today. The first was the ready supply of timber from the forest of Andredsweald and the second was the navigability of the rivers Rother, Brede and Tillingham.

There is firm evidence of shipbuilding in Rye in the form of a royal order of 1223 which forbade the export of timber because the King (Henry III) was proposing to build ships and galleys. Eight years later Winchelsea (i.e. the old port before being evacuated) was ordered to send a carpenter for the King’s ship at Portsmouth. Between 1237 and 1243 the King’s galleys were lying at Rye and Winchelsea and in the last year seven were laid up in Rye. By this time Rye and Winchelsea had royal dockyards and storehouses which were essential both to meeting the considerable fishing requirements of the royal household and also for supporting overseas trading which extended to the Spanish coast.

Repairs to the King’s galleys were carried out at Rye in 1252 and again in 1253. In 1294, following a typical engagement in the Channel with the French, general preparations for the defence of the English coast were made known and the King (Edward I) ordered two galleys of 120 oars to be built at the new town of Winchelsea. This was only six years after old Winchelsea had been completely evacuated so little time had been lost in re-establishing the reputation of Winchelsea shipwrights. Out of 10 ports including London only Winchelsea and Bristol were given orders for more than one galley.

When the Hundred Years War with France started in 1337, Rye was building at least four ships which were to form an important part of the Cinque Ports Fleet. They were La Michael’(244 tons), La Nicholas (120 tons) La Palmere (60 tons) and La Edmond (60 tons). These square rigged ships with stern-mounted rudders and forecastles and after castles at bow and stern are well depicted on the seals of the Cinque Ports. The La Michael was the largest English vessel to take part in the battle of Sluys near Blanckenberg in 1340, during which bowmen firing from the high decks were able to kill hundreds of the enemy before fighting between the boarding parties even began.

Further up the Rother shipbuilding was taking place at Smallhythe which served as the port for Tenterden. In 1420 under the auspices of the King (Henry V), a 120 ton ballinger (a clinker-built two-masted ship) was built at Smallhythe by William Catton who had the title of ‘Keeper of the King’s Ships’. Catton is also accredited with the building at Winchelsea of the 1000 ton Jesus which was the second largest ship in Henry V’s fleet.

Decline in Fortunes

15th Cenutry Cog

By the middle of the 15th. century there were unmistakable signs that the natural advantages which Rye and Winchelsea shipbuilders derived from the forested hinterland and the navigable rivers flowing down from Sedlescombe (on the Brede) and Bodiam (on the Rother) were diminishing. The iron furnaces of the Weald using water power for smelting had been devouring trees so rapidly that timber for shipbuilding was becoming relatively scarce. Rather late in the day there was legislation (in 1558) prohibiting the use of timber in the furnaces. At the same time geo-physical changes were taking place in the Rother estuary which spelt difficulty and even disaster for some shipbuilders.

The sea, having overwhelmed old Winchelsea at the end of the 13th. century, now proceeded to build up a bar in the new port, causing the River Brede to become increasingly narrow and shallow, and enabling acres of land formerly part of the. tidal lagoon to be ’inned’, i.e. reclaimed for agriculture. In consequence, well before the end of the 15th century, Winchelsea’s shipbuilding industry had ceased to exist. If there were expectations that Rye shipbuilding would benefit from the demise of Winchelsea such hopes were not fulfilled. Even for the purposes of the Agincourt campaign in 1415, the King (Henry V) had to supplement his fleet by hiring transports from Holland and Zealand.

The practice of ’inning’ which had brought about the closure of the Port of Winchelsea was also affecting navigation in the upper and middle reaches of the Rivers Rother and Tillingham. The consequential adverse effects on shipping interests were further aggravated by the fitting of merchant ships with guns above the bulwark rail. Such ships had to be deep draught to maintain stability and were therefore quite unsuited to the shoals and shallows of Rye Harbour. Nor could it have been easy for Rye shipbuilders to change from clinker planking construction to carvel as became necessary when water-tight gunports had to be cut close to the water line. Men of war now began to be differentiated from merchantmen and with the reign of Henry VIII the era of impressment of ships came.

Taking into account the cumulative effects of siltation through inning, the diminution of local timber resources, the evolution of deep draught men of war and recent appalling outbreaks of the plague, it is not surprising that the response of Rye to Queen Elizabeth’s urgent request for ships to fight the Spanish Armada in 1588 was meagre. In the event the only contribution made by Rye was a 50 tonner supply ship which was hired and fitted out with the assistance of Tenterden.

