Monthly Archives: April 2020

The Aberdovey schooner Mervinia, launched 1878

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The schooner Mervinia. Source: Lloyd 1996, volume 2, with her copper sheathing showing clearly just above the waterline.

After launching Maglona in 1876 (about which I have posted here), the next ship built by Thomas Richards, one of Aberdovey’s most elite shipbuilders, was Mervinia.

My original intention was to take just one vessel from each shipbuilder in turn before looking at other ships in each shipbuilder’s portfolio, but there are both similarities and differences in the information available for Maglona and Mervinia that made it seem worth describing these vessels consecutively.

Mervinia was launched on February 18th 1878.  She was registered at Aberystwyth, no.3.  She was a two-masted top-sail schooner (with three square sails at the top of her fore mast, but gaff-rigged below, and on her second, main mast).  She had a figurehead in the form of a woman, but it not possible to make it out in the above photograph of the painting.  The name Mervinia was chosen to echo the ancient name of Merioneth.At 96 tons and 84ft long, she was smaller than the 114 ton Maglona.  She had very fine lines, as the painting above demonstrates, and was copper-sheathed below the waterline.  The purpose of copper sheathing was to prevent both fouling of the hull beneath the waterline, damaging the wood and slowing the ship, and the incursion of teredo worm, which burrowed lethally into wooden hulls beneath the waterline like giant marine woodworm.  Copper sheathing was adopted in the Royal Navy during the 18th Century, and became standard on deep sea merchant shipping in the early 19th Century.  By 1816, 18% of British merchant ships had copper sheathing.

As with Maglona, Mervinia had only two owners at launch, Richard Owen (who had been the main share-holder in Maglona), a timber merchant from Machynlleth, with 60 shares.  He was also her managing owner (the person who made the business decisions regarding a vessel’s career).  The other four shares were held by her builder Thomas Richards.  More information about both men can be found on the post about the previous ship built by Richards, Maglona.

Source: The Cambrian News and Merionethshire Standard, 25th January 1878

The launch of Mervinia on 15th January 1878 was covered in the Cambrian News and Merionethshire Standard:  “The event had excited much interest in the village and neighbourhood and, fortunately the weather was most favourable for the interesting proceedings which, owing to the state of the tide, had to take place at an early hour, viz., soon after nine a.m.”  Fortunately the bottle of wine used by Miss M. Marsh of Carno to launch the ship by breaking it against the hull duly smashed – an unbroken bottle was a very bad omen.  The bottle was “gaily decorated with ribbons” of red, white and blue, and must have looked very celebratory.  The crowd cheered as the ship glided into the water.  The newspaper report goes on to say that “the Misses Marsh” contributed books in Welsh and English for the bookcase that had been fitted on the ship, for the use of the captain and crew.

Following his precedent with Maglona, as soon as the ship was launched Owen began to sell his shares for a profit, selling 30 of his 60 shares over a three day period between 18th and 20th February 1878, which provided a more familiar ownership mix, and a highly localized one:

  • John Jones master mariner, Aberdovey – 8 shares
  • Evan Jones, labourer, Aberdovey – 8 shares
  • David Davies, quarryman, Aberdovey – 4 shares
  • Richard Williams, master mariner, Aberdovey –  4 shares
  • John Evans, master mariner, Aberdovey – 4 shares
  • John Roberts, quarryman, Aberdovey –  2 shares

Mervinia’s first destination was reported as the Shetland Islands, but in April she was in South Shields.  Lewis Lloyd follows her various voyages and crew following her launch.  Her first officers were her Master  John “Black Jack” Jones (1850-1899), master mariner of Aberdovey, aged 27, who remained with the ship in various roles until his death in November 1899 and the Mate  David Jones of Aberdovey, aged 23, John Jones’s younger brother.

The way in which Mervinia‘s senior crew members were organized is interesting.  Both master and mate were paid off in April 1878 but rejoined the ship as Boatswain and Able Seaman respectively two weeks later under Captain John Evans  from Bangor, aged 58.  The switch-around in crew is the first of many, and can probably be explained by the ship’s destination to Portuguese ports, Vianna  do Castelo (and other foreign ports en route) in July 1878, and then to Oporto and other ports in September 1878.  In both cases she returned to South Shields.  As soon as the ship returned to coastal waters, John Jones was restored to Master with John Evans as Mate and David Jones retained as Able Seaman.  John Evans was paid off in October 1878, and David Jones resumed his role as Mate.

The site of the yard where Thomas Richards built his schooners, now the memorial park on the edge of Penhelig. Source: D.W. Morgan, Brief Glory (1948), pl.40

The ship now began to operate on new routes, this time out of Newport in Wales, and again the crew was rearranged, presumably to take advantage of experience in foreign waters.  For a trip from Liverpool to Avila in Spain, returning to Newport between 17th May 1879 and 23rd June 1879, the Master was now Charles Dean Cook of Bristol, aged 57 and John Jones was  boatswain and Purser.  David Jones left the ship.  On her next voyage from Newport to Bilbao and back to Newport (9th July 1879 to 16th August 1879)  John Evans returned as Master, with John Jones remaining as boatswain and purser.  The same arrangement was retained for her next trip from Newport to Alicante and then Runcorn (28th August 1879 to 20th November 1879).  For the rest of 1879, Mervinia returned to the coastal trade, John Jones was reinstated as Master and John Evans was Mate.

These changes in role and status were not merely nominal.  The pay that went with each position was allocated on a hierarchical basis, so every time John Jones, David Jones and John Evans were promoted or demoted, their salaries also changed.  It must have been difficult to plan ahead under such circumstances, even when in full-time employ.

The ship’s various voyages are summarized in Lewis Lloyd’s A Real Little Seaport, volume 1, pages 171-176.  Mervinia operated for at least 12 years after Maglona was wrecked, so the records of the ports she visited are much more extensive.  She called into a remarkable number of foreign ports, apparently becoming a specialist in overseas cargo transport, visiting Portugal, various  Mediterranean destinations, Newfoundland ports (mainly St John’s, Fogo and Twillingate), the Baltic and southern Ireland.  British ports that she visited include Glasgow, Greenock, Grangemouth, Gloucester, Port Talbot, Bristol, Hull, Teignmouth, Newport, Liverpool, Cardiff, Swansea, Parr (Cornwall), Dartmouth, Runcorn, Porthmadog and of course Aberdovey.

This photograph, showing a group of schooners, as well as a steamer, apparently includes Mervinia. D.W. Morgan says that she is the one with the copper bottom, but the photograph is so small that even after expanding it, I’m not sure which one he means. I suspect it is the ship in the middle of the photograph, where a colour differentiation can be seen just above the waterline. Source: D.W. Morgan, Brief Glory 1948, pl.41

Unfortunately, the various books do not note what cargo she was carrying.  Some clues can be picked up from Welsh newspaper reports.  On 26th November 1897 the Cambrian News and Merionethshire Standard records that Mervinia arrived in Aberdovey with cement for Rhayader.  The Cambrian News and Merionethshire Standard on 24th February 1899 reports that she arrived carrying potatoes, presumably from Ireland and the Shipping News of 19th September 1899 edition of the Cardigan Bay Visitor records that she loaded slates from Bryneglwys quarries by the wharf.  In 1900 the Welsh Gazette and West Wales Advertiser reported that Mervinia, now registered in Gloucester, was back at Aberdovey at the end of January loading a cargo of slate. In 1901 she arrived in port at Aberdovey from Antwerp with a cargo of cement, reported briefly in the Cambrian News and Merionethshire Standard, July 12th 1901.  In spite of this dearth of information, it is likely that she carried various cargoes.  Helpfully, and already noted in the post about Maglona, in Brief Glory, D.W. Morgan says that traditional cargoes when her destination was Newfoundland, were slate from Aberdovey or Porthmadog to Cadiz, sea salt from Cadiz for St John’s, in ballast (with no cargo) to Labrador where she awaited the arrival of cod that was then salted and dried and brought alongside in small boats.  The salted cod was then taken to the Mediterranean and the Black Sea.  “The cargo having been sold, iron ore for Mostyn, barrels of olive oil for for Goole, marble for Exmouth as the case might be would be shipped, and the vessel pointed for home.  Usually Aberdovey or Porthmadoc were reached in ballast.”

