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Mersey flats spike island widnes


Mirithehamster

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Sorry, but this video is un-watchable! 

 

It would be better if you could give people who know nothing about the Mersey flat wrecks some information, reduce the size of the video so it fits into the computer screen and tell us what we are looking at. All I see is some mud flats, like we have on the Humber.

 

Kevin

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17 hours ago, Kev's Halcyon said:

Sorry, but this video is un-watchable! 

 

It would be better if you could give people who know nothing about the Mersey flat wrecks some information, reduce the size of the video so it fits into the computer screen and tell us what we are looking at. All I see is some mud flats, like we have on the Humber.

 

Kevin

how do i resize the video?

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A Mersey flat is a type of doubled-ended barge with rounded bilges, carvel build and fully decked. Traditionally, the hull was built of oak and the deck was pitch pine. Some had a single mast, with a fore-and-aft rig, while some had an additional mizzen mast. Despite having a flat bottom and curved sides, they were quite stable. They were common from the 1730s to 1890s.

As the name suggests, these flats originated on the River Mersey, but they were also used on the rivers Irwell and Weaver.[

The length of a flat was from 62 to 70 feet (19 to 21 m) long, with a 6-foot (1.8 m) draught and a beam of 14 feet 9 inches to 17 feet (4.5 to 5.2 m). They could carry up to 80tons of cargo, and this size allowed them to work along the Bridgewater Canal, the Sankey Canal and the northern parts of the Shropshire Union Canal. The Weaver flat was a larger version of the Mersey flat, measuring 90 by 21 feet (27.4 by 6.4 m). Its draught was 10.5 feet (3.2 m) and when fully loaded, could carry 250 tons.

Most Mersey flats had been converted to dumb barges by the end of the 19th century, towed by horses or by steam tugs. The larger Weaver flats were fitted with steam engines, and later with diesel engines, although there were still around 20 working by sail in 1935. Both the Liverpool Maritime Museum and the Ellesmere Port Museumhave a Mersey flat in their collections, neither of which actually worked under sail.

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7 hours ago, Mirithehamster said:

its not letting me convert it

 

No need now, I changed the settings. Your post embedded the original video, I changed it to embed the link. The video will open in a new window if you follow my link

 

19 hours ago, Kev's Halcyon said:

Might work better to use the original film

 

https://www.facebook.com/nakita.dwyer/videos/1686233611388453/

 

Kevin

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On 08/10/2017 at 01:26, Mirithehamster said:

A Mersey flat is a type of doubled-ended barge with rounded bilges, carvel build and fully decked. Traditionally, the hull was built of oak and the deck was pitch pine. Some had a single mast, with a fore-and-aft rig, while some had an additional mizzen mast. Despite having a flat bottom and curved sides, they were quite stable. They were common from the 1730s to 1890s.

As the name suggests, these flats originated on the River Mersey, but they were also used on the rivers Irwell and Weaver.[

The length of a flat was from 62 to 70 feet (19 to 21 m) long, with a 6-foot (1.8 m) draught and a beam of 14 feet 9 inches to 17 feet (4.5 to 5.2 m). They could carry up to 80tons of cargo, and this size allowed them to work along the Bridgewater Canal, the Sankey Canal and the northern parts of the Shropshire Union Canal. The Weaver flat was a larger version of the Mersey flat, measuring 90 by 21 feet (27.4 by 6.4 m). Its draught was 10.5 feet (3.2 m) and when fully loaded, could carry 250 tons.

Most Mersey flats had been converted to dumb barges by the end of the 19th century, towed by horses or by steam tugs. The larger Weaver flats were fitted with steam engines, and later with diesel engines, although there were still around 20 working by sail in 1935. Both the Liverpool Maritime Museum and the Ellesmere Port Museumhave a Mersey flat in their collections, neither of which actually worked under sail.

As with much from Wikipedia, this is not strictly true. The Mersey flat was not always double-ended, as a significant number had square sterns. Although the second mast could be a mizzen, it was usually called a jigger, with jigger being the Liverpool term for an alley behind terraced housing, often occupied by jigger rabbits, or cats as some call them. 

The size of flats varied considerably, often for no apparent reason, as an examination of the 18th century port registers will show, though it could be a result of the waterways on which they were intended to be used.

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  • 1 month later...

The photo from 1985 taken by a friend of my late fathers shows how much land and heritage since 1985 has vanished, the council should put large boulders in the river behind the Mersey flat wrecks,and then cover everything with soil and grass

Mersey Flat Wrecks Spike Island West Bank Widnes in June 1985.jpg

Ihave also on a Mersey Gateway PDF there are abot 9 Mersey flats there or are there more

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