Each time I have been here before, I have seen an unusually shaped church that I've wanted to have a close look at. I thought today would be a good opportunity. Unfortunately,St Jame's church was locked. I learned later in the museum that the church had been rebuilt in the 1800s, with funding arranged by Admiral Sir Edward Pellew. The Norman tower was retained, but the octagonal form of the new bit was based on a structure he had seen in Algiers. It also has Islamic detailing in the central lantern.It's supposed to be very light and airy inside, so I'll have to come back another day.
In the street at the back of this church, someone has done a great job at disguising this waste bin.I reckon there would be an outlet for bin artists.
In the small but well laid out museum there are rooms dedicated to the maritime history of the town and the years it has been a resort.
I had forgotten that Donald Crowhurst had been a local hero. His trimaran " Teignmouth Electron" had set out in 1968 in the Sunday Times Golden Globe single handed non-stop race around the world. This was in the days before GPS and satellite phones and EPIRBS. For 2 weeks there were no messages, and it was assumed he was not doing very well. Then a message arrived from the Madeira area that he had sailed 1,300 miles. Soon he was claiming to have made a record sailing 243 miles in a day. Boats were dropping out or sinking and very soon it seemed he was in contention to win it. Robin Knox Johnson seemed to be in second place in Suhaili. Then no more messages were received and his boat was found abandoned in the Atlantic. When the logs were retrieved, some anomalies were discovered. It seems that for 8 weeks he was sending fictitious accounts of his progress, whereas he had been hanging around off south America. He had not rounded Cape Horn or the Cape of Good Hope. Instead, he seemed to be waiting for a time when he could creep home behind the rest of the fleet, with his credibility intact. With so many boats out of contention it looked like he would be second and he would have known that his log books would be scrutinised. He would be exposed as a fraud. He was trapped by his actions. He is likely to have chosen not to be found.They made a film recently about him and I ended up feeling very sad for the family he had left behind and for the man himself who was obviously not up to the challenge. He had fallen on hard times and romantically saw this as a chance to win some money.However he was mentally unfit for 9 months of solitude.
Robin Knox-Johnson will be remembered for winning the race, but what is more memorable is that he donated his £5000 winnings to the fund that was set up for Crowhurst's family.
His boat had been prepared in the Morgan Giles shipyard in the town. Morgan Giles was quite a man and his boatyard produced some excellent craft, including several motor torpedo boats, large racing yachts and lifeboats.
The life story of a very different sailor is told in the museum- that of Edward Pellew. He joined the navy in 1770 as a Captain's servant and by the time of his death in 1833, he was Admiral of the Red, Vice Admiral of the united Kingdom and a pier of the realm. He'd done pretty well for himself through being a good seaman, excellent tactician in battle and being in the right place when his superiors had been killed in action. He'd developed a reputation for dishing out harsh punishment and as a contemporary of Nelson, comparisons have been made. Despite losing fewer boats than Nelson, having a very illustrious career and never getting wounded he didn't get the statues made of him. Another admiral, Codrington said that men worked for Nelson for fear of not pleasing him, whereas they worked for Pellew for fear of displeasing him. However, Nelson died gloriously in battle, and it is for this reason that the statues are erected to him. We are very choosy about how history should be told. We seem to chose to ignore that there were other good people around, when our selected heroes were doing their bit. We also chose to forget that the other side had people as good as our heroes. The French hammered our combined Dutch and British fleet in the battle of Beachy Head, but we don't tend to hear about that so much.
They had one of those machines where you could measure grip strength. My right hand had a score of 370 and my left 310. I was surprised at the difference.There were ratings of what typical trades achieve. Looks like I could be a left handed bank manager or a right handed engineer. I have no chance of being a farmer.I wouldn't make much of a sailor either. So there is a challenge to anyone visiting Teignmouth: beat me in the museum test!
On the wall there is a guitar from the band Muse. There was a loud group of teenagers going around and one asked who Muse were. M,y how short lived is music fame nowadays.
Back outside I walked past the art works on the front, which are part of a sculpture trail, running from Shaldon to Dawlish up to the 3rd September. I was surprised and pleased they had not been vandalised, considering how fragile they looked.
The pier seemed pretty fragile too. In the moderate breeze it seemed to vibrate a little.It provided good views of the harbour entrance and the rest of the town though. The lifeguards were having an easy time. nobody was in the sea on this mizzley sort of morning.
Today now the rain has passed I'm giving Hylje a good dry out.I think some sea water has found its way in through the front hatch and into the compartment I stored the spare life jackets. The two at the bottom had self inflated. I hadn't heard it happen, but when you are crashing into the waves you aren't likely to hear it.I guess.
No comments:
Post a Comment