#405

NOW SOLD

NB Saturn Oak, Chrome and 24ct Gold Plated Ballpoint Twist Pen

(25% of the profits will be gifted to the custodians of NB Saturn)

EUROPEAN OAK - Quercus robur

Usually straight-grained, the heartwood of European Oak varies in colour from light tan to brown. Quarter-sawn pieces show attractive flame figuring. The wood is fairly hard, heavy and dense, clean but with the occasional knot. European Oak is a beautiful timber and with an oil finish, the grain will turn a deep golden brown.

This particular piece of oak (probably English rather than European) is just a little bit special though. It is one of the large bow mainframes from the Shropshire Fly Boat Saturn. The days of the fly-boats began with the success of the Bridgewater and Trent & Mersey canals in the 1770’s. Up until the heyday of the fly boats cargos had sedately plodded up the towing paths (Haling Way’s in them thar days) at three miles per hour or so but the new Fly Boats with teams of four men and two horses regularly galloped their loads of perishable goods at ten miles per hour. 

Built in 1906 for the Shropshire Union Canal Carrying Co. at Tower Wharf, Chester, Saturn was used for the fast carriage of cheese from the producing towns of Cheshire and Shropshire to the major markets such as Manchester. 

Saturn is the last horse-drawn Shropshire Union Canal Fly-boat in the World – originally built to travel non-stop, day and night. Over 100 years old, she has been fully restored to her former glory; not only to preserve her for posterity but to educate present and future generations about our waterways, narrowboats and horse-boating. 

The plan was working well and I was turning pens in the afternoon after an early morning cruise and vice-a-versa the next day; early morning pen turning and a late afternoon cruise - we may just about have enough stock to open at the Birmingham floating market in just over two weeks time. Now we just had to keep up the cruising pace as we still had about 70 miles and 75 locks to go <gulp>. 

It wasn't actually that for to our next stop off in Market Drayton, at 6 miles but the 17 locks took their toll. Market Drayton is a great stopover for us boaters as it's quite few and far between that there are towns with facilities on the Shropshire Union Canal. 

The visitor moorings in Market Drayton have large trees shading the sun and as we intended staying two days we wanted to be able to make use of the lovely sunny weather we were having so we didn't go on past the water point and bridge and stopped just before the off side pontoon moorings. The moorings here are a bit strange the signs say overnight mooring only, except on market day and pre-market day when daytime mooring is permitted. Well we arrived late afternoon on Tuesday so that was OK and as luck would have it market day was Wednesday and pre-market day Tuesday so we were fine there for our couple of days (I think?!?).

Pen #405 was turned on the 24th November 2015 on the market moorings at Market Drayton