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R & W Paul

Maltsters R & W Pauls of Ipswich, who owned a fleet of barges and maintained a shipyard and sail-loft to service them.

During WWII

Thalatta narrowly missed being sent to Dunkirk in 1940. Sixteen Thames Barges were among the boats sent to help evacuate the hundreds of thousands of British soldiers trapped on the beach, and six of them were from R. & W. Paul. Why Thalatta was left behind nobody knows, but it is possibly due to not having an engine installed in her at that time. Nine of the sixteen barges sent over never returned. But of the ones who did, one of the most bizarre return journeys was made by Ena, the sister barge of Thalatta. Ena had been abandoned in France, and her crew rescued, and it was believed that the barge actually managed to drift her way back to Britain all on her own, ending up on the beach off Sandwich. However, research by the Association of Dunkirk Little Ships uncovered the true story:

No less than six of the sixteen barges which sailed to Dunkirk were owned by R & W Paul. The Ena survived the one-hundred mile outward journey across the English Channel which was strewn with mines. During their crossing they endured constant air attacks. Finally, Alfred Page, her skipper, was ordered to beach her close to the smaller sand barge H.A.C. As the Germans closed in, the crews of both barges were ordered to abandon their ships and escape on a minesweeper to England.

There are two eye-witness accounts of what happened next. Alex Smith recalls how he, with 30 men of the Duke of Wellington’s Regiment commanded by Captain David Strangeways their Adjutant, arrived on La Panne beach. They could not believe their luck when they saw two barges in seaworthy condition anchored and almost afloat. They took possession of the barge H.A.C. while Colonel McKay with his men of the 19th Field Regiment, Royal Artillery boarded the Ena which was beached not far away. Captain Atley of the East Yorks Regiment, also remembers the event. He was at the mole at Dunkirk and together with one of his men, made a raft. Using shovels, they rowed out to the Ena. They helped 36 other men on board including three wounded and by 0800 they were under sail.
Then, according to Alex Smith, the two ships got involved in one of the most remarkable barge races of all time. Under constant enemy bombardment and machine-gun fire, they crossed the Channel. Captain Atley recalls that by midnight they took a back-bearing on Dunkirk and found they had gone too far South-West. His only sailing experience had been on the Broads and he had forgotten to put the leeboards down. So they altered course to North-Northwest and finally sighted the North Goodwin buoy. They then had to tack again towards the South Goodwin lightship. Eventually, the Ena was picked up by a tug or fleet auxiliary and taken into Margate. Since the harbour was full, the empty barge was then towed out and left anchored off Deal. The shipping manager of R & W Paul, who had presumed the Ena lost on the beaches of Dunkirk, was amazed when he was told and asked what he proposed to do about it. Alfred Page, her skipper, by then back in Ipswich, was sent to recover her. He found the Ena seaworthy but stripped of all her gear. ‘They had taken the sweeps, mooring lines, fenders and even my false teeth which I had left behind in a glass of water by my bunk!’ he said, ‘you can’t trust these men of Kent!’ So he sailed her back to Ipswich.

Thalatta 1964

Thalatta’s Final Days of Trade

Thalatta loaded with grain for Rochford. By the time this photo was taken in 1964, Thalatta had spent 30 years with R. & W. Pauls and had been treated very well, the work being fairly easy with mostly small cargoes of malt. Her mainmast and a foresail are all that remain from her sailing gear by this point.

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Thalatta sold to John Kemp for £1500

Thalatta was sold to John Kemp for the sum of £1500 on January 30th, 1967. She was bought as a replacement to the Memory, who had completed two seasons as a schoolship with John Kemp as Skipper and Jane Benham as mate. By the end of 1966 it had become clear that the Memory was no longer in good enough condition to continue with this work. The gear from the Memory was transferred to Thalatta to re-rig her as a mulie (boom and gaff mizzen with spritsail main). She retained the quarterboards which raised the height of her rails aft. Her hold was converted into accommodation with twelve hammocks for the schoolchildren and Thalatta began her new career in educational study and adventure cruises, with a contract from the London Borough of Redbridge.

Before passing into the hands of John Kemp, Thalatta had one final job for her previous owner, R. & W. Pauls; to scatter the ashes of her last professional skipper in trade, Fred Roberts, on the Orwell.

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Thalatta’s last years with R. & W. Paul Ltd

Thalatta’s skipper from 1950 until 1956 was Charlie Webb (pictured here with Harold Smy in 1974). From 1956 to 1960, her skipper was Bob Wells, and then from 1961 (we believe) until 1965 she was skippered by Fred Roberts. Fred Roberts’ last command was Thalatta, and he passed away in 1966. R. & W. Paul looked after the barge well with their own team of shipwrights and sailmakers. She was found to be unusually sound and well-preserved condition when her last Board of Trade loadline inspection was carried out in 1964.

Thalatta_1957

Thalatta has an engine installed, again.

In 1947, her new skipper, Joe Lucas, sailed her to Richards’ yard in Lowestoft where she was again fitted with the second auxiliary engine of her career – a 80 h.p. four-cylinder marine diesel by Ruston & Hornsby of Lincoln – one of many war surplus engines which had originally been ordered for minesweepers during WWII. Thalatta’s owner, R & W Pauls, managed to get hold of half a dozen of them at a good price, for use as auxiliaries in their barges. At the same time she also had a complete refit and a wheelhouse was installed.

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Thalatta gets into difficulties near the Gunfleet Sands

In 1946 the Clacton lifeboat Edward Z Drezden assisted Thalatta into Brightlingsea after she had got into difficulties near the Gunfleet Sands.

Thalatta is sold to R. & W. Pauls, Maltsters of Ipswich

On 5 August 1933 Thalatta was sold for £450 to R. & W. Pauls and was employed carrying imported grain from Royal Docks in London to Ipswich, returning with malt or flour. The malt was made from Suffolk barley and was taken to London to be made into beer. She also took animal feed to Colchester and Faversham. Generally Paul’s barges avoided rough trade such as carrying rubble from London after the war to build the air fields of East Anglia or ‘London mix’ – hay to London for the London cab’s and manure back east to the farms. Their main trade was carrying clean and dry cargos such as malt to London and bringing grain back. Thalatta did, however, make occasional trips abroad to Belgium and Holland and her first skipper under Pauls, Bob Ruffles, spoke pigeon Belgian and Dutch. She also sailed to Rouen to bring back stone to rebuild Norwich cathedral. Bob Ruffles was the skipper of the Thalatta from 1933–1947.