Captain John Jones died in 1899.  According to D.M. Morgan (in Brief Glory 1948, p.170-172) he had been something of a dark character.  Known as Black Jack along the Newfoundland coast, John Jones “was a s swarthy as a Turk, with white gleaming white teeth, a coal black beard and black gleaming eyes and it was ‘Yo-ho and a Bottle of Rum’ with him, unrestrained in his savagery.  A thimble-full of spirits went to his head, and I have known him on one occasion, when Mervinia was in port, raise the town with his outcry.”  He was Morgan’s cousin, the son of his father’s sister.  Some of the stories, which Morgan describes as “well authenticated” are truly unpleasant.  His one redeeming feature, in the eyes of Morgan, is that he refused to sail on a Sunday.  He died at the Adlard and Co. slate wharf at Dock Head in Bermondsey (London) on November 6th 1899.  As he was walking over the gang-plank from the wharf to the ship he slipped, fell in to the Thames and drowned.  Morgan expresses this with typical panache: “As might have been expected of one of so passionate a nature, Drink and the Devil did for him as it had done for several Aberdovey seamen; they plunged him over a dockside to a muddy doom.”  His body was retrieved and returned to Aberdovey for burial.

In 1900 Mervinia was registered in Gloucester, after which the only reference I have found is the above-mentioned arrival from Antwerp with a cargo of cement.  The Aberdovey-built schooner Sarah Davies was in port at the same time.  This was the era when the steamers Dora and Telephone were regular visitors from Liverpool (about which there is more information here), and on one occasion in 1899 Telephone  tried to give Mervinia a tow into port during a heavy easterly wind, but the rope failed and Mervinia sat at sea until conditions improved.   D.W. Morgan says that she was lost near Oporto, but gives no date or other details.

Sources:

Welsh Newspapers Online: https://newspapers.library.wales 

Cambrian News and Merionethshire Standard
Cardigan Bay Visitor
Welsh Gazette and West Wales Advertiser

Lloyd, L. 1996.  A Real Little Seaport.  The Port of Aberdyfi and its People 1565-1920. Volume 1. ISBN-10 1874786488
Lloyd, L. 1996.  A Real Little Seaport.  The Port of Aberdyfi and its People 1565-1920. Volume 2. ISBN-10 1874786496
McCarthy, M. 2005. Ships’ Fastenings: From Sewn Boat to Steamship. Texas A&M University Press
Morgan, D.W. 1948. Brief Glory. The Story of a Quest.  The Brython Press

RSPB Big Garden Birdwatch results for Wales

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The RSPB‘s Big Garden Birdwatch results arrived through my letterbox today, together with a new keyboard, a vital necessity after I tipped a glass of lemon squash into my previous one on Monday, annihilating the entire bottom row of keys, and most of the upper right.  Two pieces of post that made me very happy, with all due thanks to my postman for continuing to provide a brilliant service when they are under serious pressure as all of us turn to online orders.

Compared to our first 1979 survey, Big Garden Birdwatch results show declines in once common species such as greenfinch and chaffinch – mirroring the loss of wildlife in the wider countryside.  Yet there are signs of hope – in the last decade numbers of some garden species, including house sparrows, goldfinches and great tits appear to have increased, showing signs of potential recovery.  The version of the results sent to me was the version produced for residents in Wales, which was particularly interesting.

  1. House sparrows are still on top, and although numbers have been in decline since 1979, the rate of fall shows signs of slowing.
  2. Blue tits show a rise in numbers, and we certainly have a lot around here
  3. Starlings are down, although still common.  They say that starlings were spotted in 80% of Welsh gardens, but I have never seen one here.
  4. Blackbirds, one of my real favourites, are down.  Apparently a lot of chicks are lost at nesting time, and they can be helped by leaving hedges uncut and providing them with mealworms (which the robins and blue tits go crazy for too, at least in my garden)
  5. Chaffinches are down, but in Wales they were reported in 47% of gardens.  I have seen one this year
  6. Great tits are 12% up over the last 10 years, and we always have plenty in Aberdovey
  7. Goldfinches, permanent residents in my garden are up an incredible 50% in the last decade. A group of goldfinches, incidentally, is called “a charm.”
  8. Long-tailed tits are on their way up.  The last time I saw one was in the park over the road from my house when I lived in London.  They are enchanting.
  9. Robins were seen in 87% of Welsh gardens (mine included) but overall have fallen by almost one third since 1979.
  10. Magpies are on their way up and are doing well in Wales.  They are forever quarrelling with the jackdaws in my garden, and are often here when the pheasants visit, perhaps knowing that peanuts will be forthcoming

Chough. Source: RSPB website

Interestingly, just as happened last year, the pheasants moved in to my gardens and neighbouring gardens for the winter, and have now headed off again, rarely visiting.

A lot of birds are losing their natural habitats, like hedgerows, and climate change is impacting some species, like the puffin.  And have you seen a chough hereabouts?  I had never heard of them but they are crows with crimson beaks and red legs, that need cliff-top farmland for nesting and feeding sites.   There are only a few hundred pairs still remaining in Wales.

An extraordinary combination of sun and mist

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Yesterday was a truly extraordinary weather experience.  I sat on the decking in the sun all afternoon, working my way through a number of books, loving the heat.  But looking out over the estuary all morning and afternoon, it was bizarre to think that the sun could penetrate anywhere, because it was impossible to see beyond the folly on Pen Y Bryn.  The first photograph was taken at noon.  The water was quite invisible, and Ynys Las and Ceredigion were just a figment of the imagination.  I checked regularly, because it was fascinating, but there were almost no perceptible changes until well into the late afternoon/early evening, when the second photograph was taken at just gone 4pm.  The sand banks are visible, and Ynys Las can be just about detected, but Ceredigion is still shrouded in mist.  The temperature was diving at this time, really chilly.

 

Wild garlic

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In response to a question about how wild garlic can be used:

Wild garlic before it has started to flower, with a few daffodils to keep it company.

Wild garlic is lovely stuff, a good garlic hit without being overwhelming. The illustrious parent grows his in a huge pot on the patio, but he dug it up from the local churchyard, which runs rampant with it, in return for a donation for the roof fund!   I actually have no idea if the bulbs are good to eat, because if you eat the bulbs, they won’t come up next year.  But if you just eat the leaves and the edible flowers and use the flower stems for stock, they are superb.  You can use the leaves raw in salads or wilt them to use as a vegetable, much like spinach.  You can throw handfuls into stews or use them as an ingredient for soup (doing that this evening).  So, yes, do grab a spade and go and retrieve some!  It is just about to go over, but if you plant it in a big pot (not in your garden, never in your garden, as it will take over), you will have it year after year if you leave a good set of leaves to feed the bulbs.  Like daffodils or hyacinths etc, if you cut all the leaves off they won’t get the sun they need to feed the bulb to produce flowers and leaves the following year.

Eating well from what’s to hand, just for fun – Week 4

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Wild garlic

Four weeks of lockdown.  Donald Trump is wondering whether drinking disinfectant could solve the Coronavirus problem (please don’t try it – it could kill you) whilst the rest of the world works hard to keep normality afloat.

I am hugely conscious that having a garden during lockdown, even a very small one, makes all the difference in the world, particularly when the weather is this good.

Thanks to a local friend of mine who knows about local charity activities, I found myself seated at my sewing machine making simple bags with draw strings for National Health Service workers dealing with Covid-19 patients.  They take off their work clothes, throw them in the bags and put the whole lot, bag and all, in the washing machine when they get home.  Simple ideas, but so practical.  And it is a bit of a relief to be contributing something, if only on a very small scale.  Six made so far.

In the meantime, my fridge-freezer and I are building on a lifetime bond of casual intimacy to form a new, and intense relationship.  It has to be said that this new relationship is not always silky smooth.  Both the fridge and freezer components are far too small for long-term social distancing and, a major huff, I had to defrost it on Friday because its icy growths were like a form of rampant and rapidly mutating cauliflower.  It is, however, saving my sanity and I am truly grateful that it soldiers on in spite of its somewhat geriatric status.  I am only hoping that it forgets that it is around 20 years old and that it continues to hang on with all the grit and panache that it has shown to date.  I pat it encouragingly from time to time.

Saturday

Dry limes. Image source: Spice Mountain

Part 2 of Ethiopian Doro Wat.  The flavours of last week’s doro wat, an Ethiopian curry, had intensified in the freezer, bringing out the chilli with real enthusiasm.  It was just as good as it was before, again served with pilau rice and yogurt with chopped mint and cucumber.  The dried limes, which are a recent discovery (which can be ordered from Spice Mountain, which I used to visit in Borough Market, or Amazon) look decidedly unappetizing but are truly delicious, an intense hit of lime in a curry that is just as warmly aromatic as it is spicy.  They need a long cook, ideal for a slow cooker or long oven cook, but I do recommend them.

Sunday

Avgolemono Soup.  I cooked this a couple of weeks ago, but here it is again.  Avgolemono, which in Greek means egg-lemon, is surprisingly filling. It is made with good quality chicken stock. The traditional way of doing it is to poach fresh chicken to make a stock for the soup, and often the poached chicken meat is chopped into the soup.  I usually use home made stock from the freezer, and today used my last batch.  There is nothing wrong with using a chicken stock cube as a base.  It won’t be as authentic or fresh as poaching chicken or using a home-made stock, but it will still taste great and let’s face it – whatever is easiest has to be the best right now.

