Kingfisher rests on Mersea Island
After the snow had all but melted and the final snow flurries left us, I took a sunrise walk to a little boat wreck that I had spotted on an earlier walk. I thought it may make an interesting foreground for a photograph.
The morning sky was progressing in a rather subdued way, until finally some sun broke through and at the same time the last of the snow clouds was heading off into the distance over the sea. Perfect! I lined up the shot with what remains of the little boat, the skeleton of which is resting in the Mersea mud...here is the scene below.
To me its almost as though the poor lost boat is looking out to the ocean, dreaming of all the adventures that it once had, remembering good times and laughter with the fishermen.
This got me wondering how the boat ended up here and what it's story is, so I dug around a little for information...here is what I have unearthed.
The boat was named "Kingfisher", was built by William Scales in the mid-1960's for Alf Barnard, in Brightlingsea. It was the second of it's type, the first was a vessel named "Trad". Local Brightlingsea man Bruce Finlayson said "Kingfisher did a lot of work over the years and made a lot of people happy and supplied many a table." Local men Ray Vincent and Ian Muckle spent many happy days fishing on the boat with Alf, fondly remembering all the sausage and bacon sandwiches that they enjoyed on board.
Kingfisher was purchased in 2020, but it's engine gave out on the way to Mersea from Brightlingsea...still, the new owner went to work on lovingly refurbishing the boat. After a new coat of paint and an engine rebuild, Kingfisher was all set to travel the sea again!
That was until, someone cut it's mooring rope and she drifted offshore, she smashed herself to pieces on the rocks finally leaving the remains you can still see on the beach at low tide.
Poor Kingfisher was allegedly a victim of a malicious act of vandalism, so here on Mersea Island her story ends.
