manu/mldr-zoomed-100char-total-queries-documents

chunk_id stringlengths 3 9	chunk stringlengths 1 100
59_31	passage to the lee, there was a massive pivoted, retractable, winch operated leeboard on each side.
59_32	On the Centaur each weighed . The stern was a transom, fitted with a large rudder. The hull was
59_33	mainly a hold with two small living areas in the bow and stern, and access was through two large
59_34	hatchways, the smaller before the main mast and a much larger aperture behind. These barges
59_35	required no ballast. No auxiliary power was used originally but many barges were fitted with
59_36	engines in later years. When no wharf was available, the barge could use the ebbing tide to stand
59_37	on the mud close to shore, and offload its cargo into carts. A barge with no topsail – or top mast
59_38	– sailing stumpy-rigged required a smaller crew. With a shallow draught, they could penetrate deep
59_39	into the back waters. Not needing ballast reduced their turn-round time. They could be berthed on a
59_40	flat mud bank, against a camp-shed, on a barge bed or in a held tide dock.
59_41	In good conditions, sailing barges could attain speeds of over , and their leeboards allowed them
59_42	to be highly effective windward performers. The unusual spritsail rig allowed any combination of
59_43	sails to be set: even the topsail on its own could be effective in some conditions.
59_44	Uses
59_45	Thames sailing barges were the heavy goods vehicles of their time, moving of loose cargo at a time
59_46	from outside the capital to the city. They brought in coal for the furnaces, bricks to construct
59_47	mills and houses, and hay for the horses. Barges were used to transport rubbish from various cities
59_48	out to the brickfields where it was used as fuel; it was only for the last mile of the trip to the
59_49	brickfields that road transport had to be used. In 1900 there were over 2,000 privately owned
59_50	Thames sailing barges in operation.
59_51	History
59_52	Early life
59_53	SB Centaur, wood built, probably pitch pine on oak, was constructed for Charles Stone of Mistley to
59_54	be used for the coastal trade. She was large compared with the average sailing barge and had a
59_55	"generous sheer and shapely transom" making her more seaworthy. She was long, with a beam of and
59_56	a draught of . Her capacity was . When loaded she could have as little as freeboard, and hurried
59_57	loading meant that she frequently listed. Construction took six weeks and she was launched on
59_58	15February 1895 by John and Herbert Cann at the Bathside yard, Gashouse Creek, Harwich. Her first
59_59	master was James Stone, and she had a crew of two: a mate and a boy. There was another Thames
59_60	sailing barge named Centaur, based in Rochester and built in 1899. She sank in 1930 after colliding
59_61	with Aspbodel. Records referring to "SB Centaur" are not always clear as to which is meant.
59_62	In 1898 Centaur won the Harwich Barge Race. In 1899 an "SB Centaur", probably her Rochester-based
59_63	namesake, won the Medway Barge Race, passing over the finishing line at Upnor minutes ahead of
59_64	second placed SB Giralda. The Mistley barges worked the ports of north east France, Belgium and the
59_65	Netherlands, from most of the English ports between Southampton and Goole. There are records of her
59_66	carrying wheat, hydrochloric acid, sugar, linseed oil and raw linseed. In April 1902 her steering
59_67	gear was damaged while sailing from Shoreham and she was towed into Newhaven. In January 1905 she
59_68	had to be towed into Portland. Both anchors were lost off the Netherlands in December 1906.
59_69	Her sailing qualities have been described as: World War I
59_70	In the First World War, SB Centaur joined her sister barges taking foodstuffs and large quantities
59_71	of coal, coke, and pitch to the French ports of Le Treport, Calais and Boulogne-sur-Mer. Commonly
59_72	there were 180 barges discharging at Le Treport. They sailed over enemy mines due to their shallow
59_73	draught, and were too small to attract enemy U-boats. These were profitable runs as carriage was
59_74	charged at £6 a ton. On one crossing, the date is not recorded, in thick fog, the Centaur was
59_75	struck amidships by a coastal motor boat (CMB), a small, motorised, military vessel, which mounted
59_76	her deck and settled on her main hatch. Both boats were undamaged and the Centaur returned home and
59_77	safely unloaded both the CMB and her cargo.
59_78	Inter-war years
59_79	After the war, Centaur resumed the coastal trade. She made a number of voyages to France and