The other key ingredients, if you base this on one serving, are three tablespoons of lemon juice, an egg, loads of parsley and (the element that makes it a main meal rather than a starter), a good handful of rice.

The rice is cooked in the stock, with a lid, until ready. Whilst the rice is cooking, the lemon juice and egg are whisked together with a hint of cayenne, a little salt and a pinch of sugar to balance the lemon. I usually do this with just the yolks, but I noticed that Rick Stein does it with the whole egg and a bit of butter, so I tried it and it worked well, thickening the soup more efficiently.  The trick with this dish is to add spoonfuls of the hot stock to the room temperature egg and lemon mix, stir it well, repeat, stir well and repeat until the egg and lemon is warmed through and won’t separate. Then pour the whole lot back into the stock and rice pan and heat very gently with the chopped parsley, being careful not to bubble it, or it will separate. It is so easy to make, and has been a massive favourite of mine since I first discovered it.

Monday

Butter-fried garlic mushrooms, sliced bacon chop, chunks of courgette, wild garlic, wild garlic flowers and parsley on toast.  Oh the bliss.  Slightly aged mushrooms and a time-worn courgette were transformed from almost has-beens into a classy, utterly divine and very simple meal.  The older the mushrooms, the hotter the heat needs to be to brown them, so I added olive oil to my butter to prevent it burning, and throw in the bacon pieces at this point too.  Add the courgettes only when the mushrooms are doing well, because they cook quickly.  When the courgettes are browned turn the heat right down, and then add a very finely chopped shallot and garlic clove (can be done in a mini food processor) to heat them through slowly.  The garlic is a matter of taste.  I like quite a lot.  Once the onions are cooked, a good glug of water cools things down.  Warm through until everything is just simmering and add chopped wild garlic, chopped parsley, heat for a minute or two to heat through and a dollop of double cream.  Stir.  Add a little more cream if required, but not too much or it will damp down the other flavours.  Served on griddled, grilled or toasted bread, a sprinkle with chopped parsley for some extra colour and a squeeze of lemon juice or a tiny sprinkle of balsamic vinegar.

Tuesday

Lemon-chicken and herb salad.  The herb salad was a mad, wonderful pile of flavours, a combination of cuttings from my garden and my fathers.  Lovage, lemony buckler leafed sorrel, aromatic sweet cicely, marjoram, oregano, and wild garlic formed the herb element.  A standard supermarket packet of rocket and watercress, supplemented with a couple of little gem leaves, formed the base for the herb salad.  On top of this, awith all due ceremony, I laid sliced barbecued chicken breast, marinated overnight in lemon, a dollop of Dijon mustard, some crushed garlic, some ground black paper and a good splosh of olive oil.  It caramelizes superbly on the griddle, grill or barbecue, and is a wonder with additional feta, diced tomato, diced cucumber and a creamy lemon and mustard dressing to finish it off.  Wild garlic flowers were added not merely as a garnish, but to add to the flavour.  Edible flowers are a joy.  Lemon chunks were another essential, that sharp citrus edge bringing all the other flavours to life.

Wednesday

French Omelette with diced tomato, chopped wild garlic and cheese.  French omelettes are never categorized as “fast food,” perhaps because the escape the pejorative associations that the term fast food conjures up, but they are so quick to make and full of flavour. My Mum used to do one that was filled with nothing but chopped fresh herbs, and was sensationally good.  Like sandwiches and pizzas you can personalize them ad infinitum and are perfect for using up leftovers, like that last slice of ham, the one spring onion left in the salad draw and those puzzling three mushrooms.

If you have any left-over egg whites from another meal, you can whip them up and fold them into the egg mixture to make a seriously fluffy, soufflé-like omelette.   Some people like to cook all their fillings into the egg mix, Chinese foo yung style.  When using mushrooms I like to slice them and do just that, tossing them into the egg mix, along with a chopped spring onion if I have one, or chives,  but I then add the cheese and any other ingredients to the centre of a part-formed omelette.  I like the surface to be a little runny.  It continues to cook when you fold it, so if you like the folded interior a little soft, you need it to have a well formed base but a runny surface when you take it off the heat.

With this omelette, all the ingredients were thrown on to the half-cooked eggy surface.  This means that the grated cheese melts, the sliced wild garlic wilts, and the diced tomato heats through without cooking.  The egg yolks were sensationally yellow, almost buttercup, making the finished, folded omelette look as though it had been infused with saffron.

I never bother serving anything with an omelette as I find them so filling, but a green salad would go well, or a simple sliced tomato and raw onion salad to cut through the egginess would work.  Perhaps chips if you are seriously hungry!

Thursday

Bacon chop with shallow-fried spud slices and summer herb sauce.  First, sorry for the awfulness of the photos here, but I cooked late, and I am not used to taking photos in artificial light.  I had never had a bacon chop before moving out of London, but it is a wonderful discovery, just under an inch thick and, whilst solid, still has an almost tender texture.  A cross between bacon and gammon, and I usually have one in the freezer.  The bacon chop is griddled (my preference), grilled or fried until it has a crispy texture.

The sauce, which could be a simple parsley sauce, is better with a good mixture of herbs if you are growing them or can get hold of them.  It can be made either as a béchamel (a roux of equal parts of flour and butter, with warm milk added slowly to provide a thick base for a sauce), but my preference is a lighter approach, a velouté (also based on equal parts of flour and butter) using vegetable or chicken stock stirred into the butter and flour mix, finished with a dollop of crème fraîche.

If you are doing a béchamel, I would recommend adding a large bay leaf and some chopped shallot or onion to the warm milk or stock to give it an aromatic edge, leaving it to infuse on a very low heat for around 10 minutes before adding it to the roux.  Warming the milk before adding is key , so that the flour in the roux cooks through thoroughly and doesn’t taste floury in the sauce.

It is just as important with a velouté to ensure that the stock going into the flour and butter mix is just short of boiling, so that it cooks the flour.  White wine is a good addition, but only after the velouté has heated through fully and is thick.

The herb mix I used in this sauce, all fresh, was parsley, marjoram, lovage, wild garlic, sweet cicely, chives and a spring onion.  The spring onion needs to be very finely chopped, but everything else is better for being roughly chopped, so that the flavours shine through.  The lovage is particularly vibrant in this sauce.  I leave my chopped herbs stirred into a little white wine whilst I am preparing the rest of the meal, to release the flavour and retain the freshness.

If you want to bulk the meal out, a vegetable accompaniment, like tender stem or purple sprouting broccoli or asparagus are winners, a hard boiled egg can be chopped into the sauce, or it is excellent with a poached egg on top of the bacon chop, which works splendidly with the herb sauce.

You may think, looking at it, that I went overboard with the sauce because you cannot actually see the bacon chop (should have thought of that before pouring it, knowing I was intending to take a photo), but I love the sauce so much and the bacon chop is so full of flavour that it holds its own perfectly.  Not for me the twin culinary graces of elegance and restraint favoured by Michelin starred restaurants.  And no regrets either.  The flavours, so fresh and vibrant, were perfect.

Herb (or parsley) sauce is incredibly versatile as it goes well with chicken and many sorts of fish. When served with fish, lemon zest is a good addition, and if you are poaching the fish, you can use some of the poaching water as the base for a velouté.  I also used to do a vegetarian version with baked butternut squash, the creamy parsley sauce providing a terrific contrast to the earthy depth and  sweetness of the squash.

Friday

Tomato, chopped wild garlic and grated cheese that had been prepared to to into my French omelette, but I had done too much, so although they were rather meagre in quantity, I had tipped them into a bag and put the bag in the fridge.

Tonight, I wasn’t terribly hungry and I really fancied something simple and quite small, so I griddled a slice of fresh bread on both sides, scrambled an egg, and tipped the cheese, tomato and wild garlic out of the bag and into the slowly scrambling egg.

Everyone has their favourite way of doing scrambled egg, and here’s mine.  I heat butter in the omelette pan until it starts to sizzle.  Then I break in an egg, split open the yolk with a wooden spoon, and stir very gently so that there are huge streaks of yellow threading through the translucent egg white.  Only when the egg white begins to go opaque do I stir it properly, mixing it together, pulling it in to form curds.  As soon as it begins to consolidate I throw in whatever I am intending to add, and cook just until the cheese melts.  I like it slightly liquid, so I remove it from the heat and turn it very quickly on to the toast to prevent it cooking further.   I served it with a small herby salad.

