August 2026

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As the proverb so rightly tells us -Time and Tide waits for No Man, and this could not be truer than in our round trip to Barrow for the Royal Port of Barrow Festival of the Sea. So, in order to catch favourable tides for leaving Liverpool and arriving at Barrow the crew cast off at Sandon Dock at 3.30am on Sunday 1st August. Now that may seem like an early start, but for the Engineers, they had been hard at it raising steam for a good two days prior, not to mention steam raising for the previously aborted trip the previous week-end. That said, once underway, there were sufficient crew aboard to ensure that watches were observed allowing time to get your head down, and to keep the kettle on the boil in the Aft Galley. This ensured that sufficient tea and coffee was available to all hands, not to mention a good stock of hot bacon and sausage barm cakes. Smooth waters are always welcome on long trips as was the case on the outward voyage and keeping the Engine at around 85 rpm kept the vessel on course to lock in at Barrow at the pre-arranged time of 1.30pm. As well as this being a good trip to give the engines a decent run, it also allowed us to test out the new navigation equipment under the watchful eye of Gary Done who carried out the installation. Evidence that the equipment works and was correctly interpreted by the Deck Crew is the fact that we did indeed arrive in Barrow and not some other port! Having shut the vessel down the crew left tired but happy that the trip was successful with no concerning issues. The week-end of the event saw large crowds descend on the port, several hundred of which visited Kerne, many taking the rare opportunity to take a tour of the Engine and Boiler Rooms. There are relatively few operational steam powered vessels where this is possible, and even fewer on vessels that are coal fired. Crew were back on board once again raising steam during the week leading up to our departure from Barrow. In the wee small hours of Friday 21st August, Kerne moved to the outer basin to await the levelling tide, and at 5.30am she moved out to sea for the return leg of the trip. Once again, and with favourable weather good progress was made down the West Coast, locking into Liverpool and making fast in Sandon Dock at 3.00pm, bringing an extremely tiring but very successful trip to a close. After a week to recuperate, it was back to work, raking and ashing out the furnaces, cleaning the tubes and starting to replenish the 7 or so tonnes of coal consumed during the trip. This is achieved by sliding the 20kg sealed bags from the quay down a plank to the open bunkers where the top of each bag is cut open and the contents tipped down into the bunker. In order to keep the ship on an even keel, we put half a tonne in the port bunker and the next half tonne in the starboard bunker. After loading 2 tonnes (which equates to 100 bags), bad backs set in and we called it a day and vow to load some more next time! It remains to be seen what further trips we can fit in before we lay up for the winter.

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