We hear that Navantia, Appledore will shortly start cutting steel for the bow sections of the first new Fleet Solid Support Ships. A massive 100 x 30-metre barge will transport them to Belfast. It should be something to watch as it comes in and going out of the estuary fully laden. 

When we hear about construction on this scale it is easy to get caught up with the buzz around big vessels. However, also in the news this week is a fund-raising appeal for a more modest Appledore vessel. NeptuneBD 69 has been a working part of Clovelly Harbour for nearly 50 years. Built by Tom Waters in Appledore in 1958, for Bert Curtis of the Beaver pub, she was originally named Valmar.

Neptune came to Clovelly in 1970 when she was purchased by Gordan Perham, father of Stephen, the current Clovelly Harbour Master. Neptune has served the family well – over the years she has been everything a village boat should be, taking passengers on trips, hauling lobster pots, long-lining, and fishing for herring. Now Neptune is in need of some important repairs to keep her working for even more years – an important piece of Clovelly and Appledore’s living, working maritime heritage.

Clearly heritage is not always large and there are several other smaller heritage vessels being saved and restored locally.

A successful Heritage Open Days event resulted in new volunteers for Jane Hannah MacDonald III, the last rowed lifeboat based in Appledore from 1910 -1922. She was credited with saving 23 lives and went on to be a Dunkirk ‘Little Ship’. They have already started stripping paint as part of her restoration programme. The objective is to get her back on the river to be rowed by volunteers at regattas and open days.

Swiftsure, the 75-year-old Appledore-Instow ferry built by Hinks, has found a safe storage space at Richmond Dock and hopefully will be saved to sail again on the river. Similarly, in a garage not far from Bideford, is Number 10, a Taw Torridge design racing yacht. In the early 1920s Hinks, Waters and Blackmore built them for £24 with sails, iron centre board, oars, ballast and anchor. They started to be replaced by a new design fitted with the ultra-modern Bermuda Rig around 1926. 

Preserving living, working heritage helps everyone understand more about the vessels, their builders, owners and crews and to preserve and retell their stories.