Conclusions

  1. If someone like my father is good enough to provide you with cut fresh herbs, immediately wrap their bases in water-soaked kitchen towel for transporting them, and then put them in water, like a bunch of flowers, as soon as you get home.  Change the water daily and they will stay fresh for several days.
  2. A friend and I, living a 10 minute walk from one another, have decided to let each other know when we have too many vegetables or herbs that need using up. It’s a strange ceremony practised in latex gloves, putting food down in front of the door like an offering, ringing the bell and then backing off for it to be collected, but it works.  I gave her a couple of bunches of fresh herbs, and she gave me some of her spuds that are sprouting, which I will use for soup.
  3. I had to defrost the freezer.  When I eat out of the freezer, I find that I am living out of the front it because I am using its ingredients, combined with fresh veg, to cook multiple portions, one to eat and the others to put in the freezer.  Even though there are lots of more exciting bits in the back, it is a drama to unpack the front to get to them, so there is a high probability that I will find myself eating mainly the things I have cooked recently.  Reorganizing the freezer fills my soul with dread, but I used the need to defrost it as an excuse to re-organize, re-inventory and hopefully introduce some more variety into my cooking.
  4. I seem to have the national collection of sausages.  The challenge will be to use them in interesting and diverse ways.  Or to have them with egg, baked beans and HP sauce 🙂

 

The Aberdovey schooner Maglona, launched 1876

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Maglona, showing off her very beautiful lines.  Source:  D.M. Morgan. Brief Glory.

The shipbuilder Thomas Richards launched the topsail schooner Maglona at Aberdovey on March 11th 1876.  Maglona was one of the larger Aberdovey schooners, at 114 tons and 87.3ft long.  She had a figurehead in the form of a woman.  She was registered at Aberystwyth, no.6 and was named for a Roman fort that was thought to have existed near Machynlleth.  Topsail schooners combine the usual schooner gaff rig (sails parallel to the hull sides) with two or three square sails, perpendicular to the hull sides), on the fore mast, to take advantage of following winds to pick up additional speed.

Of the 64 shares, timber merchant Richard Owen of Machylleth had 52 shares and ship owner Morgan Owens of Aberystwyth had 12 who became the ship’s managing owner (responsible for all commercial decisions regarding the ship’s career) in May 1876.   Initially, the ship’s builder Thomas Richards did not have any shares in the ship, although he did have shares in other ships that he owned, including his successful 1878 ship Mervinia, in which he held 10 shares from launch.  Almost immediately Richard Owen sold 24 of his shares between 12th May and 19th May 1876, retaining 28, after which the ownership stood as follows (listed by Lewis Lloyd, 1996):

  • Richard Owen of Machynlleth, timber merchant – 28 shares
  • Morgan Owens, Ship Owner and Managing Agent of Maglona – 10 shares
  • David Hughes of Machynlleth, Slate Agent – 4 shares
  • Robert Rees, Machynlleth, Slate Agent – 4 shares
  • Thomas Richards, Aberdovey, Shipbuilder – 4 shares
  • Griffith Griffiths, of Tynhir, Montgomery, Farmer – 4 shares
  • John Jones of New Quay, Cardiganshire, Sailor Retired – 4 shares

It seems a little odd that Thomas Richards only bought shares in his own ship after Richard Owen sold off some of his own shares.

The announcement of her launch in the Cambrian and Merionethshire Standard was both brief and prosaic, suggesting that for Welsh people in general, this was worth noting but was not an extraordinary or unusual event.  Ships were being launched all the time along the Welsh coast.

A fine new schooner was launched on Saturday March 11th, from Mr Thomas Richards’s building yard. The new vessel, named the Maglona,” is of about 200 tons burden, and intended for the foreign and coasting trade. The usual ceremony of christening was performed by Miss Owens, of Machynlleth.

It was probably much more of an occasion in Aberdovey itself.  Buddug Anwylini Pughe (quoted in Lloyd 1996, p.96) wrote a memoir of her life in the village, and in it she says “I quite vividly recollect, young though I was at the time, the intense excitement that pervaded the whole village on the occasion of a launch.”

The site of the yard where Thomas Richards built his schooners, now the memorial park on the edge of Penhelig. Source: D.W. Morgan, Brief Glory (1948), pl.40

Thomas Richards (1819-1880) was brought up locally, attending school in Bryncrug.  Together with John Jones and Roger Lewis, he was a leading shipbuilder in the Aberdovey/Penhelig area.  His shipyard was somewhere near Penhelig, and although his first ship of 1858 was Elizabeth and Margaret, a 44 ton smack (a traditional fishing boat) he specialized in schooners that were big enough to tackle long distance trade, around and above 100 tons burden. Lloyd comments (p.100) “He was soon recognised as a shipbuilder of quite outstanding ability, as an artist.”  D.W. Morgan says (p.126) that  all of his schooners “sailed and looked like yachts.” He built 14 vessels in 22 years, of which only Elizabeth and Margaret and Olive Branch were not schooners His largest vessel was the 204 ton brig Naomi (brigs had two masts, fore and main, both square-rigged, with a gaff-rigged sail on the main mast). Richards was responsible for Aberdovey’s last sea-going vessel, the 99 ton schooner Olive Branch, but died before her completion.  Shipbuilders all had different approaches to the task.  Lloyd says that John Jones often had many ships on the go at a time, but Thomas Richards preferred to concentrate on one at a time, giving full attention to the job at hand.   He did not live to see Maglona wrecked in 1887, dying in 1880.  His obituary in the Cambrian News and Merionethshire Standard on January 30th 1880 is a measure of the respect in which he was held as a shipbuilder.

Richard Owen, who was the principal shareholder in Maglona, was a timber merchant based in Machylleth.  I was hoping to find out more about him and his business, but have not found anything so far.  Do get in touch if you have any information.  Timber merchants were responsible for the provision of timber for a variety of trades including the building trade, cabinet making and, of course, shipbuilding, and for each of these trades different types and classes of timber were required, both from British sources and from overseas.  The Baltic, North America and Canada were popular sources of timber for shipbuilding and local timber merchants were also exporting oak and oak bark to other parts of the country.  According to Samuel Lewis in 1833, Derwenlas on the River Dyfi, the furthest navigable port on the river, handled 500 tons of bark, 40,000 ft of oak timber and 150,000 oak poles for collieries.  Timber merchants, often investors in the trades to which they supplied timber, were often very wealthy merchants, and could become people of considerable local influence.

Maglona was initially engaged in local coastal and Baltic trades under Owen Williams of Church Street, Aberdovey and then John Williams of Barmouth, before entering the trans-Atlantic and Mediterranean trades under a Master Mariner David Richards (certificate 97179), who had built up considerable experience in the trans-Atlantic timber trade and, by 1880 was living in a house in Aberdovey called Dovey Villa.  Maglona‘s history seems to be fairly trouble-free until she was wrecked.  The only reference I can find to her on the Welsh Newspapers Online website is in April 1878 when, according to a very brief comment in the South Wales Daily News of 4th April, she arrived at Milford Haven under Captain Owens carrying a cargo of manure, with her foremast mast missing, but there are no further details in this report.  Losing masts was commonplace, if regrettable, and usually occurred in heavy storms.

Her voyages, tabulated from information in Lewis Lloyd’s A Real Little Seaport, are as follows.  I won’t do this for every ship that I talk about, but it seemed worth doing at least one, as it shows  the reach of Aberdovey schooners of this tonnage, the length of individual voyages, the time they took en route between ports, and the time typically spent in each port.  Not all of Maglona‘s home and coastal trips are captured by Lloyd, so more of those were undertaken than are shown here.  I did have a column labelled “cargo,” but the records that were available to Lloyd apparently didn’t record this information, which is a real shame.  D.W. Morgan, however, says that her traditional cargoes when her destination was Newfoundland, was slate from Aberdovey or Portmadoc to Cadiz, sea salt from Cadiz for St John’s, in ballast (with no cargo) to Labrador where she awaited the arrival of cod that was then salted and dried and brought alongside in small boats.  The salted cod was then taken to the Mediterranean and the Black Sea.  “The cargo having been sold, iron ore for Mostyn, barrels of olive oil for for Goole, marble for Exmouth as the case might be would be shipped, and the vessel pointed for home.  Usually Aberdovey or Portmadoc were reached in ballast.”

Maglona was wrecked only 11 years after she was built on September 2nd 1887, off the coast of Newfoundland at Mistaken Point, southwest of Cape Race.  Fortunately, the entire crew of five was saved.  D. W. Morgan provides an account of how this may have occurred, “derived from one who was a ‘Boy’ aboard her at the time.”  The vessel had arrived late in Labrador due to the loss of her foretopmast and jib-boom on her way from Cadiz, and it was therefore late in the season when she left Labrador for Newfoundland.

All was going well until a fog, the like of which Capt. Richards had never before experienced, enveloped the ship, marooning her in a padded, unreal world of her own.  In this she lay for four or five days, the captain hoping devoutly that nothing untoward might befall them before the sun shone again to hive him his bearings.

