Category: learning curve

Rubber bale

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We’ve seen a few of these rubber bales along the coast here over the last 10 years, but never really knew what they were or where they came from. And then I did some research.

I walked past this one again today…

…and I was reminded that I was going to do a blog post about it at some point.

Seems like now might be that point.

These are likely to be part of the cargo of the SS Helmspey, which was sunk by a German U-boat off Cape St Francis in February 1943. Apparently, the rubber bales were part of its cargo being taken from Asia (specifically Ceylon – now Sri Lanka) back to Great Britain to assist in the war effort.

The Agulhas current would have done a lot of the hard work of moving the bales from the site of the attack down towards Agulhas, and the huge storm of September last year would have shifted a lot more stuff ashore. The one above is now a good 15m up from the high tide mark after the storm surge from that storm.

From Facebook:

It’s amazing how you can find some beautifully kept artefacts along our shores….

We also found some more of these incredibly old rubber bales in large clumps! These were in the cargo hold of the “Helmsley”, a British freighter, which was steaming from Colombo to the UK. It was torpedoed by the German Submarine U-516 on the 11th February 1943 off the coast of Cape St Francis. The wreck was possibly disturbed in the violent storms that we had on the weekend of the 23rd September 2023.

Apparently onboard there was:
– 2772 tons of tea,
– 2000 tons of manganese ore
– 1457 tons of rubber, and
– 464 tons of general cargo

And that does fit with this description. And also with this eyewitness account of a sailor onboard the vessel when it was hit:

On leaving East London South Africa, after taking on oil bunkers she was found too slow for coastal convoys and was independently routed to Cape town for inclusion in a slower U.K. bound convoy.

At the time of the sinking I was asleep in my cabin on the starboard side just abaft of the no. 2 cargo hold when the first torpedo struck on the port side of that hold. It is hard to believe now but I slept through that explosion and it was necessary for an able seaman running to his boat station to shake me awake through an open porthole, youth is a marvelous thing!

And – apparently – it could all have been so different:

In retrospect it is my considered opinion that this vessel should not have been lost. Being as we were so close to the coast I feel sure that if we had kept way on the ship and turned to starboard we would have avoided the second torpedo and run aground. Of course it’s so easy to surmise these things afterwards but a totally different situation at the time.

Either way, I know of three of these bales around Suiderstrand, and it’s quite cool to be able to put the pieces of a jigsaw together and link it in to some real, living history.

Hooligans

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English football at it again, I suppose?

Not like those nice Serbians. Or the lovely Croatians. The darling Greeks.
And I won’t hear a word said against those absolute sweeties from Italy.

But yeah. Always an English problem.

And always a football problem. You never see any trouble at a rugby match.
Well, unless it’s an SA schools match. Or an SA provincial rugby match. Etc etc.

But yeah. Only the English football. Or the South African rugby. Or the Irish ploughing.

Wait… what?

Not more ploughing news?

Yep:

It’s another brilliant article from the Irish local press.

The Electric Picnic turns out to be an annual music festival in County Laois in Ireland. It’s actually pretty big. And the Ploughing? Well, that’s the Irish National Ploughing Championships as mentioned (extensively) in this post here.

“More assaults and trouble come from the Ploughing match than the Electric Picnic,” Judge Cody said as he inspected an occasional licence application by The Wrens Nest. 

Judge Cody asked Garda Sergeant JJ Kirby if he was right to suggest there was more assaults and trouble from the National Ploughing Championships. 

“The statistics would back that up,” agreed Sgt Kirby. 

That exchange is so much better when you do it with Irish accents.

I love the fact that Ploughing is the third most important subsection of the local news site.

Just ahead of “National News” there.

And it really is great stuff. Everything you’d expect from a local Irish news site.

The big news, including the National Brown Bread Baking competition results:

The photos of all the lovely girls*, and the suspense! over next year’s venue.

As for the prospect of trouble at the National Ploughing Championships, Judge Cody decided that the best way forward was the grant all of the alcohol licences which for which applications had been made.

Hey, itis Ireland, after all.

* iykyk

Last lesson

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It’s today. That’s it. The Boy Wonder’s last ever lesson at the school he has been attending since 2009.

That’s several – or more – years.

And while we have been here before, plans were changed on that occasion and he chose to go back and do another year of further studying.

That can’t happen this time. He’s got all of the qualifications he can get from them now.

And sure, he’s not completely done there. There is still prizegivings and plenty of admin stuff, there are still some exams to sit, and I guess that there will be plenty of goodbyes to say.

But as for lessons. Today. 1-2pm. That’s it.

Wow. End of an era.

By the way, much of next year is already sorted for him, but maybe more of that… er… next year.

Power source

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We’ve got shedloads* of electricity here in South Africa now:

Although that wasn’t always the case:

But while no-one is entirely sure whether this delicious lack of loadshedding is sustainable, or what the future holds, we’re just glad to be able – since 0500 on 25th March, at least – to have electricity.

