Matt's Model Boats

Grimsby, which is situated in the County of Lincoln, is a town and a sea-port that is located on the southern bank of the River Humber. An elaborate system of docks, which were developed throughout the nineteenth-century, transformed Grimsby into the one of the most important fishing ports in the United Kingdom. Grimsby, while famous for its booming fishing industry, rose to prominence as a commercial port. Hull and Sheffield, for example, were placed in communication with Grimsby via the River Humber as well as by the River Don. Humber sloops, which owned by residents of Grimsby, traded between River Head and Oberon Wharf. Locks, whose dimensions determined whether a trading vessel could enter a dock or a navigable waterway, influenced the design of Humber sloops. Sheffield-sized sloops, for example, may have been smaller than Humber sloops that were built to estuary-sized dimensions. Bridlington, which is situated on the coast of the East Riding of Yorkshire, was visited by sloop-rig...

Ariel , Catherine Roberts , Connovium , Ellen , Eva Lena , Florence , Jane , John Parry , Mercy  and Vixen  are ten examples of jigger flats that were abandoned, rescued or lost at sea. John Leather, who dedicates a chapter of Barges  to the sailing flats of Cheshire and Lancashire, claims that flats were the principle carrying craft of the North West of England. Flats are reported to have operated on the River Dee, the River Mersey and the River Weaver. It is explained, on page 201, that sailing flats could be sloop-rigged or jigger-rigged. Sailing flats, which are claimed to have navigated the coasts of North West England and Wales, are reported to have visited the eastern coast of Ireland as well as the Bristol Channel. It is claimed, on page 9 of the twenty-first volume of The Shipwrecked Mariner , that the coasts of North Wales and North West England were perilous to ships. Most of the sea casualties that occurred along the coast of North Wales are reported to have o...