It was not to be howeever, for early on the fifth morning the boy on the watch forrard, cried “Brekers ahead” and even before the echo of his voice had died away land loomed out of hte fog dead ahead and no more than a buscuit toss away.

Fortunately for the crew, although the ship struck the rocks, she became wedged in a narrow gully.  Although she was tossed fiercely by the sea, and began to break up, the crew were able to clamber to safety and were spotted by fishermen who were able to rescue them.  The remains of Maglona were put up for auction, where she fetched £15.

Morgan says that after the death of Thomas Richards, his shipyard furnishings and equipment were sold at auction, including sheds, stove and surplus timber: “they were all knocked down for £19/1-/0;  So much achieved with so little.”

Sources:

Welsh Newspapers Online: https://newspapers.library.wales 

  • Cambrian News and Merionethshire Standard
  • South Wales Daily News

Jenkins, J.G.2006.  Welsh Ships and Sailing Men.  Gwasg Carreg Gwalch
Lloyd, L. 1996.  A Real Little Seaport.  The Port of Aberdyfi and its People 1565-1920. Volume 1. ISBN-10 1874786488
Lloyd, L. 1996.  A Real Little Seaport.  The Port of Aberdyfi and its People 1565-1920. Volume 2. ISBN-10 1874786496
Morgan, D.W. 1948. Brief Glory. The Story of a Quest.  The Brython Press

10 random thoughts since the lockdown

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This is a bit of trivia, just random thoughts I’ve had since the lockdown came into effect on 23rd March.

  1. I have discovered on sunny days, when we all have doors and windows open, that I live four doors down from a professional drummer.
  2. Most people out for their daily permitted exercise find a woman with a pickaxe making huge holes in her driveway for the installation of parking posts both odd and unsettling.
  3. Unlike the blue tits and great tits, goldfinches look all wrong hanging upside down on a bird feeder.
  4. It was slightly disconcerting to hear on the radio that the inability of the BBC to shoot episodes of Eastenders is of serious concern to a large percentage of the UK population.
  5. Writing a book proposal is much easier to do if you have an enormous beanbag outdoors in the glorious heat.
  6. Edam is no substitute for a good, creamy Gouda, nothing is a substitute for Taleggio, and a sunny day salad without feta quite simply sucks.  Thank goodness for a local supply of Perl Wen.
  7. Working on a document in a giant beanbag is a wonderful thing, right up until your hayfever meds put you to sleep and you wake up feeling like a sun-dried tomato
  8. I never cared a toss about the Harry and Meghan Show, but was completely taken aback by their decision to announce, right in the middle of a global crisis involving thousands of deaths, that they are no longer talking to the tabloids.  A sense of perspective would go a long way.
  9. I miss my Dad, who is self-isolating
  10. We postponed my March birthday until after the lockdown, whenever that may be, so I’ve decided that, officially, I am still only 55 🙂

Eating well from what’s to hand, just for fun – Week 3

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The weather was stunning last week, sunny with bright blue skies and first blossom on my cherry trees.  Everything looked absolutely normal from up here on the hill, the water of the estuary and Cardigan Bay beyond glistening and twinkling, very beautiful.  Easter weekend and the following week are usually a mad-house, with tourists flooding in, eating ice creams, munching chips and catching unsuspecting crabs from the jetty, with the beach crammed with families, wind-breaks and sand castles.  By contrast, the silence continues to be truly deafening.  The lock-down continues to be observed, and face masks, visors and latex gloves are increasingly commonplace.   I continue to play with my new cooking regime, and it is an interesting challenge that amuses me, but although the tone is light, the reality is very much on my mind. 

Saturday

On Friday I made myself a lamb shawarma on the bbq, along with two sausages and a couple of chicken thighs.  I kept the sausages for brunch on Sunday, dipped cold into Levi Roots Reggae Reggae sauce (we all have our vices!).  I used the chicken thighs, beautifully smokey, to make a chicken Caesar salad.  I cheated.  I have never actually summoned up the courage to make my own Caesar salad dressing, and always buy the Cardini bottle version.  Fortunately for me, the Aberdyfi Village Stores sells it, so I was able to slosh it all over the place as usual.  I like my chicken Caesar salad with Romaine lettuce, salted anchovies and wedges of par-boiled egg, as well as little cubed crutons painted with olive oil and done under the grill.  I forgot to take a photo.

Sunday

Pan-fried plaice fillet with capers, served with creamed leeks, lemon zest, peas and bacon pieces, and some shallow-fried semi-circular “chips.”  I love the distinctive flavour of plaice, subtle but unmistakeable.  I find that any cooking method other than poaching works a treat.  Poaching drains the flavour and does nothing for the texture, whereas frying, grilling or roasting all lend real depth to the flavour and firm up the texture.

Normally I would dredge the fish in egg and then flour, but I am short of both so just fried it directly in butter with a scattering of capers, allowing the butter to go brown and nutty.  The creamed leek part of the meal is so easy.  The bacon bits are gently fried in a little butter, the leeks, peas and lemon zest are added and left soften in a lidded saucepan for a few minutes before adding a splash of wine and a good slosh of single cream.  Heat gently until nearly ready to serve and then raise the heat to bubble the wine and cream, which will thicken it up.  I rarely eat chips at home, because I don’t have room in my kitchen for a deep fat fryer, and I am a bit wary of a pan of boiling oil in my kitchen, but my Mum used to do the following, something that was very like a chip but shallow-fried.  A spud is sliced into oval discs about 1cm thick, and these can be halved into semicircles.  These are  parboiled for 5 minutes, during which time about 2-3cm (1 inch) of cooking oil is heated.  To test if it is hot enough, put in one of the slices, and if that starts to sizzle, put the rest in.  If they have been par-boiled they take about five minutes after the heat has come back up to sizzling strength.

In the excitement of having my first chips in months, I served myself far too many, but the leftovers were frozen down for incorporation into a mash I am planning for next week.

I love all types of fish, but it is remarkably difficult to get hold of here, which seems mad for two neighbouring seaside villages.  The only local supplier of fish is excellent, usually operating in Aberdovey between Easter and October (when the weather allows him to go out in his boat), but obviously has a limited variety of stock, confined to what he can catch locally.  At the moment, of course, he is closed for the duration.  Vacuum-packed salmon, cod and haddock are usually available in the small supermarkets, but anything else is rather beyond their scope.  I got into the habit of buying my seafood in the Chester and Wrexham areas when over in my father’s direction and returning them here to put in the freezer, and today’s plaice fillet was bought elsewhere and frozen down, but obviously that’s not practical right now.  I am still eating my way through the freezer, but when I have enough space I will see if I can buy online from specialist seafood suppliers, although if other online food shopping is anything to go by, that may be impossible.

Monday

Melanzane alla Parmigiana (aubergine in parmesan cheese).  One of my favourites and one of my occasional vegetarian dishes.  Perhaps surprisingly I can buy aubergines locally.  I didn’t have the right ingredients for a classic Melanzane alla Parmigiana in the fridge, but this alternative version worked remarkably well.  The main ingredients missing were mozzarella, which is wonderful in this dish, and fresh basil for the topping.  I replaced the basil with bottled basil pesto, added in blobs as I built up the layers in the ovenproof dish (which I will do in the future, as it worked brilliantly), and added fresh oregano on top, and replaced the mozzarella with leftover feta (which gives a very welcome touch of brightness and freshness to the dish) and cheddar.  It wasn’t as great as mozzarella, but it was pretty good.  Fortunately, I had plenty of Parmesan, purchased on my last shopping trip.  It is cooked in two parts.

First, the sauce.  I put some halved tomatoes in boiling water for a couple of minutes, plunging them into cold water to remove the skins.  Then the garlic and onions are sautéed in olive oil until the onion is soft, about 5 minutes.  The tomatoes, garlic, onions and, in my case, a big glug of Big Tom are whizzed up in the food processor and poured into a pan.  Next, finely sliced fresh chilli or dried chilli flakes, and some serious grindings of black pepper are added to the mix.  The resulting sauce is then simmered for around 15-20 minutes.  At this point pre-heat the oven to Gas 6/200C/390F.

Second, the aubergine needs to be cooked.  Slice the glossy, dark-skinned aubergines into disks about 5mm-1cm thick.  Pour some seasoned flour into a bowl and toss the aubergine in the flour.  Heat some olive oil in a frying pan, making sure that the oil is very hot so that the flour stays on the aubergine and it cooks quickly rather than sucking up all the oil.  Fry til golden-brown on both sides and drain on kitchen paper and allow to cool.

