CYGNET. A smaller East Coast barge with tiller steering, at Pin Mill. [DW]
CYGNET Official No. 84028. [MNL 1916]
Barges at Pin Mill. A working barge shakes out her topsail in the river and another, converted to a yacht, with her hatches housed over and portlights in the coamings, lies on the hard. The small, spritsail barge CYGNET, of Harwich has just been refitted, on the hard, probably by Mr Webb the local shipwright. The CYGNET was the smallest of the Essex sailing barges, built in 1881 by Gill of Frindsbury, on the Medway, and was owned for many years by Wrinch of Ewarton, Suffolk, a farmer who owned six 'full sized' barges besides the little, 25 ton CYGNET, which sailed about the rivers Stour and Orwell until the late 1930s with freights from the farms and mills. Despite her small size the CYGNET carried a topsail and a full suit of sails.
The 48ft CYGNET was almost sunk on her first voyage from the builders yard, down Swin to Harwich. She remained steered with a comparatively long tiller throughout her working life, which ended as a lighter at Burnham on Crouch in the 1950s. However, the CYGNET has recently been refitted for pleasure sailing.
A few other diminutive working barges were owned in other east coast rivers including the 15 ton RAINBOW on the Roach.
Plate.4 in SWW.
Used in The Sailor's Coast, page 79.
For a while at the end of WW2, the CYGNET was registered as a fishing boat and carried the number HH41.