Philip Smith – Coxswain

Inside the pilot boat with Philip (left) at the helm and Captain Phil Pook - the pilot - just prior to leaving Glasson Dock to meet the Eems Dart: Photo supplied by Philip Smith

The Eems Dart with its cargo of Maize safely arrived at the Dock: Photo supplied by Philip Smith  

When Harold and Tom Gardner and their boat Peggy retired in the early 1990’s, it ended more than 200 years of Sunderland Point’s connection with piloting on the river Lune.

 But things have changed.

In 2022, Philip Smith was appointed - with other important duties - as one of the coxswains who ‘drive’ the special boats transporting the pilot between the big ships in the estuary and Glasson Dock.

Passing Plover Scar Lighthouse: Photo by Philip Smith

Not only has Philip the paper qualifications and experience for the job, it’s in his blood. He learnt first-hand about the ever-changing river fishing at the side of his father Philip - a professional fisherman all his life. His grandfather Bert and great-grandfather Tom were also full-time fisherman. The family have been living continuously at the Point since 1900 and are believed to have been fishermen on the river for 200 years before that.

Philip’s great grandfather Tom (left) with William Townley c1930s and his grandfather Bert c1965: From the collection of Alan Smith

Philip aged perhaps 10 with his father also Philip: Photo by Alan Smith.

We were pleased to talk to Philip to find out more.

Philip is a time-served qualified joiner and motor mechanic, a natural craftsman with hands-on skills who has just restored an old whammel boat at the Dock and maintains the engines of the pilot boats.

His experience comes from seven years at Heysham Harbour. ‘I was ‘driving’ the pilot boats there and was frequently at the wheel of the Harbour Tug boat. I also drove many of the survey boats and smaller passenger boats', he tells us.

He has all the numerous ‘tickets’, the formal qualifications for those working at sea or on the river. Philip has his motor yacht ticket - ‘it permits me to navigate any boat within 20 miles of a safe haven’, he explains.

Philip has a profound knowledge of the river. The ships come and go from the Dock around the highest point of the tide but with his experience of fishing at the end of the ebbing tide, he understands the bars and dangerous sandbanks that can rapidly form as well as the ever-changing course of the river channel.

 Philip explains: ‘The river isn’t just a gentle slope down to the sea, it goes in steps, the bars, some much steeper than the others, there’s currently a huge sandbank to watch out for at number 6 buoy’.

We ask about the pilot boats.

Pilot boats Gertrude and Trelawney moored at the Dock: Photo by Philip Smith

The pilot boat Trelawney: Photo by Philip Smith

‘There are two boats, both are 40ft long and Nelson class, built about 50 years ago especially for piloting. The main boat is the Trelawney and the reserve boat is called Gertrude. There are two qualified pilots both working at the Harbour. They are very experienced’.

While describing what he does, we learn something new. ‘When we get off the Point, you will see the pilot boat moving quite slowly just ahead of the Ship we are bringing in, and it’s for a reason - from Baithaven buoy and around the bend leading into the dock, the water is very shallow and the channel dangerously narrow. As the ‘driver’ of the pilot boat, I am watching the sonar reading and radioing it to the pilot on the ship so we have as much information as possible as it’s difficult to make last minute changes to the course of the ship’.

We ask about the cargos. ‘Almost all the boats bring goods in and not goods out, mostly agricultural supplies, fertilisers, maize and animal feedstuff’.

Ship leaving the estuary: Photo Philip Smith

Sunderland Point in the background: Photo Philip Smith.

We learn about one of the more regular visitors to the dock. ‘It’s the Silver River, one of the smaller boats, usually on a regular run from the Dock to the Isle of Man, sometimes she’s on the I.O.M. to Belfast run and so we don’t see her for a while. When the TT races were on, I saw her loaded up with fast food trucks such as for Burgers and Ice cream’.

The Silver River leaving the dock: Photo Philip Smith

Philip plays a key part in the team preparing for a ship to berth at the dock wall.

 Bulldozers clearing the mud at the Dock wall: Photos by Philip Smith

Ship on prepared berth and imprint on the mud after leaving: Photos by Philip Smith

‘It’s a constant task to shift the hundreds of tonnes of silt deposited by the tides in the dock and the dock side. The preparation of a flat berth requires the almost constant use of bulldozers to keep the surface down and level. If left just a week, perhaps there’s been bad weather, the mud level could be two metres high at the wall with a long 30-degree slope down to the river’.

‘It’s like the biggest block of cheese you ever saw,’ he adds.

Winter is much worse for sand building up at the Dock. ‘It’s thick and heavy and needs two bulldozers working away pushing it back’.

Build-up of mud inside the Dock: Photo by Philip Smith

Philip is qualified to drive the tele-handler – a multi-use mobile machine, with attachments including a crane boom, bucket, lifting forks and a man-lifting basket.

‘Also in the Dock is the boat Sea Quest which I can ‘drive’, it’s used for changing the navigation buoys on the river channel out into the estuary. We bring them back for painting and maintenance, I help with that’.

The Sea Quest on buoy maintenance duty: Photo by Philip Smith

The work is normal hours unless he is needed for a ship - then it can be any hour of the day or night. Philip normally drives to work but occasionally, when the tide and weather is right, he can go to work by boat.

He is a family man and lives up the Lane, the same house where he spent part of his childhood. We estimate Philip has by far the largest quantity of firewood of anyone at the Point, all taken from the shore and neatly stacked.

He is a committed and highly-respected member of the village. Not only is he a trustee of the Mission Church and a member of the Community Association committee (and a volunteer on the visitor toilet cleaning rota), Philip - like his granddad Bert - has a fine singing voice and is a key member of the Sea Shanty Crew.

Philip (extreme left) member of the Sea Shanty Crew: Photo supplied by Scottie Wilson

We had been tipped off that Philip takes lots of good photos and asked him to send us copies of ones that show what he does on the river and in the Dock. He did not disappoint.

Many thanks to Philip for his time, patience, and the great photos in the preparation of this article