Name Cambria

The London barge-builder and owner Frederick T Eberhardt, who had established a yard at Greenhithe, asked his two sons William and Frederick to build a barge each, following their apprenticeships at the Fellowes yard in Great Yarmouth. The result was two identical coasting mulie barges, CAMBRIA andHIBERNIA, and both were launched on the same day at Greenhithe in 1906. William had built CAMBRIA for £1895, whilst her sister barge cost £1905. Despite their similar construction CAMBRIA was slightly faster than HIBERNIA and came second in the coasting class in the Thames and Medway matches in 1906. ‘Brusher’ Milton was CAMBRIA's first skipper. He recalled one occasion when she arrived in Dover an hour ahead of a steamer which she had overtaken on her way up the Channel from the Solent. ‘We were doing nine knots’, said someone on the steamer, ‘and we couldn’t hold you’.

In the first barge matches after World War I, in 1927, she came first in the coasting class on both the Thames and the Medway - and no fewer 34 barges had competed in the Thames event. In the following year she again won in the Medway coasting class. In both 1935 and 1936 she came second in the coasting class on the Thames, and came second in 1936 on the Medway. In 1938 she again won the coasting class in both the Thames and Medway matches.

Eberhardt changed his name to Everard and his company, F T Everard and Sons Ltd, became one of the largest and most successful in the coastal trade. Both CAMBRIA and HIBERNIA were successful and profitable barges, but HIBERNIA was lost near Cromer in a fierce north-east gale in 1938 while on passage from the Humber with a cargo of coal.

CAMBRIA regularly sailed from the London River to the Medway, and to many different British ports from the Humber to Cornwall. On these routes she carried a variety of freights, including wheat, barley, rice, oil-cake, sugar, Portland stone, ball clay, timber, and iron pipes. One of the most frequent cargoes was coal from Keadby on the River Trent to Harwich, Colchester, Margate and the gas works on the Thames. She also regularly traded cross-channel to Dunkirk, Calais, Boulogne and Le Treport with coke, coal, pitch, wheat and oil-cake. Fully laden she could carry 170 tons, which gave her a freeboard of only 11.5 inches, and her decks were frequently awash - making a hazardous working environment in the testing conditions of the Channel and the North Sea. CAMBRIA was built with the luxury (among sailing barges) of a wheel shelter with a tiny toilet in the whaleback of the shelter. Most barges had an open wheel and a ‘bucket and chuck it’ toilet.

Bob Roberts became skipper of CAMBRIA in 1954: he was a grammar school boy from Poole who had run away to sea in the barquentine WATERWITCH at the age of fourteen. In 1955 CAMBRIA had a record year, loading maize, meal, cattle cake and wheat between London and Yarmouth or Norwich. Occasionally she loaded palm kernels back from Felixstowe Dock to Erith oil works. In twelve months she loaded 30 freights, yet had six weeks off preparing for the barge matches. Her best passage of the year was from Yarmouth pierheads to Northfleet in 12 hours. In the 1950s she had six or eight coal freights a year from Keadby to the gasworks at Harwich, Colchester and Margate. By 1959 this trade had been lost and most of CAMBRIA's trade was to Yarmouth or Norwich, with occasional visits to Mistley and Ipswich. In 1959 there were only six barges trading under sail alone, plus about a dozen auxiliary barges sailing without mizzens, and by the end of 1961 CAMBRIA was the only one left trading under sail alone. By 1966 Everards had moved out of sailing barges altogether and in that year Bob Roberts bought CAMBRIA from them and continued to trade in her for a further four years. During all this time the barge had no engine, and indeed one has never been fitted to this day. At first CAMBRIA had had a crew of three but to remain economic this had for many years been reduced to two – the skipper and mate, though they were aided by Roberts’ Welsh collie Penny, who would bark in fog if the barge was approaching any floating object. Bob Roberts was a colourful character, an outspoken bargeman, folk singer and author.

CAMBRIA became the last British registered vessel to carry cargo under sail alone.  By 1970 this had ceased to be viable and her last freight, in that year, was cattle cake from Tilbury to Ipswich. Captain Roberts sold CAMBRIA to the Maritime Trust for display at St Katharine Docks in London. Her condition deteriorated badly and in 1987 the Maritime Trust was disbanded. Agreement was reached to move CAMBRIA to the Dolphin Sailing Barge Museum at Sittingbourne and in 1996 she was sold for £1 to the Cambria Trust. Attempts at restoration were thwarted by lack of funds, and the barge’s condition continued to deteriorate until a major rebuild became necessary. Applications for funds were prepared and in 2006 the hundred-year old barge was towed from Sittingbourne to Sheerness dockyard. In March 2007 the Heritage Lottery Fund agreed to award £990,000 towards the restoration of CAMBRIA. 

On 1 September 2007 CAMBRIA arrived at Standard Quay, Faversham, aboard a lighter, for restoration. In the following month the first consignment of sawn oak arrived at the quay, part of a donation of 35 oak trees from private sustainable forests in Somerset. With the vessel surrounded by a steel walkway and covered by a polytunnel, restoration commenced in November 2007. The steel keelson was heavily corroded at each end and could not be saved. However, the original keel and floor were in good condition and formed the base from which reconstruction could commence. Three years later, by November 2010 restoration of the hull, which had involved replacing all of the frames and most of the planking, was virtually complete and work soon started on the interior accommodation and rig. The project also involved the training of apprentice shipwrights and engineering students in traditional wooden boat-building skills.

The Cambria Trust intends that the barge will be used for sail training and educational purposes, giving a new and young audience practical experience of working her under sail alone. This will include social outreach programmes for the disadvantaged youth. CAMBRIA will also act as a floating classroom at a variety of locations on the Thames, Medway and Swale estuaries in conjunction with local and port authorities and charities, thus facilitating day visits by schools whilst minimising travel. Her main hold has been converted into an interactive education centre capable of seating 40 children at a time, and she will serve as an interpretive centre explaining the economic and social history, and the present and future use, of the London River to junior school pupils. She will also be available for corporate events and the interest and support of the public will also be sought. On 21 March 2011 CAMBRIA was re-launched at Faversham and began two months of fitting out. She won the coasting class in the 2011 Thames barge match.

This vessel is a survivor from the First World War. You can read more about her wartime history by visiting our First World War: Britain's Surviving Vessels website www.ww1britainssurvivingvessels.org.uk

Source: Paul Brown, Historic Sail, The History Press.