Under the Stuart kings and well into the 18th century orders for new ships from Rye were rare but the shipyards would have been occupied servicing the numerous merchantmen colliers and fishing boats which continued to use the port. A cross-channel passenger service to Dieppe was running in the 17th century and there were river barges on which the famous gun foundries near Battle, Robertsbridge and Seddlescombe depended for the carriage of their heavy cargoes down to Rye for export. Even in 1700, except for the roadway leading northwards from the Landgate, Rye was still an island relying largely on water transport. In the absence of bridges, three ferries owned by the Rye Corporation had to be maintained to save travellers undergoing circuitous journeys on bad roads.

While the Industrial Revolution was gaining momentum in the latter part of the 18th century in the Midlands and North, the Port of Rye was being held back first by the disastrous attempt to create the New Harbour mouth at Winchelsea Beach and later by the serious threat of an invasion by Napoleon..

An exceptional event was the launching in 1787 of the Salisbury, a 200 ton cutter which was the only sizeable ship to make the passage out of Rye through the shortlived new outlet to the sea. Unfortunately little seems to have come to light about the builders of the Salisbury or other shipyards at this difficult time. Nor is it known whether any of the rafts for the floating batteries manned by the Sea Fencibles were built at Rye before being superseded by the Martello Towers.  

Prosperity Returns

By the time the threat from Napoleon had finally lifted, the Industrial Revolution was beginning to have a dramatic impact on shipbuilding along the South and East coasts. After centuries of square-riggers and the battleworthy ‘wooden walls’ of the Royal Navy fundamental changes in ship design were taking place. The requirements of commerce boosted by the development of trade with North America were increasingly for fast sailing vessels which could be sailed close to the wind with the benefit of fore-and-aft rigging.

Prominent amongst the early Rye shipbuilders in the new era was the firm of Harvey and Staffell whose yard was situated below the Green Steps at the end of Watchbell Street and well known for its sloops, cutters and schooners. By mid 19th. century the demand for merchant ships had created a boom of which Rye was taking full advantage.   In the wake of Havey and Staffell came the brothers Henry and James Hoad. They were the first of several generations of a family which achieved widespread fame both as shipbuilders and shipowners.

By mid-century other builders like Hessel and Holmes had won reputations for the design, craftsmanship and sailing qualities of their ships, several of which were owned and traded on their own behalf.   One such ship was the clipper schooner Marian Zagury built for the fruit trade.  The Illustrated London News credited Hessel and Holmes with having built the handsomest vessel ever built in the Port of Rye.  

 Later came the firms of G & T Smith (which succeeded J C Hoad and became celebrated for ketch barges), the Rother Iron Works (which built steam ships in iron and wood near the mouth of Rock Channel), W E Clark (which built smacks and river barges off the Winchelsea Road) and H J Phillips whose clinker-built fishing boats made in Rock Channel are to be seen today all along the Sussex coast.

 

 A sketch map prepared by researchers for the Rye Museum Association shows that these yards and their sail lofts were all situated near or between the Strand Quay and the confluence of Rock Channel with the River Rother.

 The Rye Museum Association has collected much detailed information about the ownership and output of the 19th. century shipyards. Amongst the very large numbers of ships launched in this active period the following are only a few examples:-

 

Keeping Afloat in Changing Times

It might have been difficult for shipping interests to realize that the Industrial Revolution was a two-faced friend. Before the end of the century the arrival of the railway and later the internal combustion engine started to darken the outlook but there were still some bright intervals.

In 1855 each of three Rye shipyards was given an order for a £7000 mortar boat destined for the Crimea and all three were launched between February and March 1856. Not long afterwards, the shipyards started to receive contracts for the building of lighters which for the next 50 years were needed to carry caissons made from Rye Harbour shingle to build the new outer arms of Dover Harbour.

Between 1882 and 1890 there was a decline in the number and tonnage of vessels entering the Port attributable to the partial blockage of the harbour mouth which in turn had created a crisis in the Harbour finances. It was therefore an act of faith in the future that induced John Symonds Vidler (Chairman of the Harbour Commission) and a number of friends to pay for a small fleet of ketch- rigged barges to keep the Rye-based coasting trade alive. Each of five ships ordered was built at the yard of G. and T. Smith in Rock Channel and the enterprise proved commercially successful. Some ships had up to 40 shareholders but nobody who retained his shares until the outbreak of war in 1914 suffered any loss.

During the 1914-1918 war shipbuilding in Rye ceased with the exception of two steam drifters built by G. and T. Smith. The same yard was chosen in the 1939-1945 war first for making wooden pontoons to enable magnetic mines to be exploded at a distance and later for building eight 75 foot minesweepers, two of which sailed to Singapore.

