chapter iv The River Medway ~ Sheerness ~ Port Victoria Stangate Creek ~ Colemouth ~ Long Reach Cockham Wood ~ Chatham ~ The Upper Medway 4 When one’s little vessel has safely crossed the dangers of the Grain Spit, and is running into the Medway with a fair wind, there is time to take a look round, and feast one’s eyes upon the moving panorama of shipping. On the east side there is the fort on Garrison Point, and the dockyards, and the big iron sheers towering high above all the buildings; on the west side there is the old Martello tower, with Cockleshell Hard and Port Victo- ria beyond. In the middle, the guardship Duncan, a screw frigate of the early days of steam, used to swing to the tide at her moorings until quite lately. Round about there lie other men-of-war, some large and some small; a liner, or swift cruiser, or a torpedo catcher, and a training schoon- er flying the pennant; then there is the Chatham steamer alongside the pier taking in or discharging passengers, and a fleet of barges coming out or running into the river in procession from the Medway to the Thames, or from the Thames to the Medway; a Norwegian timber-laden brig or schooner, and a ketch or two from some of the ports on the east coast, are usually to be seen brought up off Cock- leshell Hard. 55 swin, swale and swatchway To the southward can be descried the beacon which marks the entrance to the Queenborough Swale, where the Flushing steamers lie, and in the distance beyond are the hills of Kent. The Medway in its lower reaches is a splendid cruising ground for small craft, certainly there is no other place at once so accessible from London and so convenient for small-boat sailing. From Rochester Bridge to Sheerness there are nearly fourteen miles of water, all open except in the neighbourhood of Rochester itself, where the hills and houses make the wind come rather puffy. For the rest of the distance the banks are low, so that the winds blow true and without squalls; there is soft bottom everywhere, so that no harm can follow from any accidental going ashore, and for a large part of the distance, in fact for nearly the whole way from Gillingham to Sheerness, there are a se- ries of side creeks and channels, along which the man who is fond of exploring expeditions can penetrate into no end of quaint corners, and can find plenty of quiet anchorages for the night without alarms of any sort. The view of this part of the Medway from Brompton Lines, or from the top of Chatham Hill, shows a vast expanse of water, more like an elongated lake dotted with islands than the course of a river; and the absence of steamboat traffic lends a further charm to the Medway for the amateur boat sailor. Practi- cally there is none; an average of about one coasting steamer per diem representing the business of the port, and this is a very different state of affairs from that which is found upon the Thames, where the steamboats, large and small, form a continuous procession up and down the river, keeping the 56 swin, swale and swatchway yachtsman in a state of constant apprehension, as they bear down towards him yawing from side to side till he hardly knows whether to stand on or tack about. Then the tides do not run so hard in the Medway, and there is a capital train service between London and Chatham. Sheerness, at the entrance to the river, does not afford much of a harbour to little craft, for it is exposed to west- erly winds, and indeed we have heard of bawleys founder- ing there at their anchors in bad weather; but when it is fine and during the easterly winds which prevail in the spring and early summer, it is often a convenient place to bring up at. There is room close to the northward of the jetty for a few craft, but much more room on its south and better side, along the edge of the Lapwell – a mud bank which extends from Sheerness to Queenborough, and dries out at low wa- ter nearly to the end of the pier. By anchoring close inside of the head of the pier one can be out of the way, and handy, if one wants a waterman for a put ashore, or to look after the boat while the crew goes up into the town. Most necessary stores can be bought at Sheerness, and there is a very fair hotel, the Fountain, close to the pier, if the Corinthian wants a change of diet after a few days of victual of his own cooking, or hankers after a freshwater bath to wash away what Dana calls the “sea black.” It is a commonly accepted belief that in small boats everything is kept bright and clean, save and except the crew, but this is a libel; all the same a fresh-water bath is doubly delightful after a few days of salt-water washing, and it is quite the correct thing to do, for we are told that Ulysses always went in for a fresh-water bath first thing, and warm too, when- 57 swin, swale and swatchway ever he put into a friendly port during his long cruise home from Troy. In the summer time Sheerness is full of London holiday makers, but they chiefly congregate about a mile further on, outside the fortifications and the moat. Here the shops are rather better, and there is more variety in the way of fruit- shops and pastry-cooks, if the ship’s stores need a new sup- ply. This part of the town has a slightly better claim to the title of Sheerness-on-Sea, and boasts of a beach fronting the Thames. At low tide there is more beach than sea, and it is very flat, and cannot be approached from the sea with- out great caution, except at high water; there are also posts which stick up here and there, to the terror of the naviga- tor; to say nothing of volunteers, who fire shot and shell all over the place on Bank Holidays. Opposite Sheerness Pier is Cockleshell Hard, and close by it is Port Victoria, at the point where the river bends to the north-east on its way to the sea, and this is used to a certain extent as an anchorage by yachts; two or three may be seen there on Saturday and Sunday in the summer. For little craft it is a roadstead rath- er than a harbour. Cockleshell Hard is a very nice quiet spot to anchor in to wait for the tide; it is fairly steep-to, and there is a pleas- ant patch of shelly beach to walk upon. A few barges and schooners may always be seen at anchor near there; we have never stayed in this berth all night, from an idea that ves- sels coming in at night to bring up might run into us in the dark, but we often stop to land there. At Port Victoria the South Eastern Railway have a forlorn sort of terminus, and there is a weatherboard hotel, suggesting the backwoods, 58 swin, swale and swatchway where one can get food and drinks and stores. There is also a steamboat to ferry passengers across to Sheerness. It is reported that jetties are to be built here for coaling purposes; if this is so, the place will become altered from its present peaceful and slumbering condition. We suppose that jetties will take the place of the two or three pictur- esque old hulks which now lie moored off here in Saltpan Reach. One of them, the Dido, is said to have been once a ship of Nelson’s. The railway officials at Port Victoria seem to be keen sportsmen, for we have seen them all thrown into a wild state of excitement by the sight of a flock of geese flying over the river. One bitterly cold day in January, we were standing at the station waiting for a train, and talking to the station- master, when some birds appeared flying along in the dis- tance; he saw them, and dived into his office for a field-glass, and after a prolonged gaze at them said, “They are geese, sir.” In a moment, train and steamer both forgotten, all hands and the cook were busy watching the birds, speculating, most probably, upon the chances of getting a shot at them that night after dark. From Port Victoria, on the north side, the bank of Salt- pan Reach is steep until Colemouth Creek is reached; on the south side there is the entrance to Queenborough, marked by a beacon on a spit which goes adry, and further on there is Stangate Creek entrance, marked by a buoy at the end of the spit which lies on its west side. Stangate Creek is nearly opposite Port Victoria, and runs in a southerly direction from the Medway for over a mile; it then divides into three arms, the central one going on to 59 swin, swale and swatchway Lower Halstow, the other two winding and branching until they are lost in the marshes. There is deep water (three or four fathoms) right down to the point where the creek di- vides; beyond that the water shoals, and before Lower Hal- stow is reached the channel ebbs dry at low water.