Lights, Camera, Action! Tuesday 1St Sept 2009
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Lights, Camera, Action! Tuesday 1st Sept 2009 Sandy Borthwick, who knows how to read a weather chart, predicted that we’d have a bright start to the day, but that the wind would get up and sea conditions would worsen just after noon. Getting a late call from Dutch TV company VPRO that we’d have to embark from Commando Beach at 0900, an hour earlier than scheduled, was a bonus weather-wise, but it did mean that some of our supporters just missed seeing us as we rounded Devil’s Point into Plymouth Sound. The plan was to bring Captain Robert FitzRoy, commander of HMS Beagle, Charles Darwin and the real life Sarah Darwin (a direct descendant of the author of “On the Origin of Species”) from Mount Wise to the Stad Amsterdam. The Royal Clarence Baths, where Darwin lodged prior to the epic round the world voyage of the Beagle between 1831 and 1836, lay a step or two beyond the public slip at Commando Beach. From there we were poised to row to a point south east of Drake’s Island where the Stad Amsterdam was being readied to set sail. However, by mobile phone, VPRO director Siebren Hodes told us that his RIB was late leaving the clipper so Sandy arranged a rendezvous in Barn Pool, where the Beagle had been moored all those years ago. With Sarah Darwin setting out for the Stad Amsterdam from Plymouth’s Barbican, our 1965 Portsmouth built ex-Royal Navy 27 foot Montagu whaler pushed off from the slip at around 0915 hours. At the helm was former Royal Naval officer Brian Gerrish, with Beagle descendant and lifelong Devonport resident John “Buddy” Blight at stroke, Sandy Borthwick (also ex-Royal Navy), Richard Fells (ex-Royal Institute of British Architects), Chris Rendle (ex-Air Training Corps) plus Mark Bradford (still B.A.) at bow, providing the motive power. Seated in leisurely fashion at the stern of the whaler were FitzRoy (aka Philip Collins of Barometer World, Merton, Devon) and Darwin (Phil’s colleague Ben Winter). Collins was in particularly relaxed mood, having been assured that there was no way his precious uniform was going to get wet this day. We zipped along, driven by five powerful oarsmen, well, four powerful oarsmen plus me (Chris), running down with the tide past the Royal William Yard through the often treacherous narrows at Devil’s Point with no problems and entered Plymouth Sound. After a scan of the horizon we spotted Siebren and his camera crew in their RIB and linked up with them for a series of filmed pulls west to east from Barn Pool towards the clipper and then back again. Next came a swap of personnel, with cameraman, sound engineer and interviewer hopping into the whaler and Brian and Darwin jumping across into the RIB. Phil Collins knows his stuff and was able to field the sort of questions Captain FitzRoy would have faced if a news reporter had been quizzing him prior to the big voyage over a century and a half ago. Then the interviewer turned to Sandy, who proved that some men CAN multi-task, absorbing the questions, computing his answers and giving them whilst still keeping time with the stroke of his oar to the “One .. Two .. One .. Two” call from his fellow oarsmen. Once the film crew had swapped back with our chaps and rejoined the RIB, more serious rowing was needed from the team, one or two of them not quite as young as they used to be (!). There was a bit of light relief, for those in www.devonportbeagleproject.com www.barometerworld.co.uk http://beagle.vpro.nl the whaler at least, when the RIB drove straight into us and the cameraman received the sharp end of John Blight’s oar just above his eye. Fortunately there was no major damage done to the Dutchman’s ocular region and scarcely any to our precious and highly expensive oar! Now it was a serious pull east across Plymouth Sound to the Stad Amsterdam, an elegant and smooth arrival alongside and up on deck to be faced with a mixture of ship’s crew, groups of British and Dutch TV technicians and interviewers, plus a healthy sprinkling of passengers, some on board short term and others booked in for the long haul of circumnavigation. The Stad Amsterdam has set out to do one part of what the Devonport Beagle Project planned some years past, when a proposal was put to the government funded Devonport Regeneration Community Partnership for support that would have led to the building of a replica HMS Beagle, the clustering of businesses around the build site and the provision of skills training and long term job opportunities for Devonport people. The aim - to make a major contribution to the revival of the town. Unfortunately, DRC turned it down. We were lucky enough to meet the owners of the clipper who kindly gave us a rundown on what it takes to build and maintain a 21st century sailing ship. Item One; you need to start with a fairly healthy chunk of cash and a will to succeed, then everything else falls into place. A group photograph taken on a 10x8 inch plate camera was followed by a meeting with Sarah Darwin and one of her sons, whom she wisely keeps tethered to her by a length of stout rope! All too soon Sandy ordered us back to the whaler. His accurate prediction of an increase in wind speed meant that the sea was already getting up. Reboarding the whaler was slightly tricky with Richard’s straw hat taking a bit of a ducking and a certain amount of hanging on to the gunwhales and each other before order could be restored. Then a reluctant goodbye to the Stad Amsterdam and west across Plymouth Sound contending with a four foot swell (which means that hitting the right bit of water with the oar takes just that extra degree of concentration) into the lee of Drake’s Island and some respite from the restless sea. For the second time we negotiated the narrows at Devil’s Point with the minimum of fuss aided by precision helming from Fairly Able Seaman Gerrish. Past Mount Edgcumbe Park and the hamlet of Cremyll, a quick right turn and we were back at Commando Beach tying up to the slip. A decision was made by our senior officers that it was better to leave the whaler where she was and return her to North Corner, Devonport, once the river state was more settled. Fitzroy ripped off his mutton-chop whiskers (ouch!), Darwin doffed his titfer and the two set off back to Merton. John Blight made a quick call and rushed away to finish off the day at his building business. A raging thirst was afflicting the remaining sailors who made a bee-line for the sanctuary of the Steam Packet at North Corner. Genial host Phil Head brought in a massive complimentary basket of chips to soak up our pints. Then Brian and Richard bade us farewell, as did Mark, who had to get up early next day to get over to Antony House where he’s doing some volunteer work for the National Trust. Next task was to leg it back to the whaler to check that she was sitting snugly on her mooring, so Sandy and Chris set out with John Queeg (crazy name, crazy guy) and found the whaler bobbing happily at Commando Beach. The plan was that Sandy Borthwick would round up the available members of the crew and bring the boat back to base once conditions abated. As it turned out, Sandy had to enlist wife Lisa as his only crew member later that evening as Queeg, Bradford and Rendle couldn’t be reached (or possibly, they made themselves unreachable!) when push came to shove. But the dynamic Borthwick duo made it back to North Corner in one piece and tied the whaler up to the pontoon. Job Done! www.devonportbeagleproject.com www.barometerworld.co.uk http://beagle.vpro.nl.