It was not until the dogs of war had been brought under control in 1946 that any revival of traditional shipyard activity could be contemplated. Remarkably enough, one firm — that of H J Phillips, which started business in 1913 at Rock Channel House — managed to survive the 1930s world slump as well as two world wars and was ready to resume its peacetime role of building and repairing boats for fishing, commerce and recreation. Under the management of Derek Phillips, son of Henry Phillips and grandson of H.J. Phillips this yard continued to thrive.  [Ed. note: It is now gone too] The continuing problem of the Harbour mouth, the poor quality of berthing facilities and a Harbour management whose dominant priority was land drainage were not factors to encourage new shipbuilders and shipwrights. Defying these disadvantages several small boatyards and chandlers, in addition to Phillips, established themselves in the Rock Channel area to take advantage of the unprecedented post- war growth in amateur sailing.

 

Three Brothers

  

The largest of the pleasure boats used by amateur sailors was The Three Brothers which was originally a fishing smack built in 1896 by G & T Smith but later converted to a cruising yacht.

 The popularity of boating and sailing for pleasure in the second half of the 20th. century contributed to the bulk of the Harbour’s revenue and provided a variety of maintenance and service work for never less than four small yards. H.J. Phillips, the doyen of the builders,  continued (albeit infrequently in recent years) to launch small fishing vessels built in wood using time-honoured methods.

Other yards have endeavoured to take advantage of the plastics revolution but competition from large-scale producers of fibre glass yachts and dinghies in the Solent area  precluded a steady flow of orders. One firm, Lochin Marine at the mouth of Rock Channel, successfully built lifeboats for the R.N.L.I. before being taken over for other non-maritime purposes.

The owners of the small Rye shipyards still operatin in 2000   had to adapt themselves to developments in electronics and technology which have transformed the ancient arts of ship design and navigation. They survived so long only because they were versatile, skilled and dedicated to their calling.

John Collard 1998

by Jo Kirkham, based on a talk given to Rye Local History Group by Mr Don Bentley in 2004. 

Freight Express Seacon

Don Bentley moved to Rye in 1972 and established Freight-Express Seacon , based first at the Custom House at 7  High Street, Rye, in 1974. The firm later moved to Market Street, in what was once Hinds drapery store, on the corner with Lion Street. 

The firm has two principal functions:  about 25% of their work involves acting as agents for the owners of  ships coming into Rye,  while the main business is ship broking, i.e. matching owners of ships with owners of cargoes. The  firm specialises in chartering ‘dry bulk ‘ cargoes as opposed to tanker brokers, or passenger brokers  or  broking on the future’s market.

Why Rye?   

In the 1960’s there were a series of industrial problems in the large British ports such as London, Liverpool and Southampton, with the National Dock Labour Scheme. A strike culture developed. Smaller ports such as Rye then became more attractive to merchants and shipowners as they had non-unionised labour, no ‘them and us’ culture and were more flexible.

 J. Alsford of Rye imported all their timber through the Surrey Docks on the River Thames, but when the Docks became a hot bed of dispute, they decided to do their own thing. They bought land and constructed a Wharf at Rye Harbour in 1967/8. Another company, ‘Ryecon’, frustrated by  the delays at Isleworth, did the same in 1973 and brought the six small coasters which they owned down to Rye to be based at Alsford’s Wharf. They had a regular trade with St Valery sur Somme.

A problem then occurred when Margaret Thatcher’s government deregulated the major docks, and the smaller wharves, like Rye, then became less attractive: they had to compete on the same basis as the big docks.   A further problem was that commercial traffic to Strand Quay became limited. Ships could only get in on Spring tides and they were limited to 120 feet long, 9 feet draught and 400 tons. Ships also got larger and the smaller ones disappeared because they were uneconomic. In 1972, ony one timber ship came in to the Strand for Hind’s timber yard.

Survival in Difficult Circumstances

 However,  Rye survived. thanks to the Wharf which had been built at Rye Harbour. Alsford’s Wharf could take ships of 220 feet long, 13 1/2 feet draught and up to 2,000 tons. Another reason for small ports like Rye to flourish was the Dock Strike of 1972.  Rye  was in the limelight because the pickets came down to the town, but Rye continued to work throughout.

The Miner’s Strike also helped. The major ports and unions supported the miners, but some small ports like Brightlingsea  made a fortune handling coal imports. Rye only had one coal ship.  Arthur Reynolds, another London broker, who had come down to Rye and begun Rye Shipping  in 1969, arranged for this ship, the Dutch ship Gasselte to bring 200 tons of coal to Strand Quay.  Don Bentley joined Rye Shipping  in 1972 for one year, but then formed his own Company.

