1972 - 1984 | Major Repairs

NOTE: Some of this is identical to what is written on Wikipedia, as both were written by the author of this website, stardust5980 (aka celesteshipping5980). 

NOTE TWO: Huge thanks to Kenneth Kennedy and Kerry Kennedy for providing Kenneth's book 'ALL AT SEA' which provides almost all of the information on this page.

Major Repairs

- For the ship to be operational again Kenneth ideally needed the services of a shipyard but the cost was beyond what he could afford. He also needed a Certificate of Seaworthiness to satisfy the Clyde Port Authority. For the rest of the summer, the ship remained at the pier while he gathered his resources and planned repairs. In the meantime, the police brought charges against him but the procurator fiscal threw them out with not much trouble. He kept a low profile regarding De Wadden until December when he finally put a plan into action.[1]

After some looking, he found a place he could use for repairs at the head of Loch Striven, as the landowner had permitted him to use his beach where there was a well-sheltered stretch of gravel. He had a mechanical digger to form a six-foot-deep trench on the beach so he could position the ship over it to be able to access the keel. Legally she could not leave the pier so he set out at nighttime on Friday. Turns out this day happened to be the coldest day of the year, which would not help them in their effort to be as quiet as possible. Dick and Alec accompanied Kenneth on the trip, creeping towards Toward Point. They had plenty of light to continue checking for leaks as they had fitted a new generator that was larger than the old one. At 1 am they started heading up Loch Striven, and all was going well until they were about a mile from the head of the loch. An unusual crunching sound was coming from the bow, and after observing the scene, they found ice. The night was so cold that fresh water from the head of the loch was freezing as it entered the loch. As the ship proceeded the noise of crunching ice became louder and attracted the attention of many. The ice had re-opened some holes, letting water come in. It was difficult to see where the beach ended and the ice began so Kenneth couldn't see where the trench was. Within a couple of minutes, the ship halted and they dropped both anchors, shutting down the engine and the generator. Silence falling over the loch, they rowed ashore, where they were met by Ian, a sailing enthusiast, who offered them a ride home.[1]

They returned the next day to find her resting over the trench, and at low tide, they began the long repairs. They had brought new steel plates with them which were soon cut after they measured the sizes of the holes in the bottom of the ship. They cut the plates by marking the size and using an oxy-acetylene torch. They were then dragged under the ship and forced up against the bottom with hydraulic jacks, welded in place, and painted. They only had a few hours between tides to work which made work slow. By the end of January, they were ready for a ship surveyor to inspect the work. The inspection was short, and they were left with a list of jobs that had to be done before they could be considered seaworthy. This took another week of hard work but they eventually had their certificate of seaworthiness which would finally get the Clyde Port Authority off their case, and allow the ship to sail. The cost of this had been astronomical so Kenneth had to get De Wadden back to work as soon as possible.[1]

They had a backlog of bookings for fishing trips so they were soon out to catch more cod. Between trips Kenneth continued to upgrade the accommodation and had bunks for twenty people.

References

1.  Kennedy, Kenneth M. (1985). All At Sea. Retrieved 2023-12-16.