So let’s enjoy it while it lasts and deal with the problems almost certainly mounting up under the carpet somewhere down the line, shall we?

Anyway, all of this is just a preamble for what I thought was a very interesting map that I was sent from the homelands. This is about where residential electricity comes from. It’s actually quite surprising that – given the vast difference between the the UK and SA (and not least in availability of power as mentioned above) – I would imagine that the most common source of electricity seems to be almost exactly the same.

Every day is a school day, hey?

* citation required

Tenuous links to niche sports continue

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Incoming from the TA:

With reference to your blog post re: odd sports. Saw this in Killarney on our golf trip.

And attached, this:

Before we even go any further, can we just acknowledge that – much like the link for the European Tram Driver Championships – I didn’t request this? Furthermore -and perhaps more importantly – can we note that while out in Ireland playing golf, one of my friends (and regular readers) chose to stop to take a photo of this?

I think those two points say a lot about this blog and its readers.

And if you thought that this post was going to end there… well.. you’re clearly not a regular reader.

TO THE INTERNET!!!

It turns out that the World Ploughing Organization began running World Ploughing Events in 1953. The first one was in Cobourg, Ontario, Canada in 1953, and already, beagle-eyed readers might have worked out that Killarney was the second World event.

The trophy went across the border to Northern Ireland with Hugh Barr from Coleraine crowned as Champion. Aged 23 at the time, he had only taken up ploughing a few years previously after the death of his brother from meningitis. It seems that had a natural gift (Hugh, not his brother).

Amazingly, there’s even footage of him ploughing:

And Killarney would be the first of Hugh’s three World Championships. He retired undefeated after his hattrick of world titles: this win in Ireland, then 1955 in Uppsala, Sweden and 1956 in Shillingford in England:

He won both of these latter matches with an increasing points difference on each occasion. As defending world champion, he automatically qualified for both these matches and, as such, never competed domestically after his first win in Killarney.
He had decided no matter what happened, he would retire after Shillingford. And so, as three times world ploughing champion he has every right to claim the title as undefeated champion of the world.

So impressive was his name and his gravitas in the ploughing world that he became the go-to consultant for Ransomes of Ipswich: the world’s leading plough manufacturers at the time. You’ll likely know them as the inventors of the world’s first lawnmower, and they have since gone on to invent the Power-Driven, Five-unit Gang Mower (1964), the Turf Groomer (1986) and the frankly terrifyingly named Magnetic Bed Knife (2004). That last one so completely scary that even the image of it in Golf Course Industry magazine is blurred.

But I digress. Often.

It seems that it would be difficult to overestimate Hugh’s input to ploughing at all levels.
In 2015, aged 89, he was made an MBE for his services to farming.

And in 2019, he was the guest of honour at the unveiling of… you guessed it:

This is all getting a little bit too Father Ted for me, to be honest.

13 teams from all over the world competed over the 2 days in Killarney in 1954.  As the monument was unveiled flags representing each of these countries were raised as the Irish National Anthem was sung.
Bernard O’Sullivan – a Killarney local – designed this magnificent work of art*, which will stand the test of time and be admired by future generations who will be reminded of the importance of ‘Ploughing’ and the motto ‘Let Peace Cultivate the Land.’

Sadly, Hugh died in 2023 at the ripe old age of 97. But although he retired from competing in ploughing competitions after Shillingford, he continued to promote ploughing and judge local, national and even international events for much of the rest of his life. Everywhere you look online, he is remembered fondly and it’s clear that he left a massive legacy to the ploughing community:

There is no doubt that the performance of Hugh Barr has inspired the members of the Northern Ireland Ploughing Association to the heights they have attained, with further world titles won by Thomas Cochrane, David Wright, Samuel Gill and David Gill.

And what of the World Ploughing Contest? Still going very strong, having traveled all over the globe: New Zealand, USA, Canada, Ireland, Northern Ireland, Sweden, Germany Kenya, France, Croatia. 2023’s contest in Russia was canceled because… Russia. But they were back in business last year in Latvia, and this year’s contest has just concluded in Estonia, where the first contestant on the list was called Adrian Tilling.

You couldn’t make it up. And I didn’t.

And they’re all set up for the next decade and beyond already, with a planned return to Ireland in 2034, under the watchful eyes of Anna May McHugh (seen in the light blue outfit above), who has been chairperson of the Irish National Ploughing Association for an incredible 51 years:

Ah. There she is now, still doing her thing, so she is. Just last week, would you look now?

And on the right, the General Secretary of the Irish National Ploughing Association, Anna Marie McHugh – Anna May’s daughter.

It looks like ploughing on the Emerald Isle – be it North or South of the border – is in good hands.

* their words, not mine