The Hemlington Nautical History Society

The coble is a very ancient form of boat, and was most probably brought to the North East coast by the Angles from Germany and Danes who came to establish fishing settlements from the Humber estuary northwards.

The design is reputedly based on that of Viking longships and certainly it combines excellent seagoing characteristics with easy beaching and control in shallow water. The name itself has been used for over one thousand years. Variations are found in Celtic (ceubal) and Breton (caubal) and the name is used in the Lindisfarne Gospels.

As might be expected, pronunciation varies. On the Yorkshire coast it is "cobble," whilst further north in Northumberland it becomes "co-ble," using the long "o."

In general form the boat has remained very much the same. Certainly those early settlers would recognise Three Brothers as still being of the same design as the cobles they used so successfully. They would also be able to sail, row and beach her too, all of which were necessary capabilities.

The villages and fishing towns on the Yorkshire coast began their histories as settlements which were very independent and isolated. Through many generations, their families formed a significant coastal fishing industry which only began to lose its importance after the Second World War. The sailing coble was the foundation of this industry, and the background of these sturdy fishing families.

Until about 1920, there were a great many of these boats. Mostly they were locally built, and generally the builders used no plans, but relied with great skill on hand, eye, and experience. Their tools were the adze, hammer, chisel and maul. It is said of Angus Hopwood, who built boats at the rear of his house in North Marine Road in Flamborough, that he dismantled an old coble on the beach, noted the parts, and went home to become a famous coble builder.

Three Brothers was built in 1912, by Baker and Percy Siddall. She is now the last of these sailing cobles built in the town, and is rather special in design. She has less "sheer" than usual - sheer being the rising curves of the lines fore and aft - and so was much flatter, to allow beam trawling as well as passenger carrying. More sheer would be called for if it was planned to use more sail.

In appearance the boats were wedge-shaped at the bow, and flat-bottomed towards the stern, which made it easier to use them from the beaches. They had two bilge keels called drafts. These are like deep sledge runners made of iron-shod oak. They run from the stem, or about the forward third of the boat, back to the stern. The forefoot or backward continuation of the prow is also iron shod, and on the beach the boat rests on these three iron lengths so that the hull itself is well clear of the ground.

The ram plank is the continuing central keel from the end of the stem forward to the overhang of the square stern aft, and coble lengths are often given as the length of this ram. In Three Brothers the ram length is 27ft, and the overall length 40ft.

The need for fast easy beaching combined with what is known as weatherlines at sea is met by oars, and a very deep rudder. This is long and narrow, and pivots by means of an iron rod or pintle. This is pushed into a hole in an iron plate on the stern and it is important when beaching or taking up a harbour berth that the rudder can be unshipped rapidly and without fail. The fishermen became extraordinarily skilful in handling these boats. After sweeping in under sail, the final position against a pier would be achieved by oar or a 30ft. boathook. When the long rudder was unshipped, it would be used as a boarding or crossing plank to other cobles.

The forward part of the boat was decked over to give a "cuddy" with some 4ft to 5ft of headroom. This provided some shelter, and housed a small stove and supplies.

Cobles were clinker built - that is the hull was shaped by ribs or timbers, and overlapping planks. They had a very shallow draught, and were propelled by oars and a dipping lug sail.

The smaller details in the design of cobles tended to vary in the different communities as each had their own ideas of proper beam, sheer, and tumble home. The Siddall brothers had more ribs or timbers than others, and some variation in length was allowed.

The building cost of Three Brothers, excluding the sails and ironwork, was £75. The ironwork was done by Tom Rowntree, and this would include the rudder gudgeons, the pintles, stem irons, the keel and draft irons. The total building time was about six months.