The final stage is to layer the aubergine with the sauce, blobs of basil pesto (if using) and cheeses in alternating layers in an ovenproof dish.  First the aubergine, then the tomato sauce and pesto, then the mozzarella and parmesan if you have it, or other cheeses if you don’t, pushed down into the sauce, followed by the next layer of sliced aubergine. You simply repeat the layers until you reach the top layer of aubergine.  Add a thin layer of the sauce, cheese and a good sprinkling of parmesan.  If you want added texture, you can mix the parmesan with breadcrumbs, which is what I did tonight.  If you have no fresh herbs to serve when it comes out of the oven, you might want to sprinkle some dried herbs in with the breadcrumbs.  Then pop it in the oven for around 25 minutes, but keep checking towards the end of the cooking time to make sure that it comes out when bubbly and golden brown, before the top burns.  Serve with fresh basil on top, or whatever you have as an equivalent.  I put one lot of oregano on top before I put it into the oven, because I like them crispy, and another lot of fresh just prior to serving.

It is difficult to retrieve a portion from the oven dish tidily, and it looks like a disorganized heap on the plate (at least, it does the way I do it), but the flavours are great.  I served it with a small salad of diced cucumber and tomato in a little gem leaf, with ground fennel seed over the top, a serious hit of black pepper and sea salt, and a French vinaigrette dressing based on tarragon vinegar.  The tarragon vinegar is simply made by stuffing a pack of fresh tarragon into a big bottle of white wine vinegar and resting for a couple of weeks for the flavours to develop.  Tarragon is usually available from the Tywyn Spar, which almost always has an excellent selection of fresh herbs.  Feta would have been a good addition but I needed the last bit in the fridge for the melanzane itself.

I often serve this as an accompaniment to another dish when I’m cooking for more than one;  it works very well as a side dish with just about any meat or white fish dish.  I made nearly double what I needed and will be having the remainder with as an accompaniment to Tortilla Española later in the week.

Another version of this dish adds crisped Parma ham layer to the last layer of aubergine, which then has the rest of the top level added to it as above.  Alternatively, the same combination of vegetable ingredients are also very good when finely chopped or roughly whizzed in a food processor and used as a sauce over pasta, with or without meatballs, with the cheese dotted here and there, and baked or grilled until the cheese melts.

Tuesday

Ethiopian chicken curry (Doro Wat).   The Ethiopian national dish is a top favourite of mine, a very simple one-pot meal.  It is made with berbere spices.  The Co-Op in Tywyn does a Bart tin of berbere spice mix, but it is also easy to buy online.  My favourite blend is sold by a third party on Amazon.  Berbere is basically made up of chilli, cumin, coriander, fenugreek, cloves, allspice, paprika, carom, ginger, cardamom, nutmeg and black pepper.  Seeds and pods, rather than ground spices, are used wherever possible.  It has a warm, aromatic punch with a bit of heat, and this permeates whatever is cooked with it, especially when marinated overnight.  As well as chicken, it is traditionally made with hard boiled egg, which is spectacularly good.  The soft but solid texture and blandness of the egg is a wonderful contrast to the rest of the curry’s textures and its rich flavours.  I chucked in a couple of dehydrated limes and some okra into mine, because I love them, but they are not part of the traditional recipe.  I also had some aubergine left over from the melanzane alla parmagiana, so that was also thrown in, chopped, and fried with the onions.  This is a slowly cooked dish, so I do it in the slow cooker (pre-heated for half an hour on high and then dropped to low), but it can be done in a casserole dish on a very low heat on the hob just as easily.

I use bone-in chicken thighs because I like the flavour, but I remove the skin beforehand and render it down for frying the onions.  It’s a simple dish if, as I do, one avoids making one’s own berbere spice mix and Niter Kibbeh (spice-infused clarified butter, although it’s on my to-do list because it looks wonderful).  First the chicken is marinated in the berbere spice mix with olive oil, sea/rock salt, sliced ginger, crushed garlic and lemon juice overnight.

When ready to cook, heat some olive oil in a frying pan, chop an onion, some garlic and sliced ginger and fry it.  When it has heated through and is just beginning to brown, tip it into the pot with a small glass of white wine, a spoon of honey and enough stock to create a sauce.  Into the frying pan, add the marinated chicken thighs and allow the entire dish to heat gently, turning to ensure that both sides are warmed through, and then tip into the slow cooker or casserole.  If it is in the slow cooker, and you are using four thighs that you have warmed through in the frying pan, five hours on low will do fine.  If you are heating on the hob, two hours on a very low setting should be fine.  This allows all the flavours to mature and blend.

Traditionally Doro Wat is served with very thin flat-bread called injera.  It would probably work well with rice or cous cous too.  I am a complete salad addict, so love this served with a fresh green salad, with feta when I have any (unfortunately used up now), as many herbs as possible, with a major mint component.  I also made my usual Greek yogurt, mint and cucumber mix to serve alongside it.

I made two batches, one for me and one for the freezer.

Wednesday

Multi-national tapas:  Tortilla española and melanzane alla parmigiana.  In England a Spanish Omelette is often made with mixed veg, and is very good, nowadays usually referred to as a frittata and great for using up leftovers, but the traditional version in Spain, where my family lived in the 1970s, is made just with potatoes and onions, which is what I have done here.  In Spain tortilla española (pronounced torteelya espanyola)  is eaten hot, warm or cold, and all work for me, usually served with herb salad but here with leftover melanzane.  They are often served in cake-like slices as tapas, which are eaten either singly as quick snacks or with other tapas to make up a meal.  If I am cooking for more than one, I like to make them small in diameter but thick in depth, which is how they were served where I lived.  Every time I make one I am propelled back in time nearly four decades to the hills beyond Barcelona, where we spent many summer weekends riding horses or collecting blackberries in the sunny, dry and deeply aromatic countryside, wrapping up our activities with a deep slice of freshly made warm tortilla, at least 3 inches thick, before returning to the city.

Whether you slice or dice your spuds is a matter of personal choice.  I slice them because I like the laminated texture that it creates.  They are parboiled for around 5 minutes and drained in a sieve until all the steam escapes.  Again, dicing or slicing onions is down to personal preference.  I like them sliced, and quite thickly so that the onion retains its texture.  The onions are fried (with garlic if using).  The parboiled potato slices are then browned.  Eggs are whisked together lightly.  The egg mix is simply seasoned with salt and pepper.  You can either tip the onions and potatoes into the egg mix and pour into the pan, or mix the potatoes and onions in the pan and pour the egg over the top.  The more onion and spud you have, the less egg you need to fill the pan, but you still need enough to cover the contents.  But more egg makes it more of an omelette. It’s a matter of preference.  Milk can be added to make the egg go further, but the resulting tortilla is blander.

The tortilla is made in a small frying pan or skillet.  The traditional method is to cook it through on the hob, very slowly.  When the top is still a little runny, slide it onto a plate, place the empty frying pan over the top and flip the two together so that the undercooked top lands on the bottom of the frying pan.  This will create an evenly cooked tortilla.  When ready, just a few minutes later when you think the base will be golden, slide the omelette out on to the plate.  Job done!

I had a slice warm with the leftover melanzane alla parmigiana from Monday, heated through in the oven.  Two tapas-type portions, and boy did I enjoy it.  Anything tomato-based goes well with anything egg-based, with textures and flavours offering good contrast to one another.  In Cataluña square slices are served in French-style bread, the classic Bocadillo de Tortilla Española.  My school was a lovely old pink villa on the outskirts of Barcelona, and its tiny tuckshop sold the some of the best Bocadillo de Tortilla in the city.  The rest of the tortilla will be breakfast tomorrow instead of my usual toast, and my evening meal on Friday.

Thursday

Burger in a bun with toppings.  Burgers are so personal.  I like mine made of plain, good quality mince, lightly seasoned, with an egg to bind it together, and left for at least half an hour to consolidate in the fridge, so that it doesn’t fall apart.  Other people like onions, Worcester sauce and/or herbs in theirs, even a cheese filling.  Whatever the component parts, the beef must be of very good quality.  Accessorizing a burger with sauces, relishes, pickles, salad etc, is even more of a matter of individual preference.  I like mine with pickled gherkins, French’s American mustard, Heinz tomato ketchup, and raw onion slices, usually in a super-fresh soft or crispy white bun (mine came out of the freezer, but still not bad).  Part of me knows that it is completely disgusting but oh, it works so well!  This is my most guilty food secret, but fortunately I only fancy it very rarely. I sometimes have a salad on the side to alleviate some of the guilt, but today it was pure self-indulgence.  I placed the burger in my George Foreman grill to cook, and the rest is just a matter of assembly.  It is the ultimate fast food, very oozy and messy, which is  usually my idea of hell!  But for some truly bizarre reason it is heavenly.