59_80	Belgium carrying pitch and coal. Ephraim Cripps was her skipper for twenty years and kept records
59_81	of each voyage. Colchester was her main port from 1928 to 1930, and she worked the East Anglian
59_82	coast. In 1933 she joined Francis and Gilders Ltd which managed a large fleet of sailing barges out
59_83	of Colchester, transporting grain from Norfolk, Suffolk and Essex into London.
59_84	World War II
59_85	The first major civilian maritime event of the Second World War was the Dunkirk evacuation where
59_86	hundreds of small ships rescued allied soldiers from the beaches. Like many of the sailing barge
59_87	fleet Centaur sailed down to the assembly point at Dover, where she collided with a tug and so was
59_88	unable to make the crossing. The rest of the conflict was spent under government charter, carrying
59_89	much the same cargos as she always had around the south and east coasts of England.
59_90	Post-war
59_91	After the war Centaur returned to working the grain trade. In January 1952, in force 6–7 winds with
59_92	seas breaking across her hatches, her rudder broke and she was towed into Colne by the SB Saxon.
59_93	Francis and Gilders Ltd were the last "seeker barges", barges that sought any cargo; the London and
59_94	Rochester Trading Company merged with them in 1951. The new owners were intent on selling on these
59_95	barges, and Centaur took her last cargo in 1955. During her last year in the carrying trade, as
59_96	well as grain she transported timber, sugar beet, ballast, cement and oil drums. Centaur and the
59_97	other three remaining working sailing barges, George Smeed, Kitty and Mirosa were deregistered and
59_98	disposed of to Brown & Son of Chelmsford. There they were de-masted, de-registered and used as
59_99	timber lighters. Between 1955 and 1966 she was used as a lighter to tranship timber from ships in
59_100	the Blackwater estuary to canal lighters headed for Chelmsford.
59_101	In 1966 she was purchased by Richard Duke and re-rigged as a charter barge with four four-berth
59_102	cabins. In 1968 she was class winner at the Blackwater Sailing Barge Match. She was sold in 1973 to
59_103	the Thames Barge Sailing Club (now the Thames Sailing Barge Trust), a registered charity. She was
59_104	restored between 1974 and 1993, with most frames and planks replaced and a new auxiliary motor, a
59_105	Bedford six-cylinder truck engine fitted with a marine gearbox, installed. In 1993 she won the
59_106	Inter-match Trophy. In 1995 the sacrificial planking was replaced in iroko and opeipi. In 2013 a
59_107	Heritage Lottery Fund grant of £100,000 was obtained which contributed to further restoration work,
59_108	including redoubling the bottom timbers. She now berths at Hythe Quay, Maldon and is available for
59_109	charter during the summer months. She is still traditionally rigged, as she was in 1895, currently
59_110	with of sail.
59_111	Owners 1895 Charles Stone. 1900 Dolly Rogers. 1911 Ted Hibbs. 1915 John Sawyer.
59_112	1933 Francis & Gilders. 1951 London and Rochester Trading Company.
59_113	1955 Brown & Co. Derigged for use as a timber lighter. 1965 Richard Duke Used as a charter barge.
59_114	1973 Thames Barge Sailing Club, now the Thames Sailing Barge Trust.
59_115	The dates are when Centaur came into ownership of its various owners. See also SB Pudge Notes
59_116	Footnotes
59_117	References
59_118	This article incorporates text taken from the article Thames sailing barge.
59_119	External links Centaur's page on the Thames Sailing Barge Trust's site (current owners)
59_120	Centaur's entry in the National Historic Ships register
59_121	Thames sailing barges 1895 ships Individual sailing vessels Ships built in Harwich
59_122	Transport on the River Thames Sailing ships of the United Kingdom
59_123	Ships and vessels of the National Historic Fleet Little Ships of Dunkirk
60_0	Gillespie County is a county located on the Edwards Plateau in the U.S. state of Texas. As of the
60_1	2020 census, its population was 26,725. The county seat is Fredericksburg. It is located in the
60_2	heart of the rural Texas Hill Country in Central Texas. Gillespie is named for Robert Addison
60_3	Gillespie, a soldier in the Mexican–American War.
60_4	On December 15, 1847, a petition was submitted to create Gillespie County. In 1848, the legislature
60_5	formed Gillespie County from Bexar and Travis Counties. While the signers were overwhelmingly
60_6	German immigrants, names also on the petition were Castillo, Pena, Munos, and a handful of

59_31

passage to the lee, there was a massive pivoted, retractable, winch operated leeboard on each side.