In 1914, a 40ft coble like Three Brothers cost £90 and its sails £25. These were made locally by Raddings, although many of the cobles were rigged with sails from Broadmeadows of Burnham-on-Crouch. The mast, set forward, would be 30ft to 36ft tall, stepped in extra timbers in the frame. It was braced by lateral backstays, and a forward jib tie. There was usually a bowsprit, sometimes up to 28ft long, and this could be retracted. Some of the boats also used a mizzen mast set towards the stern when trawling, or even when racing. Two rudders would be carried - a long one of 10ft to 12ft, which had a hardwood head on a pine body - and a short tiller (6ft) on a short rudder, all of hardwood. The rudders were always unshipped in the harbour.

The main sail was made of about 110 square yards of cotton duck with a varying number of reef points. Sets of job sails were also carried and these ranged from large (90 square yards) to the storm jibs at 15 to 20 square yards.

The mizzen sail, when used, was much lighter, being made of calico or union silk. The responsibility for handling this sail rested on the ship's "lad."

Three Brothers carries three and a half tons of ballast in the form of bags of gravel.

At the end of World War I, Three Brothers was given an engine, and she worked out of Bridlington harbour until 1946. The arrival of these engines transformed the dangerous life of the village communities. It was expected, and happened, each winter that the cobles would be caught in storms, and that one might be lost with the whole family manning her. These disasters held the intensely loyal fishing folk together and the widows and children were supported for many years after the father had been lost. The engines changed this winter pattern dramatically, but the losses are still spoken of with care and concern sixty to eighty years later as the older people tell the stories of their youthful days.

The restored Three Brothers is towed by a boat with an engine to make her passage down the crowded harbour safe, but once under sail the tow is dropped. The fitting of a shaft engine would not now be possible because of the length of drive required.

In 1946 Three Brothers was sold to a firm building a bridge across the Tees, and she was used to ferry workmen across the river. Later, she appeared in Whitby, and a photograph of her in the harbour there was used in an article in the Dalesman in April 1970.

She returned to Bridlington in 1961 in the ownership of Neil and Arthur Newby. The Harbour Commissioners bought her in 1983, and have established the Preservation Society.

Three Brothers had a sister ship named Elsie May, which had been built a year earlier in Hull. This coble was renamed The Arrow. She was caught in a brief and very violent storm outside the harbour, and was totally destroyed against the North Pier, with the loss of her three crew on 15th November, 1923.

The cobles were the maids of all harbour work, and they thrived in great numbers. As many as 20 to 30 could be seen drawn up at the Flamborough North and South Landings, and a similar number in Bridlington harbour. They were used for herring netting, crabbing, and long-line fishing. A very small coble would be stowed aboard the parent boat, and used under oars to haul the lines.

Pleasure angling played a major role in the development of Bridlington as a holiday resort. Boats would carry up to 36 visitors per trip, fishing with lines over each side, and frequently hooking that of someone else. This no doubt caused landladies much trouble when the catch had to be cooked as part of the visitor's board, because at that time it was the custom for the visitor to provide the food to be prepared by the landlady.

The rebuilding of Three Brothers was carried out at the harbour under the general supervision of the Harbour Master and the shipwright was Mr Frank Taylor, of the harbour staff

The standing rigging for the boat, the running gear, wooden blocks and brass bolts and other fittings were made at the harbour under Mr Taylor's supervision. A new keel was fitted, with a new bottom. The rigging itself is of traditional manilla, and the mast was shaped in the boathouse. The hull is painted white as were other cobles of her day.

Source and acknowledgements:

Many of the details on this site are taken from "The Three Brothers," the small booklet available from the Bridlington Sailing Coble Preservation Society. The Society has drawn heavily upon the work and papers of the late Eric Mellor. He was a distinguished Head Teacher and accomplished local historian. Of his many books and articles, the main source of information has been his "Recollections of the Harbour." He was a prominent member of the Bridlington Augustinian Society, and the Coble Society is grateful to Mrs Mellor for her kindness in allowing her husband's books, papers and drawings to be used. The Society also acknowledges other un-named sources of information.

http://www.bscps.com/sailingcobles.html