Friday

Today was a total abdication of cooking responsibilities, even worse than yesterday’s in terms of effort expended, but a lot healthier.  I had cold tortilla española with a green salad liberally accessorized with Fragata olives stuffed with lemon (which I am trying to mete out as I only have two cans left), capers and salted anchovies.  I ate early as I had skipped my usual slice of morning toast and was walking in the sand dunes for over three hours, coming back hungry.  The sun was still shining and was gloriously warm, and it was wonderful to sit outdoors eating my tortilla and salad with a glass of chilled Chablis in the sun.  Bliss.

This week’s conclusions:

There’s not a lot to add to the last two weeks, but here are a few additional thoughts.

  1. Although proper cooking is excellent and rewarding, even when dumbed down for the available ingredients, it turns out that sometimes a burger in a bun is just what’s really needed.
  2. Substitutions really are excellent.  I’m beginning to get into the swing of it, and although I was really not enjoying having to substitute perfectly matched ingredients for whatever happened to be in the fridge, I have found that some of my substitutions have given a real lift to dishes that I had never considered changing.
  3. Store cupboard spices and herbs change the way anything tastes.  You could have a freezer full of nothing but chicken, but if you also had a cupboard with a good mix of herbs and spices you could change how it tastes every day of the week and never get bored.
  4. Making enough for two or more meals has been a life-saver.  I love cooking, but it’s time consuming to do it every day, and making enough for later in the week or depositing in the freezer really lightens the load
  5. Milk, cream, egg whites and soft cheese like Brie and Perl Wen can be frozen.  Cheese doesn’t ripen any further when you take it out of the freezer, so it has to be perfect when you decide to freeze it down.
  6. Thanks to Jan for this thought. If vegetables begin to look sad and old, or you simply have an excess of them, they can be frozen down for making sauces and soups later.
  7. And thanks to Lisa for this thought.  If elderly or excess vegetables are compatible they can be made into a sauce there and then in the blender and then and frozen down to be used over pasta or as a base for casseroles and stews later.
  8. I miss fish!

 

Aberdovey sand dunes and sunshine in mid-April

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I set out for my usual exercise circuit today.  Walking down Gwelfor Road towards the sea front, it was lovely to see so many wild flowers providing a colourful display.

Instead of turning left at the bottom of Gwelfor Road, past the Neuadd Dyfi, through the tunnel and left along the beach to return up Copper Hill Street, I found myself turning right into the sand dunes and walking in the direction of Tywyn.  I am so glad I did, because it was a lovely walk.  In the sand dunes the story was quite different from the hedges and verges of Gwelfor Road, with only occasional dots of colour in an otherwise attractive but fairly unvarying selection of shades of green over the powdery ivory sand, dominated by marram grass.  Marram grass is super.  It casts spiky shadows, sways so elegantly in the breeze and carves out perfect circles in the sand.  The occasional dots of colour came mainly from small dandelions, daisies and, to my great surprise, huge and simply stunning colonies of violets.  Peacock and red admiral butterflies kept me company, and there were plenty of bumble and honey bees.  The dandelions were doing a particularly good job of keeping the bees and butterflies busy.  Little meadow pipits erupted out of the grass, taking to the sky with much angry peeping.

Walking back along the beach, countless dead jellyfish, a translucent myriad of opal colours, had been washed up, but there was not much else of interest on the strandline.  The sparkling sea, however, was a wonderful almost Caribbean blue, very clear.  In spite of a strong and slightly chilly wind, it looked untroubled and still.  Very peaceful.  A single white fluffy cloud interrupted the endless flat blue of the sky.  The wind had built up thousands of little sand ramps, raising shells and pebbles on customized, sloping plinths, utterly fascinating.  A pied wagtail stayed a few jumps ahead of me for maybe 15 minutes.

There was no-one in the dunes, there were very few people around on the vast sands and as I walked along the silent shop fronts and turned up Copper Hill Street there was no-one else visible.  Oh for a salted caramel ice cream 🙂

The auxiliary steamer Aberllefeni Quarrymaid, launched in Aberdovey, 1858

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I have been unable to track down an image of Quarrymaid, but this is Roger Lewis’s shipyard.  Source: D.W. Morgan’s Brief Glory, pl.39

The s.s. Aberllefeni Quarrymaid, unsurprisingly known usually simply as Quarry Maid or Quarrymaid, has two distinctions.  First, she is the only steamer to have been built in Aberdovey, and second, renamed Orcadia, she was the first steamer to serve the North Isles of Orkney.

She was built by Roger Lewis (1815-1906) who Lewis Lloyd describes as a “maverick” and “an outstanding character.” According to Lewis, he came from Llanon in Cardiganshire, “a small but vigorous maritime community” where he was a master mariner (uncertified).  He not only built vessels, but often commanded them, and was a coxswain of the Aberdovey Lifeboat for many years.  Lewis says that whilst he was clearly a skilled seaman and had some experience as a carpenter, he never trained as a shipwright, and his instinctive approach led to results that were not always completely desirable.  In spite of this, or perhaps to reassure other investors, he retained shares in most of his ships.

Roger Lewis had a long-standing shipbuilding business devoted to sailing ships, based on Penhelig beach, just outside the Penhelig Arms (see photograph above).  It is interesting that Lewis went straight from sail to screw propulsion (propellers), bypassing the intermediary paddle steamer stage. Aberllefeni Quarrymaid was named for the three Aberllefenni slate quarries.  According to Wikipedia Aberllefeni was the longest continually operated slate quarry in the world until its closure in 2003.

Quarrymaid was built by Roger Lewis to serve as a coastal vessel.  According to Morgan she had a wooden hull, 83.1ft long, 58 tons.  She was launched in October 1858 and sailed to Caernarfon where she was fitted out with two De Winton 50hp engines and associated machinery at Thomas and De Winton’s Union Foundry.  I have have been unable to find an image, so have no idea about the arrangement of funnel and masts, but she is described in a number of contexts as an auxiliary schooner, presumably with two masts.  Auxiliary ships usually still looked like sailing ships, with the funnel positioned between the two masts, and they could switch between sail and steam as required.  Ships could save fuel when there was wind, but could fire up engines when they were sailing against the wind, in stormy conditions or when conditions were becalmed.  This meant that steamers could stick to a timetable and maintain reliable schedules even when the weather was bad, which was particularly valuable to customers sending perishable goods and livestock and for passengers.  Quarrymaid was registered at Aberystwyth, no.25.

The first shareholders were as follows (listed in Lloyd 1996, Appendix V, p.124-5):

    • Robert Davies Jones, Trefri, Esq – 16 shares
    • Roger Lewis, Aberdyfi, builder and master mariner – 10 shares
    • Robert Gamlen Sweeting, Soutlan, Warwickshire, Gentleman – 8 shares
    • Ann Pughe, Aberdyfi, widow – 4 shares
    • James Webster, Aberdyfi, Gentleman – 4 shares
    • Hugh Jones, Gelligraian, Farmer – 4 shares
    • Evan Anwyl, Llanon, Gentleman – 4 shares
    • Elizabeth Jones, Crosswood, Montogomery, Spinster – 4 shares
    • Joseph Sheppard Draper, Haselbury, near Crewkerne, Somerset, Gentleman – 4 shares
    • George Jonathan Scott, Shrewsbury, Shropshire, Gentleman – 4 shares
    • David Jones, Machynlleth, Montgomery, Agent – 2 shares

There are often a diverse set of occupations listed, and widows are frequent shareholders, but what is surprising here is the sheer geographical scope of Quarrymaid‘s shareholders.

Quarrymaid undertook her maiden voyage from Aberdovey to London in April 1859, with several of the owners on board, some of whom disembarked at Aberystwyth.  The Carnarvon and Denbigh Herald had this to say about her maiden voyage on April 20th 1859:

The steamer started on her first voyage to London on Saturday.  Several of the owners and gentlemen were on board.  Also some ladies who went as far as Aberystwyth.  Robert Davies Jones, Esq., Trefi, and Lady R. Webster, Esq., Aberdovey etc, were on board.  The Quarrymaid steamed beautifully out of the harbour and made about nine knots an hour.

9 knots is just over 10mph/16.6kmph.  Steamships did not become commonplace in Aberdovey until the 1860s, so she must have been something of a novelty.

Initially, Quarrymaid‘s standard route was between Aberdovey and London, averaging a round trip per fortnight, stopping at Barmouth, Aberystwyth and Aberaeron as well.  An advert was placed in  The Aberystwyth Observer on the 23rd April 1859 just after she was built, announcing her first commercial voyage on 25th April 1859.   D.W. Morgan says that at one point her engineer was Tom Hughes of Gogarth, who had been an officer on the fabulous London tea clipper Cutty Sark and that at some stage she was lengthened by Roger Lewis.  Her first master was also her builder, Roger Lewis, and she was managed by David Jones and Rowland Evans of Machynlleth.

Pickle Herring Wharf, Bermondsey, in 1899 by Joseph Pennell. Source: Frontispiece.