59_32

On the Centaur each weighed . The stern was a transom, fitted with a large rudder. The hull was

59_33

mainly a hold with two small living areas in the bow and stern, and access was through two large

59_34

hatchways, the smaller before the main mast and a much larger aperture behind. These barges

59_35

required no ballast. No auxiliary power was used originally but many barges were fitted with

59_36

engines in later years. When no wharf was available, the barge could use the ebbing tide to stand

59_37

on the mud close to shore, and offload its cargo into carts. A barge with no topsail – or top mast

59_38

– sailing stumpy-rigged required a smaller crew. With a shallow draught, they could penetrate deep

59_39

into the back waters. Not needing ballast reduced their turn-round time. They could be berthed on a

59_40

flat mud bank, against a camp-shed, on a barge bed or in a held tide dock.

59_41

In good conditions, sailing barges could attain speeds of over , and their leeboards allowed them

59_42

to be highly effective windward performers. The unusual spritsail rig allowed any combination of

59_43

sails to be set: even the topsail on its own could be effective in some conditions.

59_44

Uses

59_45

Thames sailing barges were the heavy goods vehicles of their time, moving of loose cargo at a time

59_46

from outside the capital to the city. They brought in coal for the furnaces, bricks to construct

59_47

mills and houses, and hay for the horses. Barges were used to transport rubbish from various cities

59_48

out to the brickfields where it was used as fuel; it was only for the last mile of the trip to the

59_49

brickfields that road transport had to be used. In 1900 there were over 2,000 privately owned

59_50

Thames sailing barges in operation.

59_51

History

59_52

Early life

59_53

SB Centaur, wood built, probably pitch pine on oak, was constructed for Charles Stone of Mistley to

59_54

be used for the coastal trade. She was large compared with the average sailing barge and had a

59_55

"generous sheer and shapely transom" making her more seaworthy. She was long, with a beam of and

59_56

a draught of . Her capacity was . When loaded she could have as little as freeboard, and hurried

59_57

loading meant that she frequently listed. Construction took six weeks and she was launched on

59_58

15February 1895 by John and Herbert Cann at the Bathside yard, Gashouse Creek, Harwich. Her first

59_59

master was James Stone, and she had a crew of two: a mate and a boy. There was another Thames

59_60

sailing barge named Centaur, based in Rochester and built in 1899. She sank in 1930 after colliding

59_61

with Aspbodel. Records referring to "SB Centaur" are not always clear as to which is meant.

59_62

In 1898 Centaur won the Harwich Barge Race. In 1899 an "SB Centaur", probably her Rochester-based

59_63

namesake, won the Medway Barge Race, passing over the finishing line at Upnor minutes ahead of

59_64

second placed SB Giralda. The Mistley barges worked the ports of north east France, Belgium and the

59_65

Netherlands, from most of the English ports between Southampton and Goole. There are records of her

59_66

carrying wheat, hydrochloric acid, sugar, linseed oil and raw linseed. In April 1902 her steering

59_67

gear was damaged while sailing from Shoreham and she was towed into Newhaven. In January 1905 she

59_68

had to be towed into Portland. Both anchors were lost off the Netherlands in December 1906.

59_69

Her sailing qualities have been described as: World War I

59_70

In the First World War, SB Centaur joined her sister barges taking foodstuffs and large quantities

59_71

of coal, coke, and pitch to the French ports of Le Treport, Calais and Boulogne-sur-Mer. Commonly

59_72

there were 180 barges discharging at Le Treport. They sailed over enemy mines due to their shallow

59_73

draught, and were too small to attract enemy U-boats. These were profitable runs as carriage was

59_74

charged at £6 a ton. On one crossing, the date is not recorded, in thick fog, the Centaur was

59_75

struck amidships by a coastal motor boat (CMB), a small, motorised, military vessel, which mounted

59_76

her deck and settled on her main hatch. Both boats were undamaged and the Centaur returned home and

59_77

safely unloaded both the CMB and her cargo.

