SB Centaur

Thames sailing barges were the heavy goods vehicles of their time, moving 150 long tons (170 short tons) of loose cargo at a time from outside the capital to the city. They brought in coal for the furnaces, bricks to construct mills and houses, and hay for the horses. Barges were used to transport rubbish from various cities out to the brickfields where it was used as fuel; it was only for the last mile of the trip to the brickfields that road transport had to be used.[7] In 1900 there were over 2,000 privately owned Thames sailing barges in operation.[4]

SB Centaur, wood built, probably pitch pine on oak, was constructed for Charles Stone of Mistley to be used for the coastal trade.[8] She was large compared with the average sailing barge and had a "generous sheer and shapely transom" making her more seaworthy. She was 85.6 ft (26.1 m) long, with a beam of 19.55 ft (5.96 m) and a draught of 6.2 ft (1.9 m). Her capacity was 61 long tons (68 short tons).[9] When loaded she could have as little as 9 inches (23 cm) freeboard, and hurried loading meant that she frequently listed.[2] Construction took six weeks[10] and she was launched on 15 February 1895 by John and Herbert Cann at the Bathside yard, Gashouse Creek, Harwich.[11] Her first master was James Stone, and she had a crew of two: a mate and a boy.[9] There was another Thames sailing barge named Centaur, based in Rochester and built in 1899. She sank in 1930 after colliding with Aspbodel. Records referring to "SB Centaur" are not always clear as to which is meant.[12]

In 1898 Centaur won the Harwich Barge Race.[13] In 1899 an "SB Centaur", probably her Rochester-based namesake, won the Medway Barge Race, passing over the finishing line at Upnor ​2 ¹⁄₂ minutes ahead of second placed SB Giralda.[14] The Mistley barges worked the ports of north east France, Belgium and the Netherlands, from most of the English ports between Southampton and Goole.[11] There are records of her carrying wheat, hydrochloric acid, sugar, linseed oil and raw linseed. In April 1902 her steering gear was damaged while sailing from Shoreham and she was towed into Newhaven. In January 1905 she had to be towed into Portland. Both anchors were lost off the Netherlands in December 1906.[9]

Her sailing qualities have been described as:

Centaur was a satisfying barge to sail. She went well to windward and was quite handy in narrow waters. Until the last year or two of her trading days, unlike today, she carried a bowsprit. As a result she was better balanced, needing very little helm. She sailed best on the sheet, with a freeish sprit. On the bowsprit, she could carry both a jib and a topmast staysail, but it was usual only to set the former. She-would carry full sail (i.e. without the staysail) in a Force 5 wind, although in associated sea conditions offshore the skipper would be looking for shelter if deep-laden. When reducing sail due to weather the jib came in first, followed by the topsail and then if necessary the first few cloths of the mainsail. A Force 6 wind was generally considered to be the overall limiting condition.

— Peter Thomson[2]

SB Edme, a similar barge to Centaur, under full sail[note 2]

In the First World War, SB Centaur joined her sister barges taking foodstuffs and large quantities of coal, coke, and pitch to the French ports of Le Treport, Calais and Boulogne-sur-Mer. Commonly there were 180 barges discharging at Le Treport. They sailed over enemy mines due to their shallow draught, and were too small to attract enemy U-boats. These were profitable runs as carriage was charged at £6 a ton.[11] On one crossing, the date is not recorded, in thick fog, the Centaur was struck amidships by a coastal motor boat (CMB), a small, motorised, military vessel, which mounted her deck and settled on her main hatch. Both boats were undamaged and the Centaur returned home and safely unloaded both the CMB and her cargo.[11][10]

After the war, Centaur resumed the coastal trade. She made a number of voyages to France and Belgium carrying pitch and coal.[9] Ephraim Cripps was her skipper for twenty years and kept records of each voyage. Colchester was her main port from 1928 to 1930, and she worked the East Anglian coast.[11] In 1933 she joined Francis and Gilders Ltd which managed a large fleet of sailing barges out of Colchester, transporting grain from Norfolk, Suffolk and Essex into London.[2]

SB Centaur in 2017 at Hythe Quay, Maldon

The first major civilian maritime event of the Second World War was the Dunkirk evacuation where hundreds of small ships rescued allied soldiers from the beaches. Like many of the sailing barge fleet Centaur sailed down to the assembly point at Dover, where she collided with a tug and so was unable to make the crossing. The rest of the conflict was spent under government charter, carrying much the same cargos as she always had around the south and east coasts of England.[9][15]

After the war Centaur returned to working the grain trade. In January 1952, in force 6–7 winds with seas breaking across her hatches, her rudder broke and she was towed into Colne by the SB Saxon. Francis and Gilders Ltd were the last "seeker barges", barges that sought any cargo; the London and Rochester Trading Company merged with them in 1951. The new owners were intent on selling on these barges, and Centaur took her last cargo in 1955. During her last year in the carrying trade, as well as grain she transported timber, sugar beet, ballast, cement and oil drums. Centaur and the other three remaining working sailing barges, George Smeed, Kitty and Mirosa were deregistered and disposed of to Brown & Son of Chelmsford. There they were de-masted, de-registered and used as timber lighters. Between 1955 and 1966 she was used as a lighter to tranship timber from ships in the Blackwater estuary to canal lighters headed for Chelmsford.[9]

In 1966 she was purchased by Richard Duke and re-rigged as a charter barge with four four-berth cabins. In 1968 she was class winner at the Blackwater Sailing Barge Match.[13] She was sold in 1973 to the Thames Barge Sailing Club (now the Thames Sailing Barge Trust), a registered charity. She was restored between 1974 and 1993, with most frames and planks replaced and a new auxiliary motor, a Bedford six-cylinder truck engine fitted with a marine gearbox, installed.[9] In 1993 she won the Inter-match Trophy. In 1995 the sacrificial planking was replaced in iroko and opeipi.[13] In 2013 a Heritage Lottery Fund grant of £100,000 was obtained which contributed to further restoration work, including redoubling the bottom timbers. She now berths at Hythe Quay, Maldon and as of 2018 is available for charter during the summer months. She is still traditionally rigged, as she was in 1895,[9] currently with 2,600 square feet (240 m²) of sail.[4]