Bristol Channel pilot cutter

[1]: 140-141 The Bristol Channel is one of the most dangerous stretches of water in the world, due to its huge tidal range of over 14 metres (46 ft)[4] – second only to the Bay of Fundy in Eastern Canada[5][6] – currents hitting 7 knots (8.1 mph) (faster than many sailing ships of the day); all combining to hide rocks and constantly shifting sand bars.

As Bristol developed as a regional trading and financial centre, and as coal exports and the metal making industries rose in the South Wales Valleys as local sources of metal ore dwindled, the volume of shipping into and out of the Bristol Channel rose quickly.

Owners who didn't want to lose valuable ships or cargo needed local knowledge of the wind, tides and underwater hazards.

The geographic extent of this authority was along the English coast from King Road (off the mouth of the Avon) to Uphill, then a line out to the islands of Steep Holm and Flat Holm, then to Aust and back along the south bank of the Severn to the mouth of the Avon.

Working with Newport and Gloucester, Cardiff got Parliament to pass the Bristol Channel Pilotage Act 1861 (24 & 25 Vict.

[1]: 13 Bristol Channel pilot cutters are generally seen as the most successful fore and aft rigged boats built during the age of sail.

The lines varied according to local preferences and the opinions of the owner; the only common feature being high bows.

The usual construction materials were frames of English oak, keel of elm with a keelson of pitch pine.

The interior joinery of an ordinary cutter was mostly made of pitch pine, though, more rarely, some used mahogany or teak.

Bristol's pilots were actually based at Pill, Somerset, which consequently became a local boat building centre.

The cutters raced westwards to meet the incoming ships in the Western Approaches of the Irish Sea and the Atlantic Ocean.

[12] Cutters would leave their home-port in the Channel for the Western Approaches in all weathers, either having been previously contracted by a shipping line to do so, or more frequently as self-employed individuals in competition with other pilots.

From 1858 whilst in transit, cutters were required by law to display white side lights, but often on the outbound leg these were turned off so as to give a westerly advantage over the competition.

At night, paraffin (kerosene in U.S. English) flares were required to be fired, with each port they having its own sequence; Bristol's was two shorts and a long.

[14] Mischief was a 45 feet (14 m) Bristol Channel pilot cutter built by Thomas Baker of Cardiff in 1906.

"[11] After being sold in 1921, she was owned by various commercial owners and then ended up in Valletta, Malta, where in 1954 the mountaineer and explorer Bill Tilman purchased her.

After a refit, he sailed her over 110,000 miles (180,000 km), from the Antarctic to the Arctic, including stops in Patagonia, Greenland, South Georgia and Heard Island.

Tilman wrote six books during his adventures in Mischief, until in 1968 she hit a rock off Jan Mayen Island in the Arctic Ocean, and then began to sink before being crushed by ice.

[11] Tilman continued his adventures in two other Bristol Channel pilot cutters, Sea Breeze and Baroque.

Invited in his 80th year in 1977 to work as expert crew aboard the Simon Richardson skippered En Avant with mountaineers sailing to climb Smith Island, the ship disappeared with all hands whilst en route between Rio de Janeiro and the Falkland Islands.

Some are available for private charter, whilst many attend maritime rallies and occasionally join the Barry Yacht Club's annual Cock of the Bristol Channel race:[17] There are an increasing number of replica boats, often built for the private hire and charter market.