Sir Garnet

Introduction

Sir Garnet is a Norfolk Wherry, a trading vessel working on the Norfolk Broads. 

Description

In Coot Club and The Big Six Ransome gives the impression that there were a number of wherries trading up and down the River Bure. Sir Garnet is described as the fastest of these.

From his various descriptions we can tell that Sir Garnet fits the usual wherry design, with a large, broad and low hull. She had a single hold protected by removable hatches and a small cuddy aft fitted with two bunks and a stove. Her mast was mounted in a tabernacle and carefully counter-weighted, so that the two man crew could lower and raise it easily whilst shooting under low bridges. Wherries had a single sail. This was boomless (ie, without a spar at its lower edge). The sail had a gaff which was raised using an ingenious arrangement of blocks: most gaff rigged sails require two halyards, but the wherry design only has one, operated by a single man using the foredeck mounted winch.

Trading wherries had black sails and hulls. Ransome's drawings show that she had a white patch painted on her bow. This was a common precaution, designed to help wherrymen see each other in the dark. Most wherrymen took great pride in their vessels, so it it likely that Sir Garnet was well maintained. Her cuddy, hold coaming and masthead were probably colourfully painted.

Ownership

Ransome never tells us who Sir Garnet belongs to. She is skippered by Jim Woodall. It may be that he also owns her. However, it is equally possible that he is an employee of another owner or a company. Both explanations are historically feasible. The fact that Jim tells Port and Starboard that he isn't supposed to carry passengers may suggest that the latter is true, and that he operating under company rules.

Sir Garnet appears in

Coot Club, The Big Six.

Factual Inspiration

There is no known specific vessel upon which Sir Garnet was based. Wherries themselves were a staple part of the Broads landscape for many decades before Ransome wrote Coot Club. At their height in the 19th century there were over 200 trading wherries, all conforming to the same basic design.

What Happened to the "Real" Sir Garnet?

History was not kind to the vast majority of wherries. Competition from road transport made them increasingly uneconomical after the First World War. Some wherry owners tried to respond by fitting engines, but these failed to redress the balance. By the time Ransome wrote Coot Club, the wherry was fast disappearing from the Norfolk landscape with just 16 trading wherries operating in 1929.

Many ended up either rotting in dykes or deliberately sunk to shore up the banks of a river or broad. By 1949 there were no wherries left trading under sail.

Fortunately, 1949 also saw the founding of a Trust that aimed to preserve at least one trading wherry under sail. Nearly sixty years later The Norfolk Wherry Trust has successfully restored and maintained Albion, originally built in 1898. Today she has been joined by Maud, a second trading wherry that has been salvaged and rebuilt to sailing condition. There are also a number of pleasure wherries, also known as wherry yachts, still operating on the Broads.  

Albion was used by the BBC to represent Sir Garnet in their 1980s adaptations of Coot Club and The Big Six.

For More Information

Norfolk Wherry Trust      

Wherry Yacht Charter Charitable Trust 

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