Margaret Posted: 8 months ago | Reply

Hi Niall,

The number of Eyemouth residents who think and say that this is an eyesore are unbelievable ,the visitors stand and stare and shake their heads ,there is no interpretation board to tell anyone anything about her,she is a disgrace to the town as well as the other rotting boats in the harbour .People try to improve Eyemouth and make it desirable for tourists and locals alike but they are fighting a losing battle.She should be displayed somewhere more appropriate.

niall gifford Posted: 8 months ago | Reply

hi bertha is part of are history and devers much more than at the side of the road and in the werther roting
it is one of brunels and built in bristol work in exeter
i've made a model of her and put it on youtube

Margaret Paterson Posted: 11 months ago | Reply

Hi,
Well Bertha actually looks so much better now that the Anglian Pipedream has been removed and the area tidied up,all you need now is an information panel to enable visitors to Eyemouth to have some info about her ,well done guys

Margaret Paterson Posted: 1 year ago | Reply

To World of Boats Admin:
I did attend at the Golf Club for the tour of the sheds but the talk was so long and boring that I along with several others left before the end ,disappointing really because I would really have liked to have seen the boats .As I look onto Bertha day in day out do you have any plans to tidy up the area and boats around her as she really is an eyesore , surrounded by weeds and the other boats are a disgrace. I watch visitors to the town looking at her and you can see that they are wondering what it's all about ,it would be so much more inviting if the area was tidy.

Margaret Paterson Posted: 1 year ago | Reply

John ,she is in such a sorry state at Eyemouth that you perhaps would not want to be re-united with her .In fact most of the boats are lying in an old farm shed and the public never see them.Bertha as I have said before is lying surrounded by weeds and other old boats

RICHARD WITCOMBE Posted: 1 year ago | Reply

I have a tape recording of Bertha in action in Bridgwater Docks made in 1970, just before she retired. I was on board at the time. Let me know if you want a copy.

Evelyn Posted: 2 years ago | Reply

1. Allow me to be pedantic over the spelling of Bridgwater - the correct spelling would bring the page up on relevant Google searches, as well as not annoying the locals!

Here is her tale...

The management committee of the Canal Company (dock owners at the time) commissioned William Cubitt not long after the docks opened in 1841 to look into solutions for the silt problem, which accumulated at a rate of around a foot a month! He criticised the design of the docks and advised the committee that if they wouldn't carry out his design of introducing a lock between tidal and inner basins the purchase of a "dredging engine" is essential.

It's unknown how long the committee took to buy the machine but it was certainly in operation by 1844. Brunel designed a similar one for Bristol in 1843: larger but mechanically similar and operating on the same principle.

She'd pull herself up and down the docks with a large adjustable blade beneath the hull scraping and stirring the mud, and accumulating it in the tidal basin and shutting the gates to the inner basin. They then emptied the tidal basin, opened the sluices and washed the mud out into the river.

Bristol & Exeter Railways purchased the docks and canal in 1867 and amalgamated with GWR in 1876. Plagued by the River Parret silt, they finally carried another of Cubitt's recommendations and put sluicing culverts in the inner basin in 1907. From then she didn't need to operate so often or drag the mud out into the tidal basin.

Still operational, British Rail presented her to Exeter Maritime Museum in 1964, just before trying to sell the docks to the Borough of Bridgwater in 1965. With operational costs of £20,000 a year they unsurprisingly declined, and British Rail petitioned Parliament to close the docks and they shut in 1971.

Considering all the time and money the local councils have spent rejuvenating the area, I think its unfortunate Bertha has been taken so far from her "home" town.

Jim Bunting Posted: 2 years ago | Reply

" was dragged out into the river Parrett where it was carried away by the tide. " Unfortunately this is incorrect and due to unsupported logic on my part when I wrote the original Bertha 'blurb'.
Many years later I met the last captain of the vessel who advised me that the dredger was simply used to drag the mud to the center line of the dock. When the tide was low, the lower gates would be opened and water would be flushed through the empty dock taking the accumulated mud with it, into the river. On the bottom of dock, in the middle, there were a number of horizontal propellers which helped agitate the mud as the water flowed past.
I also understand that throughout its life, incoming boats would enter the lock and moor alongside Bertha where they would quietly unload and store illicit alcohol and tobacco prior to customs inspection!

John Lee Posted: 4 years ago | Reply

I was interested to see that Bertha still exists. I was aware that she was in Exeter and I believe Bristol for some time but was surprised that she is now in Eyemouth.
As a boy I can well remember watching Bertha operating in Bridgwater docks (Circa 1955). She always seemed to be working in the large inner basin moving mud down to the lock gate, presumably to be flushed out at low water. The big adventure was to go on board when the dock keeper wasn't looking.
In those days Bridgwater docks were still just active. Coal being brought into the outer basin and mainly sand and timber in the inner Basin.
Good memories, perhaps if I am ever in the area I will come and visit to get reunited!
John Lee