59_78

Inter-war years

59_79

After the war, Centaur resumed the coastal trade. She made a number of voyages to France and

59_80

Belgium carrying pitch and coal. Ephraim Cripps was her skipper for twenty years and kept records

59_81

of each voyage. Colchester was her main port from 1928 to 1930, and she worked the East Anglian

59_82

coast. In 1933 she joined Francis and Gilders Ltd which managed a large fleet of sailing barges out

59_83

of Colchester, transporting grain from Norfolk, Suffolk and Essex into London.

59_84

World War II

59_85

The first major civilian maritime event of the Second World War was the Dunkirk evacuation where

59_86

hundreds of small ships rescued allied soldiers from the beaches. Like many of the sailing barge

59_87

fleet Centaur sailed down to the assembly point at Dover, where she collided with a tug and so was

59_88

unable to make the crossing. The rest of the conflict was spent under government charter, carrying

59_89

much the same cargos as she always had around the south and east coasts of England.

59_90

Post-war

59_91

After the war Centaur returned to working the grain trade. In January 1952, in force 6–7 winds with

59_92

seas breaking across her hatches, her rudder broke and she was towed into Colne by the SB Saxon.

59_93

Francis and Gilders Ltd were the last "seeker barges", barges that sought any cargo; the London and

59_94

Rochester Trading Company merged with them in 1951. The new owners were intent on selling on these

59_95

barges, and Centaur took her last cargo in 1955. During her last year in the carrying trade, as

59_96

well as grain she transported timber, sugar beet, ballast, cement and oil drums. Centaur and the

59_97

other three remaining working sailing barges, George Smeed, Kitty and Mirosa were deregistered and

59_98

disposed of to Brown & Son of Chelmsford. There they were de-masted, de-registered and used as

59_99

timber lighters. Between 1955 and 1966 she was used as a lighter to tranship timber from ships in

59_100

the Blackwater estuary to canal lighters headed for Chelmsford.

59_101

In 1966 she was purchased by Richard Duke and re-rigged as a charter barge with four four-berth

59_102

cabins. In 1968 she was class winner at the Blackwater Sailing Barge Match. She was sold in 1973 to

59_103

the Thames Barge Sailing Club (now the Thames Sailing Barge Trust), a registered charity. She was

59_104

restored between 1974 and 1993, with most frames and planks replaced and a new auxiliary motor, a

59_105

Bedford six-cylinder truck engine fitted with a marine gearbox, installed. In 1993 she won the

59_106

Inter-match Trophy. In 1995 the sacrificial planking was replaced in iroko and opeipi. In 2013 a

59_107

Heritage Lottery Fund grant of £100,000 was obtained which contributed to further restoration work,

59_108

including redoubling the bottom timbers. She now berths at Hythe Quay, Maldon and is available for

59_109

charter during the summer months. She is still traditionally rigged, as she was in 1895, currently

59_110

with of sail.

59_111

Owners 1895 Charles Stone. 1900 Dolly Rogers. 1911 Ted Hibbs. 1915 John Sawyer.

59_112

1933 Francis & Gilders. 1951 London and Rochester Trading Company.

59_113

1955 Brown & Co. Derigged for use as a timber lighter. 1965 Richard Duke Used as a charter barge.

59_114

1973 Thames Barge Sailing Club, now the Thames Sailing Barge Trust.

59_115

The dates are when Centaur came into ownership of its various owners. See also SB Pudge Notes

59_116

Footnotes

59_117

References

59_118

This article incorporates text taken from the article Thames sailing barge.

59_119

External links Centaur's page on the Thames Sailing Barge Trust's site (current owners)

59_120

Centaur's entry in the National Historic Ships register

59_121

Thames sailing barges 1895 ships Individual sailing vessels Ships built in Harwich

59_122

Transport on the River Thames Sailing ships of the United Kingdom

59_123

Ships and vessels of the National Historic Fleet Little Ships of Dunkirk

60_0

Gillespie County is a county located on the Edwards Plateau in the U.S. state of Texas. As of the

60_1

2020 census, its population was 26,725. The county seat is Fredericksburg. It is located in the

60_2

heart of the rural Texas Hill Country in Central Texas. Gillespie is named for Robert Addison

60_3

Gillespie, a soldier in the Mexican–American War.

60_4

On December 15, 1847, a petition was submitted to create Gillespie County. In 1848, the legislature

60_5

formed Gillespie County from Bexar and Travis Counties. While the signers were overwhelmingly

60_6

German immigrants, names also on the petition were Castillo, Pena, Munos, and a handful of