Vessels

$Note the small boy taking an interest. Bristol\'s docks were always relatively open for the public to wander around.$

$Ships that mistimed their passage up the river from Avonmouth would sometimes have to \'take the ground\' when the tide ebbed. This could be a risky business but in the hands of an experienced pilot, a suitable spot could be chosen to allow the ship to settle safely until the following tide. For several hundred years, every ship visiting Bristol had to do this twice each day, until the Floating Harbour was built.$

$Full rigged ship \'Morning Star\' and other vessels. \'Morning Star\' was an Australian clipper built at St. John, New Brunswick in 1854. She foundered on passage from Samarang to the U.K. in 1879.$

$Brunel\'s ss Great Britain in dry dock$

$These two \'dumb\' (unpowered) barges were used to move cargoes around the port, towed by tugs like Mayflower.$

$Brunel\'s first ship, the paddle steamer Great Western, was built where the Museum of Bristol stands today. The largest ship in the world at the time, she was launched on 19 July 1837. This painting, made in 1919, captures the event.$

$Tugs with trains of barges called \'lighters\' (so-called because they lightened ships) were an important way of moving cargoes around the harbour and inland to industry. These lighters contain paper pulp, destined for the Board Mills at St Annes.$

$Thomas Daniels & Sons\' West India trader \'Maria\' at a trading berth on the Grove, City Docks. Along the quayside are various businesses including the Grove Tavern and the Coach and Horses (now the Hole in the Wall).$

$\'Simla\', a four masted barque, at Wapping Wharf.$

$The tar barge Jolly passing Bathurst Wharf in 1938. She was owned by William Butler\'s tar distillery at Crews Hole and transported tar (a by-product of coal gas manufacture) from the gas works in Bristol at Canons Marsh and Avon Street to the distillery.$

$The drag boat BD6 on her last day\'s work in 1962. Designed by Brunel and built in 1843 this vessel scraped mud from the quay walls into the centre of the Harbour from where it could be moved more easily.$

Volunteer towing the steam ship Star, 1937

Peterston passing through Redcliffe Bridge

$The iron screw steamship S.S. Great Britain lying at the Ballast Wharf. Photographed in September 1844 by W.H. Fox Talbot, this is the world\'s first photograph of a ship.$