Pickle Herring Wharf, Quarrymaid‘s destination in London, was in Bermondsey, part of a vast complex of wharves that lined both sides of the Thames.  The etching on the left, by well known artist Joseph Pennell, shows how the warehouses were linked to the waterside wharves across the cobbled road.  Where it once stood is now the section of Thames Path in front of the HMS Belfast.  However, it looks like a clone of the contemporary Butler’s Wharf, which survives today as a major tourist destination just upriver from where Tower Bridge (built 1886 -1894) is now located.  The warehouses were great terraced blocks of multi-storey buildings, and for the general public and watermen to reach the river, staircases were provided, the watermen’s stairs.  Those that ran down to the river were just behind this image, to the left, and were marked on contemporary maps as the Pickle Herring Stairs.

Pickle Herring Wharf from the river, by J.A.M.Whistler. Source: Art Institute of Chicago

Later, Quarrymaid switched routes at some stage before 1862, running between Aberdovey and Liverpool.   Although it is not explicitly stated anywhere what her cargo may have been, it seems likely that she was carrying slate, at least when she was running into London, but may have switched to perishables when she switched to Liverpool.  Steamers were comparatively expensive to run, costs being accrued both in fuel and additional crew requirements. Their cargo carrying prices were therefore higher, meaning that they were often used mainly for time-sensitive cargoes, when the risk of spoilage merited the extra cost of reliable steamers. that were far more predictable to scale, and arrived to schedule.

Lewis Lloyd gives details of the Crew Agreement for the Aberdovey to Liverpool half year ending 30th June 1862.  He says that it is the only one that was available at the Dolgellau Record Office, from which he derived the following information:

    • Captain:  David Lloyd of Cardigan, aged 24
    • Mate:  Richard Davies of Merioneth, aged 25
    • Engineman:  William Davies of Anglesey, aged 30
    • Stoker: Griffith Evans of Merioneth, aged 28
    • Able Seaman: Thomas Jones of Merioneth, aged 30
    • Able Seaman: John Griffith of Merioneth, aged 23
    • Cook: Evan Lloyd of Cardigan, aged 13 (possibly the younger brother of the captain)

Lloyd says that during the period covered by this contract, Quarrymaid made 13 voyages between Aberdovey and Liverpool, about one per fortnight.

In 1860 it was reported in the North Wales Advertiser and Chronicle of 15th December, that the captain of the Quarrymaid was pursuing a case against a deserter, more to make a point than to pursue any heart-felt grievance:

James Webster, Esq., the princi- pal owner of the steamer Quarrymaid,” plying between Aberdovey and London, preferred a complaint against a lad named Jonas Jonas, (who did not appear) for leaving the steamer on the 3rd ult., just as she was ready for sea, and thereby causing a delay of two days before another lad could be procured. He did not wish to press the case but for example’s sake he wished to bring the case before their Worships, to know whether these sort of things were to be carried on with impunity.

On February 9th 1861, Quarrymaid collided with the Ann Jones from Porthmadog, the cause apparently being a particularly strong tide.  The Carnarvon and Denbigh Herald reported that both ships were damaged, the Quarrymaid losing her jibboom and the Ann Jones losing ropes and the gaff, which fell on deck, striking the mate.  There were no fatalities but there were two casualties, one on each ship, both taken away for medical care. Later in the same year, the 14th September edition of the North Wales Advertiser and Chronicle‘s review of the Petty Sessions of Friday September 6th contained this fascinating and amusing story about the second mate stealing bottles of wine from a hamper that had been loaded in Liverpool for one Miss Griffiths of Trefri, although perhaps not so amusing for the accused, who was sentenced to two months imprisonment with hard labour:

Stealing Wine.—Mr. D. Pughe appeared for the prosecution. Roger Lewis, captain of the steamer Quarrymaid, of Aberdovey, preferred a charge of felony against the second mate Hugh Davies. It appears that a hamper of wine, consigned to Miss Griffiths, of Trefri, had been put on board in Liverpool, on the 20th of May last. It was a two dozen hamper.  The captain stated that he stove it away himself in the hold, in Clarence Basin Dock, and that on his arrival at Aberdovey it had disappeared. The prisoner’s berth was in the forecastle, and there was an access from there to the hold without coming on deck. The vessel was not full at the time. The hamper was put on the starboard side, and was approachable for any one. Thomas Morgan, a sharp lad, about 17 years of age, who had evidently imbibed some strong potations previous to coming into court, stated that he was on board the Quarrymaid, but never recollected seeing the hamper stowed away. Remembers seeing Hugh Davies, the prisoner, coming up out of the hold one day with four bo-tles before they left Liverpool. We were about half laden at the time. We were the only two on board at that time. The Captain and others had gone ashore. I saw him tap one of the bottles; and as he had no cork screw he did it with his finger and thumb. He gave me some of the wine, but I did not know then that he had stolen it. I thought perhaps he had some of his own, until he said “mind and don’t split,” then I smelt a rat. He gave some to Daniel Davies, and told him it was teetotal stuff, and Dan drank some then. I saw four bottles on his bed at supper time, but had no more of it after I left Liverpool. John Richards swore having seen eight bottles on Hugh Davies’s bed the day the vessel sailed. Thos. Smith, fireman, recollected having something to drink out of a bottle at Aberdovey from Hugh Davies, but could not say whether it was wine or not, for he never accustomed himself to drink it. He could manage porter as well as any man. (Laughter.) Cross-examined—Can’t say it was wine; knew it was not porter, nor gin, nor brandy, nor physic, nor ink. Could not say what it was; it went down very nice. Daniel Davies swore that he saw bottles on the bed of the prisoner. Had tasted the wine because he told him it was teetotal stuff. After reaching Aberdovey the Captain went to Machynlleth, when the prisoner said it was a good chance to dispose of the hamper; he said, what hamper; and he answered, the wine hamper, he would throw it overboard. Believe prisoner cut the hamper with his knife. P.C. Roberts deposed that he apprehended the prisoner on Thursday. Told him the charge. He asked what imprisonment he was likely to get, and acknowledged he had done it. Prisoner was then asked whether he was guilty, which he owned, and was sentenced to two months imprisonment with hard labour.

On one occasion, very late in her life, she was chartered for a pleasure cruise to Aberystwyth and back, as reported in the North Wales Chronicle and Advertiser:

ABERDOVEY.—On Thursday the Steamer Quarrymaid from Aberdovey took a trip as far as Aberystwyth and back. The weather was beautifully fine, and a rich treat was thus afforded. About eighty from Towyn and Aberdovey, visitors, &c., availed themselves of a trip, H. Webster, Esq,, of Aberdovey bore the expenses of the excursion, to whom great praise is due for his kindness and liberality at all times in Aberdovey and vicinity. During the passage, singing was kept up with spirit. After spending about six hours in Aberystwyth, the Quarrymaid steamed off at about nine knots an hour, and Aberdovey was reached in good time. Three hearty good cheers for Mr. Webster was given on board, which was joined in by the multitude on shore, who greeted the company on their return. A private company was entertained by the same gentleman at the Hotel, and a pleasant evening spent.

In 1865 she was sold, renamed Orcadia, and entered service in the Northern Isles of Orkney on March 29th 1865, remaining in service until 1868, when she was replaced by a larger steamer.

There is no record of where or when she was broken up or lost.  Perhaps she was scrapped after going out of service in 1868, but the above story about her taking a group of people on a jolly to Aberystwyth is dated 3rd September 1869, so perhaps she returned to Aberdovey to be be broken up, and this was the party to commemorate the event.  A guess.

If anyone knows of an image of her, please get in touch!

Update:  Thanks to  Dai Williams for the information that an earlier and bigger Quarrymaid was built at Pwlleli by William Jones.  Just to avoid confusion, here are a few details about the earlier ship.  She was a sailing schooner built in 1840, was 116 tons, and foundered in 1866 off Flamborough Head.  Jones built another ship, Quarryman, in the same year (source:  rhiw.com).


Sources:

Welsh Newspapers Online: https://newspapers.library.wales 

Carnarvon and Denbigh Herald
North Wales Chronicle and Advertiser
The Aberystwyth Observer

Deayton, A. 2015.  Steamers and Ferries of the Northern Isles.  Amberley Publishing Ltd
Hague, D.B. 1984.  A Guide to the Industrial Archaeology of Mid-Wales.
Lloyd, L. 1996.  A Real Little Seaport.  The Port of Aberdyfi and its People 1565-1920. Volume 1. ISBN-10 1874786488
Lloyd, L. 1996.  A Real Little Seaport.  The Port of Aberdyfi and its People 1565-1920. Volume 2. ISBN-10 1874786496
Morgan, D.W. 1948. Brief Glory. The Story of a Quest.  The Brython Press
Richards, J. 2007.  Maritime Wales.  Tempus