Alsford built the Wharf primarily for the timber trade and had about 12 ships a year. Others approached the firm to use the facilities and there was a steady increase in other trades, such as volcanic aggregate, talcum powder, fish meal, cat litter etc.

The first export of grain that Seacon was involved in from Rye was in January 1978, when 600 tons of English barley went out. This trade grew so that exports increased to 40,000 tons in one year, organised by a Farmer’s Cooperative,  S.E.Grain -which sadly, was eventually wound up.  Since the Wharf re-opened, the majority of the cargoes are dry stone aggregates from North Wales (Llandulas), Cornwall (Falmouth), Brittany and Boulogne.

There was a down turn in trade during the 1980’s and early 1990’s and Alsford’s went into liquidation. It closed down for a couple of years until Rastrum’s reopened it and trade is now growing.  Another Wharf,  for ARC Amey Roadstone Co., was built further up the river. This firm had two special sea dredgers built, which were ideal for Rye. Sadly a down turn in trade meant that the firm switched to dry stone imports, but this also declined and the equipment has now been removed.

A Unique Harbour Today

Rye Harbour is a unique commercial harbour as it is run by the Environment Agency, a Government body. In 1972 the harbour was run by the Kent River Authority, which had two reorganisations  before the Southern Water Authority replaced it. This too was reorganised three times before it was privatised and then Rye was placed under the National Rivers Authority, which also had two internal reorganisations. The Government then set up the Environment Agency and that is who manages Rye Harbour now.

Pilotage used to be run by Trinity House. The Government then changed the responsibilty to the ‘Competent Harbour Authority’, i.e. the Environment Agency. The Harbour Master, his Deputy and one independent pilot  act as pilots in Rye.

The Harbour used to be monitored by the Port of Rye Users’ Committee, which was later made an official body, consisting of councillors, representatives of the boat owners, and fishing and commercial interests etc, and by the late 1970s,  called the Harbour of Rye Advisory Committee.

Broking Business 

Seacon  celebrated its 30th Anniversary in business on 1st January 2004. When it began on 1st January 1974, it was in the middle of the Miner’s Strike and everyone had days without power and candles were bought from Dennis,  the ironmonger on the High Street !

Four staff now work on the dry cargo side and many thousand  contracts of freight transport have been completed over the years.  Often foreign customers like to use a British broker e.g., a Thai customer wanted to send steel from the Baltic to China and Rye brokered it.   It is now even easier to run the Company from Rye using the Internet and e-mail, (it used to be telephone, cables and Telex), and the firm deals with moving all kinds of things from potatoes to fibre optics.

Seacon were involved when the Thekia,  loaded with a cargo of fertiliser, hit the western arm of the Harbour wall and became impaled on the piling in January 1975. A salvage contract with a firm from Newhaven was made and it took three weeks to get her off. She was taken to Newhaven for repairs, after drifting ashore at Pett on the way! The ship is now a nightclub in Bristol Docks.

Another ship dealt with was the Hoo Fort, which went ashore on the Camber side and had bottom damage and was declared a total loss by underwriters. The firm was involved with the Fairlight Sea Defences in 1990 as agents for the tugs and barges, which put the stone brought from Norway at the bottom of the cliffs to try and stop erosion and thus save the houses etc.. They did a similar job at Folkstone.

Future of Rye Harbour

 As Seacon is predominantly a ship broker. Rye’s future as a port is not vital to the Company’s existence, but Rye has good prospects. The biggest risk is the economics of ship size. The very small ships have gone for ever;  a ship of 2.000 tons can be crewed by five or six men, whereas one of 600 tons needed the same number of crew. The river limits Rye too, by its size and tidal constraints, as well as the facilities offered.

Whereas the ideal port would bring in a cargo and take another out, Rye will mainly continue to be an importing port, as are Newhaven and Shoreham, while many other ports, such as Llandulas, only export.

Transport by sea is comparatively cheap – and very eco-friendly. Twenty years ago stone cost £3 a ton to ship from North Wales and now it costs £3.85, a negligible increase compared with the costs of road transport – and think of the number of lorries which would be involved in moving the same amounts!

This article by Stuart Osmer commemorates the 60th Anniversary of the presentation of the Ensign of HMS Rye to the town and its dedication in St Mary’s Church, Rye, in 1946.

HMS Rye Minesweeper

 

HMS RYE

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Bangor Class Minesweeper 1941 – 1948

HMS Rye was a Turbine Type, Bangor Class Fleet Minesweeper, built by the Ailsa Shipbuilding Company Ltd., Troon , Scotland. She was launched on the 19th August 1940, completed in November 1941 and commissioned early 1942. After distinguished war service she was decommissioned in February 1946, sold 24th August 1948 and subsequently broken up at Purfleet.

Pennant No J76
14th & 17th Minesweeping Flotillas
Basic features: Displacement – 656 tons; Dimensions – 174 x 28.5 x 9.5 feet; Complement – 60; Armament – 1 x 3inch AA., 1 x 2 pdr., 2 x 20mm.AA., 4 x MG; Machinery – Geared Turbines, two shafts, SHP 2,400 = 16 knots. Two Admiralty small tube type boilers.

HMS Rye, under the command of Lt. J. A. Pearson was initially assigned for minesweeping training and sweeping duties off the east and then west coasts of Scotland. She was then ordered to Dover for sweeping duties in the Channel followed by attachment to an Atlantic convoy down to Gibraltar. At Gibraltar, Rye joined up with Speedy and Hebe, both Halcyon Class, and Hythe, Bangor Class, to be designated the 17th Minesweeing Flotilla under the command of Commander Jerome in Speedy. During 1942/3 she took part in many convoys between Alexandria, Port Said, Gibraltar and Malta. The two most significant were:-

1. June 1942 OPERATION HARPOON. This convoy consisted of six merchant ships with escorts and a large covering force of Capital ships. The convoy was repeatedly attacked by aircraft and Italian surface ships. Four merchant ships and a destroyer were sunk and two support warships badly damaged. During these actions the Rye shot down enemy aircraft. She also picked up survivors from the torpedoed SS Tanimbar and SS Chant. Rye and Hebe were ordered to sink the SS Kentucky, a tanker whose engines were out of action due to a near miss from bombs. Rye took off the crew, after which Rye and Hebe set the Kentucky on fire with gunfire. In the approaches to Malta, Hythe cut a mine, which surafced ahead of the Rye. Rye hit her on her bow. The mine bumped right down the side of the hull, but did not explode. She became known as “Lucky Rye”.

2. August 1942 OPERATION PEDESTAL. The 17th MS Flotilla came out from Malta to meet the transports SS Melbourne Star, Port Clamers & Rochester Castle, damaged but able to steam, to escort them into Malta. At daybreak on 14th August the Rye and Ledbury, with motor launches, went out to join the destroyer Penn to bring in the seriously damaged SS Ohio, and they reached harbour the following day. Rye took part in towing the Ohio. The Brisbane Star made her own way in. The tanker Ohio was laden with fuel oil desperately needed by the defending aircraft in Malta. Only five merchant ships of the original 14 dispatched arrived in Malta, but the seige was lifted.

HMS Rye swept ahead of the Sicily landings in July 1943 and later off Italy. She left Malta in early October 1943 with a small convoy to Gibraltar. Whilst acting as escort on the north side of the convoy and laying a smoke screen, she ran out of smoke canisters and was ordered to swap places with her “chummy ship” HMS Hythe, which was on the south side of the convoy. That night Hythe was torpedoed and sunk. Rye picked up twelve survivors, two of whom subsequently died. HMS Hythe, under Lt.Cdr. L. B. Miller, sank on 11th October 1943 off Bougie, Algeria. She had been torpedoed by U-371.

Rye left Gibraltar on Christmas Eve 1943 on passage to the UK. In the Straits of Gibraltar she was in collision with one of three American Liberty Ships comning in and Rye’s bow was severely damaged. She sailed, damaged, to the Azores, where her bows were filled with concrete, and like that she steamed back to the UK, to Troon, where a new bow was fitted.

NORMANDY 1944.  HMS Rye, under the command of Lt. F. Williams, joined the 14th MS Flotilla assigned to clear the cross channel seaways for the invading forces. She swept the “Omamha” beachhead ahead of the American landing craft and then took part in keeping open the approach seaways that the enemy was frequently re-mining. The sweeping was interspersed with escort duty between the UK and “Omamha”. On one occasion she came under particularly heavy bombardment from shore batteries and had to beat a hasty retreat, cutting her sweeps. The flotilla worked its way down to Brest, where Rye was anchored for six weeks and was virtually “Brest Radio Station” for that area of the Allied Armies. The Telegraphists worked a tiring “four hours on, four off” watch for six weeks. After taking part in clearing the coastal waters towards Belgium and Holland, she spent four weeks under going a refit at Flushing.

In May 1945 she was at Stavanger clearing anti-submarine mines, when two German U-boats came into harbour and surrendered to her. She then came home to Edinburgh, and then down to Swansea to sweep the Bristol Channel area. HMS Rye was paid of in Swansea in 1946.